1. Overview
From 2004 to 2007, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored three autonomous driving challenges, giving rise to the field of autonomous driving. This ushered in the era of industrialization for autonomous driving, with major automotive nations vying for a leading position in the industry. In China, with the booming new energy vehicle market, autonomous driving has also entered a period of rapid development.
2. Autonomous driving
2.1
definition
An autonomous vehicle is an intelligent vehicle that achieves driverless operation through sensors and computing units. Its core hardware modules include two main parts: the Electronic Control Unit (ECU)/Driving Control Unit (DCU) and sensors (sensing elements). According to the SAE J3026 standard published by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Chinese national standard "Classification of Driving Automation for Automobiles" issued in August 2021, autonomous driving is divided into six levels, from L0 (emergency driver assistance) to L5 (fully autonomous driving), as shown in the diagram below:
Figure 2: SAE-released autonomous driving levels
2.2
autonomous driving market
The growth of the autonomous driving market worldwide is undeniable, and the Chinese market's performance has only intensified. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) shows that in September 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in my country reached 27.1%, exceeding expectations. China has been the world's largest producer and seller of new energy vehicles for many consecutive years, and was also the world's largest exporter of electric vehicles in 2021. This enhanced competitiveness of the new energy vehicle industry provides my country's automotive industry with an opportunity to leapfrog ahead.
Intelligentization is one of the core features of new energy vehicles and an important future development direction for the automotive industry. Autonomous driving is the most significant characteristic of intelligentization and has almost become a standard feature in current new energy vehicles. Therefore, autonomous driving will be the main focus for most automakers in the future, undoubtedly accelerating the upgrade of autonomous driving technology.
In line with the rapid growth of autonomous driving, MPS is poised to launch, focusing on the two core modules of automotive autonomous driving systems: domain controllers (DCUs) and sensors. It has introduced a variety of automotive-grade chips to provide automakers with complete power supply solutions, helping autonomous vehicles to smoothly enter the road.
3. Autonomous driving faces numerous obstacles.
As autonomous driving functions become increasingly rich and sophisticated, the computing power of the main chip continues to improve, leading to a surge in system power demands. This places higher requirements on power supply design, and many challenges remain to be addressed.
3.1
Roadblock 1: Complex Design
The advancement of autonomous driving levels and the expansion of its applications mean increased demands on the computing power and information processing capabilities of main chips. The amount of data transmitted from peripheral sensors to the vehicle's domain controller (DCU) for processing has increased dramatically, causing computing power anxiety for the main chip, which is the "brain" of the car. Major manufacturers are ramping up development of high-performance computing chips. It is expected that automotive chips with 1000T computing power will be available by 2025.
Greater computing power and richer intelligent driving scenarios mean higher power consumption and more complex system solutions, which places higher demands on the overall power supply design, including the integration of functions such as timing management, functional safety monitoring, and multi-phase power supply.
3.2
Roadblock Two: Reliability Guarantee
As a core component of automobiles, the reliability of automotive chips directly determines the safety and stability of a vehicle during operation, and directly affects the lives of occupants. In recent years, traffic accidents related to autonomous driving have occurred frequently worldwide, causing numerous injuries and fatalities, repeatedly sounding the alarm for safety.
Therefore, the reliability standards of automotive-grade chips must be far higher than those of general consumer-grade chips in order to ensure the safety of people's lives and property to the greatest extent.
3.3
Roadblock Three: The Dilemma of Size and Cost-Effectiveness
As the functions of autonomous driving systems continue to improve, onboard chip solutions are becoming increasingly complex.
For example, in Level 3 autonomous driving, the number of cameras in the sensor module will increase from 3-4 per vehicle to up to 22, and the resolution will rise from 1MP to 8MP or even 15MP, leading to exponential growth in the automotive camera market. Under this trend, small-size, highly integrated, and cost-effective power supply solutions will be more favored by manufacturers.
4. MPS helps automakers overcome obstacles.
In response to the numerous challenges that may arise in the design of autonomous vehicles, MPS has targeted these obstacles and launched a variety of products to address each pain point one by one.
Support 1: Complete Solution
MPS can provide a complete solution for complex autonomous driving domain controller products.
The main chip's core power supply consists of MPQ2967 and MPQ86960.
Figure 4: MPQ2967 and MPQ86960 Autonomous Driving SOC Solutions
The MPQ2967+MPQ86960 is a core power supply solution for autonomous driving domain controllers (DCUs), specifically designed for core power supply of high-computing-power, high-current main chips.
The MPQ2967 is a dual-rail digital multiphase controller for autonomous driving applications, configurable up to four-phase two-rail.
The MPQ86960 is a monolithic half-bridge with integrated power MOSFETs and gate drivers, capable of delivering up to 50A of continuous output current (IOUT) over a wide input voltage (VIN) range.
The MPQ2967+MPQ86960 solution also integrates timing management, functional safety monitoring, current sampling, and temperature sampling. It boasts advantages such as SoC core power supply combined with DrMOS and COT (constant on-time), a simplified external BOM, and rapid response to load transients with fewer output capacitors. These design advantages greatly simplify the design process, making it an ideal choice for autonomous driving power solutions.
System Functional Safety Solution – MPQ79500+MPQ79700
An autonomous driving system is large and complex. Besides the main chip's core power supply, many peripherals and I/O ports also require power. These often necessitate independent small power supplies, but these small power supplies cannot meet the power-on/off timing and functional safety design requirements on their own. To address this need, MPS has launched the MPQ79500 and MPQ79700, two chips that support the automotive safety standard ASIL-D, helping to easily implement functional safety system designs for complex systems.
The MPQ79500 is a 6-channel voltage monitor designed specifically for automotive safety applications. Each channel can be configured for OV/UV and integrates safety mechanisms such as built-in self-test (BIST), diagnostics, and write protection to meet ASILD application requirements.
Figure 5: MPQ79500
The MPQ79700 is a 12-channel functional safety power sequencer that offers configurability and flexibility, enabling cross-generational design reuse across different applications and System-on-a-Chip (SoC). It integrates safety mechanisms such as Built-in Self-Test (BIST) to achieve high diagnostic coverage and enable the system to reach the target ASIL level.
Figure 6: MPQ79700
Second advantage: End-to-end quality control to enhance reliability.
MPS has extensive experience in manufacturing automotive-grade chips and can oversee the entire process from design to testing to maximize chip reliability.
From the design stage, the chip meets the AEC-Q100 automotive-grade standard. During mass production, MPS possesses comprehensive full-temperature testing technology, ensuring high reliability of automotive-grade chips in all temperature environments. MPS aims to get as close as possible to 0 DPPM, thereby improving the safety and reliability of end-user products.
Third advantage: Small size, big impact
For certain applications with high requirements for size and efficiency, such as automotive cameras, the small overall size of the product necessitates strict requirements on the solution's dimensions, efficiency, and temperature rise. Leveraging its advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes and extensive system design experience, MPS has specifically developed a power management chip for automotive cameras, the MPQ792X.
The MPQ792X is a compact, high-power-density integrated PMIC designed specifically for automotive cameras, utilizing a space-saving (2.5mm x 3.5mm) package. Furthermore, the chip employs MPS' proprietary Flip Chip packaging technology, effectively improving heat dissipation and providing a solid foundation for its excellent performance in terms of small size and high power density.
Figure 7: MPQ7928 Pmic for adas camera
5. Conclusion
Currently, autonomous driving is still in a stage of rapid development, and major automakers are moving towards the goal of achieving Level 5 autonomous driving. MPS's series of products developed specifically for autonomous driving can meet the needs of increasingly complex autonomous driving systems, bringing everyone one step closer to a "hands-free" driving experience.
