Designed and manufactured from the car-level chip, Triple Fujitsu gives the strategy of upgrading China's integrated circuit design

At the just-concluded ICCAD 2017, a set of data once again made China's integrated circuit (IC) design stunning the industry. In 2017, China's IC design industry sales revenue is expected to be 194.598 billion yuan, an increase of 28.15% year-on-year! According to the "National Integrated Circuit Industry Development Promotion Outline", the total sales of China's IC industry design industry will reach 350 billion yuan by 2020, which has already highlighted the "small goal" of growth of 150 billion yuan. To continue to maintain high growth, there is no doubt that China's IC design needs to develop more and higher technologies and markets, and as China becomes a global automobile manufacturing country, the share of the automotive semiconductor market will not be underestimated.

Research firm IC Insights' latest semiconductor industry driver report shows that compared to PC, communications, consumer electronics and other fields, the automotive semiconductor market will be the most powerful chip terminal application market by 2021, and automotive IC sales in 2017. The volume will increase by 22% and will continue to grow by 16% next year! This strong growth market is also an area of ​​great importance to Fujitsu Semiconductor Co., Ltd., which participated in ICCAD 2017. Car integrated circuit foundry is one of the company's most important foundry markets.

Figure 1: Luo Liangfu, Marketing Director of Triple Fujitsu, shares the development and quality management plan for car-level chip

"New energy vehicles, auto-driving and other product upgrades put more stringent requirements on the quality of the chip. The chip design capability, IP resources and the stability of the Foundry process of the car-level chip have also become the key." Triple Fujitsu Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Market Minister Luo Liangfu pointed out at the "FOUNDRY and Process Technology" special forum held in ICCAD 2017. "As a leading global foundry company, we are optimistic about China's automotive design and manufacturing prospects. Triple Fujitsu Semiconductor hopes to play the role of China IC The driving force behind the rapid growth of the design industry!"

Use Foundry to help upgrade chip design

Nowadays, the Internet of Vehicles and the field of autonomous driving are surging, and the product forms and application functions are diversified, such as vehicle control, intelligent rearview mirrors, tire pressure monitoring, and ADAS radar. Behind the "full bloom" of these car-level terminal application markets, China's IC design industry is constantly pouring into new players, entering the field of sensors, low-power MCUs and wireless connectivity and other diversified chip solutions, which is also reported from ICCAD. The statement of about 1,380 IC design companies in China has been confirmed.

Figure 2: Triple Fujitsu has implemented the 55nm process AEC-Q100 Grade1/2 standard LSI platform

"Automotive chip design and production, functional safety is the primary requirement, so the high quality and high reliability of the chip is very important. We believe that ensuring high quality from design to chip flow, chip design and back-end OEM collaboration is extremely critical. Luo Liangfu pointed out, "We provide customers with automotive-grade LSI development environment, including market-proven AEC-Q100 Grade 1/2/3 IP, ISO26262 IP, 5V I/O support, precision PDK, automotive DFM, embedded Storage technology, and so on."

According to Luo Liangfu, the history of Triple Fujitsu and the purchase of a large number of automotive-grade IPs through cooperative purchases are available for customers to call. "These IPs include DDC technology, embedded memory technology (eNVM), and RF series IP with extremely high design efficiency." Luo Liangfu pointed out, "For example, the image processor is widely used in the autopilot function. (ISP), many of the world's major chips are manufactured by us. In terms of automotive radar, Triple Fujitsu also has its own technology/IP developed, and cooperates with Fujitsu Research Institute to develop and use millimeter-wavelength MMIC (Monolithic Microwave) using CMOS technology. Integrated Circuit) technology.” Triple Fujitsu has prepared the millimeter wave Process Design Kit (PDK), which will also become a highly competitive process product for vehicle radar development.

Figure 3: Triple Fujitsu emphasizes a close collaboration model with customers

It is reported that Triple Fujitsu's current process covers low-power CMOS technology from 40-90nm node, providing unique eNVM, RF process options, and millimeter-wave RF technology. These are very important for many car-level integrated circuits. "Tri-Fujitsu has a rich base IP library. We have also strengthened cooperation with Synopsys, Kilopass, Faraday and other basic IP to fully address the IP resource requirements for IoT chip manufacturing." Luo Liangfu emphasized, "These resources are Cooperative customers are very important support, we hope to contact Chinese companies and provide support in the early stages of their design."

Interestingly, as the original Fujitsu Group's IDM supporting manufacturing line, the independent three-year-old Fujitsu is only a veteran veteran of the industry. It has more than 30 years of manufacturing experience, of which the 55nm process is very mature. The AEC-Q100 Grade1 standard LSI platform, such as the 55nm process, has been adopted by many customers, and the 40nm process-related process is also in mass production. "Tri-Fujitsu not only has ISO26262-certified intellectual property patents, but also has an LSI design environment for the automotive industry, such as the DFM (Design For Manufacturability) program, the high-precision PDK (Process Design Kit) and the high-precision SPICE model. The level of foundry manufacturing with both quality and stability.” Luo Liangfu pointed out.

Figure 4: Triple Fujitsu has a number of solutions to meet the manufacturing needs of different chips

Multi-dimensional strategy parallel, yielding 93%+ "triple" quality management

"In addition to meeting the manufacturing needs of various types of chips, Triple Fujitsu also provides vehicle-level chip quality management solutions and BCM (Business Continuity Management) disaster prevention and emergency measures to ensure continuous supply of customer orders. This series of services is triple Fujitsu's wafer process yield is an important foundation of 93%." Luo Liangfu specifically pointed out.

Figure 5: Triple Fujitsu equipped with industry-leading factory automation system MES

Triple Fujitsu has industry-leading chip manufacturing management technologies such as Lot/Wafer Tracking, Preferred tools, WAT Management, and defect rate zeroing targets. In terms of quality control of the car-level chip, in addition to the common AEC-Q100 standard and the operating temperature of -40~125°C, there is a CPK (Capability Process Key) enhancement corresponding to the car-level standard (Note: Triple Fujitsu reaches CPK≧1.67) ) and optimize SPC regulation and so on.

Figure 6: Triple Fujitsu provides quality commitment for car-scale chip manufacturing

In the BCM disaster prevention measures, especially the earthquake response measures, Triple Fujitsu is the first factory in the semiconductor manufacturing industry to adopt a mixed-isolation structure (AVS), and three isolation devices are installed between the building and the foundation, including Plate rubber bearings, rigid plain bearings and oil dampers minimize the effects of microseisms under normal conditions. In addition, Triple Fujitsu has deployed NAS batteries, Li-ion capacitor (LIC) dual-loop power supply and LNG (liquefied natural gas) auxiliary bases to achieve uninterrupted power supply in the plant area and ensure the stable production of the plant.

Luo Liangfu said: "In order to ensure the functional safety and life support of the plant to the maximum extent, Mie Fujitsu always puts the highest demand for high quality and high reliability in production." He concluded: "In accordance with ISO14001, the company is pursuing environmental protection. At the same time, Mie Fujitsu has established ISO9000 series and quality assurance management system based on automotive ISO/TS16949 certification, and deployed corresponding measures on BCM disaster prevention measures, so that it can continuously and high-quality output of 35,000 pieces/month of 12-inch crystal. Round capacity!"

Open the foundry "shared economy" mode

According to industry media reports, compared with the traditional off-season in the fourth quarter, there is a growing demand for chip manufacturers to increase the amount of filming in the upstream wafer foundries, reflecting the fact that the foundry capacity in 2018 is still in short supply. Among them, SEMI (International Semiconductor Industry Association) analysis pointed out that the Internet of Things and automotive electronics are the main drivers of demand for wafers. On the other hand, it is reported that among the 1,380 IC design companies in China, 88.62% of the total number of enterprises are small and micro enterprises with fewer than 100 people. “For the small and medium-sized enterprises of IC design, too high cost of filming is an indispensable but costly expenditure for it.” Luo Liangfu said, “This is affecting the testing of small and medium-sized enterprises to verify their chips. At the same time, it also inevitably delays the time-to-market of products, and even the problem of capital reflow." At this time, the concept of "shared stream" has provided the possibility to solve this demand.

"Shuttle service is a flexible streaming service launched by Triple Fujitsu for small and medium-sized IC design companies." Luo Liangfu said, "The demand for this large number of small and medium IC design manufacturers is long-lived. Triple Fujitsu sees this demand and thus adapts to market demand. The service is launched." Shuttle service is a trial service of MPW (Multi Project Wafer) implemented by 35-nm and 40-nm CMOS technology from Mitsubishi Fujitsu. The chip is realized by sharing masks and wafers by multiple customers. Cost making,. “Shuttle service provides a streamlined and complete streaming service to flexibly meet the needs of multiple customers. Since its inception, Triple Fujitsu has been known for its foundry services. I believe this Will become a priority for Chinese and even global customers." Luo Liangfu said at the end of the speech.