Sondrel assumes complete accountability for the seamless operation of each step in the value chain as an outsourced turnkey ASIC provider, delivering fully tested chips on time.
The pandemic and home working altering the mix of ICs manufactured were two of the several factors that caused the automotive supply chain to break some time ago. The supply of chips to automakers and Tier 1 suppliers has been significantly impacted by the statements made at the time by BMW and VW that these problems would take a year or more to rectify. Consequently, a lot of companies are modifying their supply chain models in order to gain control over the whole chain and lessen their susceptibility to interruptions.
However, their purchasing departments started with little or no experience of the complexities of the semiconductor design and manufacture process. This is why they are now engaging with outsourced ASIC design and manufacturing companies, such as Sondrel, to manage every aspect.
“We have detailed knowledge of the exacting standards required from handling many automotive IC projects such as ISO 26262 along with the requirements of Functional Safety (FuSa),” explained Ollie Jones, Sondrel’s VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. “For example, we have just successfully completed the tape out of a custom ASIC for a Tier 1 Automotive customer. Automotive OEMs want to differentiate their cars and increasingly this is done by the functionality provided by the electronics running custom software. Having your own specially designed chips supports product differentiation and protection of IP compared to using off-the-shelf chips. It also allows optimisation of power performance and costs. You are totally in control of the number of chips produced based on your own forecasts so that removes the costs of just-in-case ordering from several different semiconductor companies.
“In summary, using Sondrel to design and manufacture a bespoke chip enables automotive customers to fully own their supply chain of chips, creating a barrier to entry for rivals trying to replicate unique functions, and could potentially save on the bill of materials as the functionalities of several chips could be integrated into one. This completely disrupts the traditional, tiered model of system houses that integrate chips from IC manufacturers into subsystems for Automotive OEMs.”
Sondrel assumes complete accountability for the seamless operation of each step in the value chain as an outsourced turnkey ASIC provider, delivering fully tested chips on time.
In order to map out the supply chain and guarantee on-time and on-budget delivery, it is frequently involved immediately from the planning stage of each chip project, where mission-critical choices are taken on the architecture, process technology, design for test, test regimes, and packaging specifications.
With ADAS as a major growth area for automotive electronics, Sondrel has developed a fast-track design platform specially for ADAS chips in the form of its SFA 350A. It has four channels for sensors that can be either passive, such as optical via camera inputs, or active using LiDAR or RADAR.
It is part of Sondrel’s Architecting the Future™ family of frameworks that just need the addition of the customer’s or third-party IP to provide a solution that exactly meets a customer’s requirements. “Our Architecting the Future family plays a vital role in ensuring that we deliver rapid, high-quality designs at the start of the ASIC manufacturing process to ensure we mitigate risk to deliver to schedule and on budget,” added Jones.