NXP Semiconductors have got their hands full keeping pace as one of the worlds leading manufacturers of integrated circuits, with the applications of their products ranging from automotive to wireless infrastructure. While developing the technology for these applications certainly present their own set of challenges, making sure the technology can perform properly in its end device proves to be equally as difficult to resolve. We recently spoke with Michael Lyons, Automotive marketing manager of NXP’s Logic business line, in order to find out a little more about what we consider to be one particularly interesting challenge faced by IC designers today: the application of integrated circuits in extreme environments. So, just how is it that something as sensitive and complex as IC technology can withstand some of the harshest industrial environments known to the modern world?
Fortunately, Lyons made it easy for us to gain a solid understanding of the process—and to be pretty impressed along the way. Unsurprisingly, as it turns out, quite a bit of work goes into ensuring the fitness of semiconductor devices for harsh environments like those presented in such everyday applications as automotive technology. And as a defining part of their mission, NXP is doing an impressive job setting new standards for their qualification. Standing proudly as the world’s number one global supplier of high-stress automotive logic parts, they should know better than anyone how to get the best out of a bad scenario.
With today’s cars becoming smarter all the time—mostly due to the continuing development of better automotive ICs—the attention to detail required to ensure reliability and peak performance is something that is only always becoming more intensive. When we’re talking about practical technology that comes about as close to existing on a quantum level as the modern world is so far capable, it inspires the mind to think of the work going into their constantly improving capabilities.
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So, what are the main challenges of designing integrated circuits for use in the literal crucible of a car engine? Firstly, and perhaps most importantly as Lyons points out, “automotive applications have a very long and expensive design-in and qualification cycle.” In short, “manufacturing parts for automotive applications requires tighter manufacturing controls, additional quality testing, and extensive reliability monitoring.” And, clearly, when it comes to figuring out how to put their circuits to the test for use in harsh environments specifically, NXP has set the bar pretty high.
Automotive applications have a very long and expensive design-in and qualification cycle...
To achieve such a high standard of reliability, Lyons highlights concisely that “more conservative design rules are applied in such areas as redundancy and intentionally building beyond the minimum-allowed dimensions of a process.” NXP’s approach also ensures that automotive parts contain the company’s highest standard of durability and, through their extended and multifaceted testing process, have a greater tractability for improved quality analysis—something that truly allows the company to ensure the best possible performance standards in the long term. As Lyons confidently reminded us, NXP’s meticulous attention to detail “virtually guarantees trouble-free operation in the end user's application.”
Obviously, the first point of contention in automotive applications is temperature.
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“Temperature should not be underestimated,” Lyons affirmed, stating that the testing process must take into account applications that experience impressively extreme, sustained temperatures ranging anywhere from ‑40ºC to almost 150ºC.
But further, for NXP to address a truly complete consideration of mechanical robustness, products are also subjected to further testing categories, like thermal shock and bend tests. It’s a veritable gauntlet of qualifications that NXP has put forth to enable the production of what will continue to be the most reliable and cost-effective automotive ICs on the market—and, from here at least, that looks to be a safe bet not likely to change soon.
So, we had to ask, what is it exactly that has allowed NXP to stand at the top of their field for so long? The company certainly has an impressive history of supplying key components and commodity logic to much of the worldwide automotive industry; but, more importantly, what keeps NXP a head above the competition is the fact that, as Lyons pointed out, the company “was heavily involved in the establishment, and participates in the ongoing development of the current automotive qualification standards.” In the long run, “NXP is dedicated to automotive.”
The industry's ‘AEC-Q100’ specification combines and updates multiple existing qualification standards, defining a minimum set of stress tests that must be performed to qualify an integrated circuit product for automotive applications. “In the ‘80s, Ford, GM, and Chrysler all had their own qualification standards,” Lyons recalled. Finally, in an effort in which NXP was a principle player, the AEC was formed in 1993 from continued discussions with standards committee members and respective management from Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.
When looking back on the history of the development of semiconductor technology, it’s easy to forget that, in combination with the essential advances that come in pure functionality, the push to make it possible for ICs to function in a wider variety of environments has been just as important in bringing them into more, and more essential, uses in our everyday lives. As IC technology moves forward toward new horizons of even more complex functions and even smaller scales, we can safely assume that NXP is going to be leading the concurrent charge to make them do their amazing work in even more impressive and extreme locales.