A R-evolution in power electronics: from "intelligent" to "super smart power" in automotive

Automotive has become one of the most stringent markets for the semiconductor industry: very "cheap" products manufactured with leading-edge technologies while meeting the highest quality and reliability levels are required. The penetration of semiconductors inside the vehicle is forecasted to rapidly increase in the coming years. According to industry analysts the average silicon content per vehicle will increase from $175 in 1998 to $260 in 2010. Today a high-end vehicle is estimated to contain more than 70 modules with electronics constituting 25% of the vehicle cost and containing $1000 of silicon. Automotive modules, populated with an increasing number of components implementing a wide range of applications, have to deal with higher and higher currents with more and more "intelligence" and diagnostics. The ability to implement smaller, smarter, higher current density devices, without impacting quality and reliability (on the contrary, vastly improving them), results in a significant enhancement for automotive applications. This work will describe several different examples of "state of the art" power ICs from STMicroelectronics. An overview of how technology, design, assembly and test are addressing the specific requirements of the harsh automotive environment will be given.