Automotive-grade chips refer to automotive chips that fully meet all "vehicle certification" requirements and are certified by a third-party certification agency.
Vehicle-level certification is technically difficult, requiring a certain amount of manpower, material resources and time to test, and the more complex the product, the longer the time and the higher the cost. For new entrants, even if they pass the vehicle-level certification, it still requires a long process of customer introduction.
The ISO 26262 standard is the entry ticket for automotive supply chain manufacturers, providing guidance on functional safety-related workflows and management processes throughout the entire life cycle of automotive electrical and electronic systems. This standard defines two key concepts of the automotive safety life cycle and ASIL.
The full name of ASIL is the automotive safety integrity level. ASIL rating is the safety line of defense for automotive electronic control systems and the entry threshold for chip suppliers to enter the automotive field. Its high standards and high requirements have also become a strong basis for clearing the automotive market.
ASIL level evaluation is one of the very important steps in the functional safety evaluation of the E/E system in the ISO 26262 standard, which is used to express the safety level of the vehicle. The specific evaluation is mainly carried out from three dimensions: Severity S, Exposure E and Controllability C. According to the comprehensive score, ASIL can be divided into four levels: ASIL-A, B, C, and D, of which ASIL D is the most secure. Severe level.
The higher the ASIL level, the greater the unreasonable risk of hazardous events, and the higher the design requirements for functional safety. The high requirements mainly include fault coverage, design process traceability and design software. Proof of trust, etc. For example, if the security level reaches D, it means that the single-point failure rate in the entire system must be less than 1%.
In the field of semiconductors, in addition to the AEC-Q testing standard, passing ASIL certification has become an entry rule for manufacturers in the automotive supply chain, especially if IC practitioners want to enter the field of automotive electronics and produce chip products in the field of vehicle functional safety, It must pass ASIL certification before it can be adopted by OEMs and Tier 1s.
