New Industry Products

Process Qualified for AEC-Q100 Grade-0 Automotive PMICs

August 01, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

United Microelectronics Corporation has verified on silicon its 0.18um Bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD) process for the most stringent AEC Q100 grade-0 automotive ICs. The process is now ready for mass production, with qualified FDK and IP available for automotive applications such as power management IC (PMIC). The successful qualification enables UMC manufactured chips to be used for high-reliability vehicle applications within high temperature environments, and follows upon the foundry’s successful mass production of AEC-Q100 Grade-1 automotive ICs.

“Semiconductor content in vehicles continues to increase at a rapid pace as auto electronics such as ADAS, infotainment and navigation constantly evolve,” said SC Chien, senior vice president and head of corporate marketing at UMC. “More recently, higher expectations for emission reduction & energy efficiency have driven the demand for more advanced power electronics technology and components, which require the most stringent AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing to meet high temperature, zero-defect requirements. With our 0.18um BCD process, UMC is one of the only foundries compliant with AEC-Q100 Grade 1 & 0 semiconductor production specifications, and we look forward to helping more foundry customers gain entry into the thriving automotive IC market.”

UMC has a successful history as an automotive IC supplier, being the first foundry to receive ISO 22301 certification for business continuity management. The foundry implements a comprehensive “Automotive Service Package” that incorporates zero-defect manufacturing practices to help customers meet automotive quality requirements. In addition, UMC offers comprehensive Grade-0 IP including standard library, SRAM and OTP/MTP/eFuse that have been silicon verified in automotive IC products. ICs manufactured at UMC have been widely adopted by the world’s most well-known carmakers in Japan, Europe, Asia and the United States.