SemiDrive to Supply Millions of MCU Chips to CATL

During the 2022 World New Energy Vehicle Congress, Zhang Qiang, the co-founder of SemiDrive Technology, said in an exclusive interview with 36Kr that its MCU E3 Microcontroller series chips have been used in battery management system (BMS), and that it will supply millions of chips to Chinese battery giant CATL this year. Moreover, many battery manufacturers such as SVOLT and Sunwoda are also using its products.

SemiDrive Technology has launched four series of products, such as intelligent cockpits, intelligent driving, gateway SoC and high-performance MCUs. The chip category covers the core of the future electrical architecture of automotive electronics. It has put intelligent cockpit and central gateway chips on sale. In the second half of this year, SemiDrive plans to mass produce intelligent driving chips and MCU products, and the sales volume of chips is expected to reach 3 million within the year.

As reported by iSuppli, MCU chips account for about 30% of the number of semiconductor devices used in cars. At least 70 or more MCU chips are required for each vehicle. With the advent of electrification and intelligence in the automobile sector, digital architecture of automobiles is evolving from a distributed toward a centrally integrated layout, and high-performance MCUs are increasingly useful in more and more areas.

During the conference, Zou Guangcai, deputy secretary-general of the China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance, said that the low-end control chip products in China have been initially mass-produced for cars, but there are relatively few high-end products. It is advisable to focus on the development of high-security and high-reliability MCU in the future.

SemiDrive is one of a few companies that work in the field of automotive-grade MCUs. SemiDrive E3 MCUs use TSMC’s 22nm automotive-grade process, and can be applied to wire control chassis, brake control, BMS, ADAS/autonomous driving motion control, LCD instrumentation, HUD, CMS and other automotive applications.

However, Zhang Qiang, the co-founder of SemiDrive, said that only one chip product in the automotive industry can’t support the company’s development. There are many chip applications in a single car – 20 to 30 times more than in a cell phone. If automotive semiconductor companies want to increase sales and customer stickiness, they need multiple chip product lines to retain customers.

Long before the release of MCU E3 products, SemiDrive released X9, G9 and V9 SoC for intelligent cockpits, automated driving and gateway.

SEE ALSO: SemiDrive Technology Releases E3 Series Automotive Microcontrollers

In the field of automated driving chips, SemiDrive plans to launch an automated driving processor with computing power of 60-200TOPS in the second half of the year. Its smart cockpit chip X9 has also won dozens of fixed-point models, covering local, joint venture factories and new car companies. Its products are used by 90% of car companies, and SemiDrive has more than 100 designated mass production projects and more than 260 customers.