Passenger Car

Passenger car

Shaping the clean, safe and smart passenger car

For many people the car is the essence of mobility regardless of whether they live in rural or urban areas. Now, about 150 years after the invention of the combustion engine, decarbonization and digitalization are fundamentally transforming the car and how we use it. It is becoming clean, safe and smart than ever before. At the same time, the automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Semiconductors from Infineon are at the heart of this transformation.

Semiconductor-based functions and interfaces of the passenger car drive decarbonization of the mobility sector and sustainable mobility. Infineon enables the decarbonization and digitalization of cars with its expertise in sensors, microcontrollers, connectivity, power semiconductors as well as security solutions.

Semiconductors are essential for driving the automotive megatrends. They provide the basis for smart traffic concepts and safe vehicles along with electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving and advanced security.

Electrification

Infineon semiconductors for ubiquitous e-mobility

As the leading supplier of automotive and power electronics, Infineon serves the automotive industry with a broad portfolio of semiconductor solutions, exceptional technology and manufacturing know-how. In 2021, about every second inverter for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle or battery electric vehicle was equipped with Infineon power semiconductors. Infineon offers full system solutions, high quality, and strong supply capability. With our extensive range of power semiconductors and control ICs for all types of electric vehicles, we are accelerating the mass market deployment of electric vehicles and helping the automotive industry meet its ambitious CO₂ fleet targets.

Zero-emission becomes real

Environmental awareness, changing demographics, new work models and digital lifestyles are influencing people’s preferences. Mobility is shifting more and more from conventional to electric vehicles.

This trend is reinforced by the fact that there is almost no other way to reduce carbon emissions than rigorous electrification. The political sector is driving this change towards sustainable mobility in the automotive industry with regulations on both the national and international level. To date, 66 countries have announced a zero-emission vehicle target or the phase-out of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2050 or before.

Electromobility is the foundation for all of this. However, making electromobility successful requires not only electrified cars, but also a supporting ecosystem and charging infrastructure based on renewable energies, as well as carbon-neutral car manufacturing. Microelectronics based on semiconductors are at the heart of vehicle electrification and the associated charging infrastructure and will drive the transformation towards carbon-neutral mobility to protect our planet.

Types of electric vehicles

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title with Infineon’s dependable electronics onboard of the VW ID.4

Electromobility is fast becoming a reality. In fact, a variety of new cars are operating on a form of electrification. Demonstrating the power and convenience of an electric vehicle (EV), Volkswagen of America has teamed up with long-distance driving expert Rainer Zietlow for the VW ID.4 USA tour in 2021. Under the sponsorship of Infineon, Zietlow and his team have attained a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title. The record was set for the longest journey by an electric vehicle in a single country, crossing 35,840.67 miles between 13 July 2021 to 18 October 18 2021. The drive route also incorporated five Infineon sites, including Livonia, MI; San Jose, CA; El Segundo, CA; Austin, TX; and Washington D.C. The VW ID.4 contains more than 50 Infineon semiconductors, including power semiconductors, microcontrollers and driver ICs. At the heart of the electric drivetrain is a power module from the HybridPACK™ Drive product family for the conversion of energy between the battery and motor.

Space-saving "skateboard platform" from Israel may become a game changer for e-car designs

Vehicles tailored to customer needs!

Israeli e-mobility startup Ree Automotive, headquartered in Tel Aviv, surprised the 2021 electric car market with an outright innovation.

The company developed a space-saving architecture for electric cars that is designed to give car designers more freedom to layout the vehicle's interior. The concept is based on the idea of housing all the components needed for motion, such as steering, brakes and the electric motor, in the wheel and wheel housing.

The completely flat platform is reminiscent of a skateboard in terms of shape and is made possible primarily by the integration of Infineon AURIX™ microcontrollers in REEcorner™ and REEcenter™ control units.

Autonomous driving

Autonomous mobility solutions

Autonomous vehicles may still seem far off in the future. But advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) based on level 1 and 2 are becoming mainstream already – thanks to innovation in the field of semiconductor solutions. They enable a car to sense its environment, start moving, make safety decisions and communicate with its passengers and the exterior world – from other vehicles and pedestrians to the traffic infrastructure.

Paving the way for autonomous driving

With around 90% of innovations in cars coming from electronics, Infineon is at the forefront of this development and is laying the foundation for autonomous driving. Our broad portfolio of power semiconductors (incl. SiC), microcontrollers, sensors and memory ICs has answers for almost every application, which drivers need to stay safe and connected while on the road.

Not only do they provide greater driving comfort, they also help avoid collisions. These systems therefore make a huge contribution to Vision Zero, a global initiative to reach zero fatalities in traffic. Making vehicles smart also includes secure connectivity, which is an essential aspect of autonomous driving.

Levels of autonomous driving

From assisted to autonomous driving with dependable electronics

Enormous progress in advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) has put us on the fast track to fully autonomous cars. As the backbone of autonomous vehicles, ADAS solutions rely on fast information processing and a failsafe electronic control unit (ECU). Thanks to the road infrastructure and interconnection with other vehicles, automated cars can detect dangerous situations ahead much sooner and drive more predictively. The first generation of vehicles that satisfies automation level 3 on the internationally accepted six-level scale is already being launched in the market today.

Infineon’s broad spectrum of semiconductors make travelling from A to B a safe and convenient experience.
Among many others, this includes the market-leading RASIC™ product portfolio of radar sensor ICs and the scalable AURIX™ microcontroller family for ADAS, suitable for radar (24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz/79 GHz), cameras, 2D/3D (ToF) and sensor fusion applications.

Radar for more safety: Autonomous Emergency Braking

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) is probably one of the most important developments in car safety since the seat belt.

This safety technology reduces the risk of a rear-end or turn collision. Here's how it works: Radars in the car monitor the road ahead and signal the driver when they detect a critical situation. The vehicle is designed to brake automatically in case the driver remains inactive and fails to respond to a collision threat. Although the driver still has to be attentive and always drive carefully, the system works like an extra pair of eyes on the road supporting the safety of the driver during the entire journey.

In summer rising temperatures can quickly reach 70° C inside parked vehicles, which can be dangerous for animals and children in the car.

Equipped with the XENSIV™ 60 GHz automotive radar sensor ICs (BGT60ATR24C) from Infineon, in-cabin monitoring systems (ICMS) detect micro-movements as well as the vital signs of infants and animals left in the car and can then sound the alarm. In addition, the compact and cost-effective chipset also addresses applications such as front-end radar for gesture sensing, high-resolution frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars for distance measurement, short range sensing operations and hidden sensing applications in the radome.

Multi-purpose cameras enable vehicle safety features

Multi-purpose cameras play an increasingly integral role in vehicle safety features. As their importance skyrockets, camera systems have to be optimally integrated, which is why car manufacturers need solutions designed for scalability and a high level of integration.

Infineon offers a highly integrated solution for multi-purpose camera systems that supports the next generation of safety features and functionalities. Manufacturers and designers can choose Infineon for unparalleled benefits: from ISO 26262 support and innovative supply concepts to best-in-class power consumption and even security functions.

Highlight: AURIX™ multicore architecture includes encapsulation features to support freedom from interference between multiple applications!

Always on track with lane departure warning systems

The lane departure warning system is another smart feature to increase safety on the road. It helps drivers stay in their lane.
This is how it works: If the car seems to leave the lane in an unusual manner, the system warns the driver, for example by vibration of the steering wheel. In case the driver does not react, the system is designed to act automatically to return to the correct position in the lane. The driver can interrupt the process by nudging the wheel.

Manufacturers and automotive suppliers will find the components they need to increase the safety of personal mobility in Infineon’s broad product portfolio of top-quality semiconductor solutions dedicated to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), manufacturers and automotive suppliers find the components needed to increase the safety of personal mobility.

Saving lives through automatic emergency calls

Leading car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz already use eSIM security controllers for the emergency call function. For example, the "MercedesMe connect" system from Mercedes-Benz offers many services such as accident management, breakdown and maintenance management, remote vehicle diagnostics, and remote services for customers along with the emergency call function ("Mercedes-Benz eCall") required by law. The voice and data connections in these telematics services rely on a telematics control unit in the vehicle, which is also referred to as a connectivity module.

The current generation of this module is based on a telecommunications module that can tap into 2G to 5G mobile-communications networks. The vehicle can use them to establish a connection and access data (e.g., traffic updates, infotainment services) from the internet. A permanently installed eSIM chip is provided to identify the vehicle in the network.

Teaching cars to hear

Today's systems for advanced driver assistance (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) are based on cameras, radar and lidar. These have the disadvantage of only detecting objects that are in the direct line of sight. Infineon has introduced a system with the company Reality AI giving cars a “sense of hearing”. Based on the first automotive-qualified MEMS microphones on the market from Infineon's XENSIV™ family and the AURIX™ Microcontrollers, the system can detect and locate emergency vehicles at an early stage. The system can also identify other road users – from pedestrians and cyclists to cars and trucks – and determine their location and direction of movement.

The evolution of light

Imagine it’s night. The e-car is driving on a dark road. Only the headlights show the way. Suddenly, the driver sees a pedestrian approaching from the right. The car brakes, stops, and the headlights turn into a projector displaying a crosswalk. The pedestrian can cross the road safely now.

A Japanese manufacturer and Infineon have jointly developed a high-definition micro-LED matrix solution for such applications, which can already be found in new cars. The modern headlights with matrix LED technology can project light onto a specific spot like a projector. They can partially dim the illumination in the event of oncoming traffic and can project information onto the road for road users, such as a crosswalk. The car thus communicates with its surroundings and with other road users. This makes the driver feel considerably safer.

Additional benefits:

The new light system helps the driver to navigate through a construction site or to give signals to pedestrians who often cannot see gestures from within a car due to reflections on the windscreen. It can be also used to warn the driver of hazards by highlighting people or objects on the roadside. Moreover, sensors in the vehicle can analyze the vehicle surroundings in order to smartly illuminate oncoming traffic. This allows the driver to see these vehicles more clearly. As oncoming road users are not dazzled, the adaptive headlights no longer have to be dimmed on country roads.

Smart connectivity solutions

Customers are constantly demanding a more enhanced driving experience. They expect cars with connected, scalable, user-centric functionalities. Therefore, the focus is moving to a service-oriented architecture considered a game changer due to the way electronics are implemented in the car. The ongoing transformation results in a software-defined vehicle impacting the entire value chain. Suppliers in the automotive value chain are undergoing the transition in their business model.

Enabling the Electrical and Electronic (E/E) architecture evolution

New functionalities mean increased complexity. It is a common understanding that we cannot deal with this growing complexity by using the solutions that have been used until now. Furthermore, there is a huge increase in safety and security needs. Connectivity requires top-level security implementation. Hence also newly arising security gaps need to be closed for the entire lifetime of a car.

Assisted and automated driving require more safety and dependability. On the way to autonomous driving we need highly dependable systems with partial functional redundancy. This is already required for modern and advanced driving assistant systems which have been introduced in car platforms at all levels. This also entails the need to upgrade these systems in a quick and easy manner, e.g. Software Over The Air (SOTA). The growing number of car models coming out every year from all OEMs means this cannot be simply done at the garage or car dealer but should also be possible for example over the air while having the car in operation.

All these advanced features need to be implemented at a reasonable cost. And the power consumption of these functionalities must be limited as increased functionalities should not significantly affect the range of electric vehicles.

It is more than just a car – it is a computer on wheels

The success of the transformation towards sustainable mobility also needs connectivity.
Vehicles are already exchanging data with each other and with the infrastructure (V2X), permanently connected with the passenger. According to market analysts, connected vehicles will account for 100% of the market by 2035.

Today most car manufacturers already provide apps and software directly in the car, granting access to comprehensive personalized service offerings, providing guidance, capable of upgrades and boosting the productivity of travelers.

The heart of all this is the telematics unit, which controls a number of key functions in today’s cars. For example, telematics connects cars to the cloud, helps keep the driver and passengers safe, optimize traffic flow and enable an automatic emergency call in the event of an accident.

Self-driving cars deliver food in USA

For many people, shopping at the supermarket is not exactly a favorite activity. Online grocery stores are therefore a convenient solution for many: no driving to the store, no time-consuming searching and no standing in line at the checkout. That’s why automated systems that handle delivery are becoming increasingly important to grocery companies.

Some of them are already working successfully on this: A robotics start-up launched an unmanned autonomous delivery service in the Arizona, USA, together with a supermarket chain. Here is how it works: Customers can order at the supermarket via a smartphone app and expect same-day delivery. This app also shows the customer the exact location of the robotic vehicle at any time. In addition, the customer receives a code to be able to open the vehicle's doors upon arrival.
The vehicle, which travels at a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour, is equipped with Lidar, radar, ultrasound, audio sensors and twelve cameras. It is manufactured in the US and is completely electric.
Such kind of technical equipment, which makes autonomous driving possible in the first place, would not work without semiconductor solutions.

Delivery robots gaining ground in Asia

Specialized companies, many of them in Asia, are leading the way, pioneering safety standards and eventually mass production. The main reason for the significant increase in the development of delivery robots is consumer desire for quick deliveries.
Depending on the area of application, there are different robot types. For example, delivery robots, which are comparatively slow, unmanned or transporting food or other items. They are perfect for last-mile delivery. They also feature good battery life, store and transmit service information to users and use precise sensors to perform particularly demanding tasks.
Infineon provides all the electronics for these types of service robots and enables robot developers to overcome technical challenges with the help of the next generation of semiconductor technologies.

Highlights from Infineon’s portfolio include MCU, radar sensors, ICs, OPTIGA^TM Trust, OptiMOS^TM, MOSFETs, gate driver ICs and DC/DC controllers.

Enhanced security technologies

Meeting new security requirements

The volume of data to be transferred and processed is seeing exponential growth alongside the increase in vehicle connectivity and system complexity. Integrated payment methods to pay parking fees or tolls, for example, demand a reliable flow of transaction data. Yet external access to a vehicle via a connection to the cloud also substantially increases the risk of cyber attacks. Car manufacturers therefore need to ensure that information is transmitted securely and protected against third-party access and manipulation. At the same time, data protection needs to be maintained for all passengers.

Infineon combines hardware components such as microcontrollers with integrated hardware security modules, embedded SIM, and dedicated security controllers with appropriate software packages. The required protection mechanisms and associated costs can thus be adjusted and precisely matched to the security requirements of a specific application in a smart vehicle.

Protect against cyber attacks

Tuning protection and secured on-board communication

The AURIX™ 32-bit microcontroller family – featuring an embedded hardware security module (HSM) - is typically at the core of automotive security applications. The use cases range from tuning protection and immobilizers to secured on-board communication. Infineon not only offers compatible AURIX™ devices, but also the necessary software packages and support services.

Read more about Infineon 32-bit AURIX™

Protecting critical data and processes

When it comes to critical data and processes, OPTIGA™ TPMs are the right solutions for data protections. Based on a standardized construction kit, TPMs are ideal for platforms running both Windows and Linux (including derivatives). Raise security to the highest level with the OPTIGA™ TPM add-on board and AURIX™ TC389.

At a glance

Chip stories at a glance

SEMPER™ Secure NOR Flash - A flash to trust

Drivers on the road rely on connected vehicles that use safe and secured NOR Flash technology.

NOR Flash helps prevent accidents while securing critical data and user privacy, preventing component counterfeiting and securing infrastructure. To achieve this, embedded system designers have to establish protection levels that are compliant with the latest security standards. They have to protect device integrity and access and manage the confidentiality, authenticity and availability of code and data.

The advanced, secured and easy-to-use SEMPER™ Secure NOR Flash portfolio from Infineon delivers security, safety and reliability to connected vehicles. The portfolio is built on the well-established SEMPER™ NOR Flash family, combines advanced security with industry-leading functional safety and reliability and is engineered to last a lifetime.