Infineon’s secret weapon: Dresden Fab, 48V car battery
Once impossible, closely working with Japan’s leading automakers is fast becoming a reality to some of non-Japanese automotive chip companies, because Renesas — the world’s No. 1 automotive chip vendor — has begun losing its grip in recent years.
Infineon is no exception. In a press briefing held here Wednesday, September 24, Jochen Hanebeck, president of Infineon’s automotive division, told us that the German chip company, ranked sixth on the Japanese automotive market in revenue in 2010, has climbed up to third place in 2013.
Power semiconductors in Dresden
Infineon, whose focus is on powertrain, safety and body in cars, has a broad automotive product portfolio. It ranges from power to MCUs and sensors. All in all, though, the German chip company is banking on its expertise in MCUs and power semiconductors to expand the company’s presence in the global automotive market. Infineon’s secret weapon could be its Dresden facility, where the company runs one of the most highly-automated 200mm fabs and bringing its home-grown 300mm "thin" wafers on line in producing power semiconductors.
Infineon’s Dresden site offers the industry’s first high-volume fab for power semiconductors.
The initial use of the 300mm thin wafers in Dresden will be the production of power semiconductors for home appliances. In several years, though, the same facility will start making power semiconductors for automotive, said Hanebeck.
When asked about the company’s plan for silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, Infineon said that the SiC development for hybrids and other vehicles with an electrified powertrain is under way at the company’s fab in Villach in Austria. For the time being, the company has no plans to make SiC in Dresden, however.
48V systems proposed to meet CO2 emission goal
Clearly, "semiconductors are indispensable" for future cars to reach CO2 emission target, Hanebeck explained. Features such as dual clutch, tire pressure and start stop all demand the increased semiconductor content inside a car, which will in turn help internal combustion engine cars to reduce CO2 emissions to a certain degree.
Hanebeck explained that when using all the innovative technologies, small cars (with gasoline engine) could realize 90g/km CO2 emission by 2020 — meeting Europe’s 95g/km CO2 goal.
The bad news, though, is that neither medium nor luxury gasoline engine cars could meet the European CO2 emission target by 2020, he noted.
CO2 reduction potential for EU Cars (Source: Infineon)
The question then becomes whether meeting the EU regulations means a majority of EU cars must go electric by 2020.
Infineon believes there is a third way.
Hanebeck said that 48V battery systems could help bridge the gap between gasoline engine cars and plug-in hybrids. Hanebeck said that medium-sized cars can use a small energy-storage system that can recover braking energy quickly and software that reuses it just as quickly to keep the internal-combustion engine working efficiently. That would help them meet Europe’s 95g/km CO2 goal, he explained. Although the 48V system market "remains small today," it will prove to be an effective solution for volume cars, he added.
(Source: The International Council for Clean Transportation)
Projects in Japan
"Back in the 90s, our automotive business in Japan was mostly based on power and sensor products," said Hanebeck. Fast forward to 2014, Infineon’s customers are not just Japan’s Tier One’s, but the company has "a couple of projects going on with Japan’s carmakers," according to Hanebeck. While declining to name names, he explained that such projects are technology collaboration with Japanese car manufacturers, something similar to the development of inverters both Infineon and BMW had collaborated on.
Infineon today holds the second largest share in the global automotive semiconductor market — after Renesas.
Infineon is ranked second in the worldwide automotive electronics market (Source: Infineon)
— Junko Yoshida is Chief International Correspondent at EE Times
Related articles:
Infineon closes technology gap through International Rectifier
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
