The hot market of new energy vehicles has intensified the demand for upstream automotive-grade MCU chips. So what is a vehicle-grade MCU chip and how is it different from ordinary chips? 

MCU chips are divided into five grades: consumer, industrial, automotive, QJ and GJ. Among them, the automotive grade chip is undoubtedly the windfall of the moment. So what exactly is the automotive grade chip, and how is it different from consumer and industrial grade? What kind of chips can be called automotive grade chips?

Unlike consumer and industrial products, this type of chip has higher requirements for reliability, such as operating temperature range, operating stability, and defect rate. Product grade differences are mainly achieved through complex chip design and production process control, thus showing differentiation in operating temperature range, stability, etc.

So, what are the original and the chips to be verified to be qualified for vehicle specification?

Automotive market entry ticket - automotive specification certification

I. ISO/TS16949

Source: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in March 2002 published an industry-wide quality system requirements, its full name is "Quality Management System - Special Requirements for the Implementation of ISO9001:2000 for Organizations Producing Parts and Related Service Parts in the Automotive Industry", English ISO/TS16949.

Definition: The essence is a set of zero failure (Zero Defect) supply chain quality management standard system.
Industry status: It is a symbol to judge whether a chip original factory has the ability to control the design and production process of automotive-grade chips.

Second, AEC-Q100

Source: Chrysler, Ford and General Motors set up the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) to establish a common set of standards for parts qualification and quality systems, AEC is the "Automotive Electronics

Council: Automotive Electronics Association", which is a group of major automobile manufacturers and the United States. The AEC is a group established by the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC), a group of major automobile manufacturers and major component manufacturers in the United States, to standardize the reliability of in-vehicle electronic components and to establish quality control standards.

Definition: AEC-Q100 is a product-level quality assurance standard issued for integrated circuits (chips).
Industry status: It is one of the marks to judge whether the chip product is qualified for automotive use, focusing on quality reliability.

Three, ISO 26262

Source: ISO 26262 is derived from the basic standard for functional safety of electronic, electrical and programmable devices IEC61508, mainly positioned in the automotive industry specific electrical devices, electronic equipment, programmable electronics and other components specifically for the automotive field, with the aim of improving the functional safety of automotive electronics and electrical products international standards.

Definition: ISO 26262 is a functional safety standard for automotive electronics. Levels from low to high.

ASIL (Automotive Safety Integration Level): ASIL-A, ASIL-B, ASIL-C, ASIL-D; as a simple example, ASIL-A chips can be applied to sunroof control, ASIL-B chips can be applied to the dashboard display, ASIL-C chips can be ASIL-A chips can be applied to sunroof control, ASIL-B chips can be applied to instrument panel display, ASIL-C chips can be applied to engine control, and ASIL-D chips can be applied to automatic driving and EPS (electric power steering system).

Industry status: It is one of the marks to judge whether the chip products are qualified for automotive use, focusing on functional safety.