Automotive Power And Chassis MCU: Global Competition Landscape Among Manufacturers

The power and chassis domain is the part with the highest functional safety requirements for automobiles, and the high-performance MCU represented by it has become one of the hot spots for competition in automotive-grade chips.

1. Development of automotive-grade MCU in various functional domains of automobiles

1. Application and prediction of automotive-grade MCU in various functional domains

According to the ASIL functional safety level classification in ISO26262, the power and chassis domain is the part with the highest functional safety requirements for automobiles (ASIL-C to ASIL-D). At present, high-performance MCUs represented by power and chassis have become one of the hot spots for competition in automotive-grade chips. Chinese manufacturers have entered the field of body control with relatively low safety requirements, and some leading companies are also actively deploying high-value-added fields such as power/chassis, cockpit, and autonomous driving.

MCU continues to benefit from the upgrading of the automotive industry. Traditional cars require about 40-50 MCUs. With the upgrade of E/E architecture, the demand for MCU in autonomous driving, cockpit, body and regional control, power, chassis, central computing, etc. is also growing rapidly, and MCU products are gradually developing towards high performance.

Chassis and powertrain account for a large proportion in traditional cars, and they are still one of the main application hotspots in new energy vehicles. Specifically, taking Audi Q7 as an example, it uses a total of 38 MCUs, mainly distributed in the chassis domain, body domain and infotainment, and MCUs account for 37% in the chassis and powertrain. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, electric vehicles will consume more MCUs in the power domain, generally more than 6, including 1 vehicle control module and 1 motor controller each, and the battery management system requires 4 MCUs. As the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to increase, the average use of MCUs in the power domain will increase.

In the long run, chassis and safety still account for a large proportion, but ADAS and power systems grow the fastest. According to Omdia's forecast, by 2026, the compound growth rates of hybrid/pure electric power drive system MCU and ADAS system MCU markets will be 22.2% and 19.5% respectively, far exceeding other major applications. Among them, the proportion of electric drive system MCU will increase from 15.5% in 2021 to 25%, surpassing the body to become the largest automotive MCU application field, and the ADAS system will surpass the chassis and safety to become the third largest automotive MCU application field.

2. Competition pattern of chassis and power domain MCU manufacturers

Infineon has risen rapidly in the global automotive MCU market. In the past five years, traditional automotive chip giants represented by Infineon have enjoyed the industry dividends of continuous revenue and profit growth. Since 2019, it has surpassed NXP in the automotive semiconductor market share and ranked first in the world. In terms of automotive MCU, in 2019, the market share exceeded TI and ranked third in the world. With the help of high growth of AURIX and other series products, Infineon's automotive MCU market share will be second only to Renesas in 2022, and in 2023, it will surpass Renesas for the first time to become the world's first. TI is the most obvious laggard manufacturer. In 2018, its market share in automotive MCU was 9.9% (ranked third), higher than Infineon's 9.1%. In 2022, its market share was less than 7.5% and fell out of the top five.

From the perspective of the development focus of mainstream manufacturers in the automotive MCU market, Infineon occupies a leading position in chassis and safety applications, NXP focuses on MCUs in the gateway field, Renesas focuses on cockpits, and ST focuses on bodies. Among them, Infineon officially announced that in the TC series MCUs, Infineon's chassis applications and EPS applications ranked second in market share, and ranked first in passenger safety applications.

From the current status of chassis and power domain MCU applications in the global market, Infineon TriCore series MCUs are products with a relatively fast market share and application growth. Renesas has a large share based on its supply chain advantages of Japanese manufacturers, and ST and NXP have also grown significantly with the scalability, high integration advantages and manufacturing accumulation of the PowerPC architecture. Among Chinese manufacturers, Guoxin Technology and Xinhai Technology are among the few leading manufacturers that have deployed mid-to-high-end automotive MCUs in chassis and power domains.

2. Analysis of the development of chassis and power domain MCU cores

1. Understanding of MCU instruction set and core

The CPU module in MCU usually refers to the core. The kernel is responsible for all instruction execution and control operations, including instruction decoding and execution, arithmetic logic operations, register management, interrupt handling and other functions. The kernel is physically composed of arithmetic logic units (ALUs), control units (CUs), register groups, etc.

The implementation of the kernel depends on the design of the kernel architecture. The design of the kernel architecture is centered on the physical circuit design of the instruction set, and also covers memory bus access design, bus conflict mechanism design, interrupt system design, pipeline design, power management design, etc. The design of the kernel architecture directly affects the kernel's operating frequency, computing efficiency, energy consumption level and other core indicators.

The instruction set, also known as the instruction set architecture or instruction set system, is a set of instructions for the kernel to perform computing and control functions. Based on different application scenarios, a set of instruction sets can develop different kernels. For example, the application of the ARM v7-M instruction set can develop a low-power ARM Cortex-M3 kernel, and can also develop an ARM Cortex-M4 kernel that supports digital signal processor (DSP) expansion, as well as a higher-performance ARM Cortex-M7 kernel.

Foreign MCU manufacturers initially used self-developed cores to engage in the research and development and design of MCUs. However, as the computing requirements of MCUs became more complex and the division of labor in the MCU industry gradually became more refined, MCU manufacturers began to obtain core licenses from third-party IP manufacturers such as ARM, thereby shifting their focus to the research and development and design of other MCU modules.

2. Current status and trends of automotive MCU core applications

Self-developed cores for automotive-grade MCUs have become a major trend. According to the financial reports/official websites of various companies, leading automotive MCU manufacturers mostly use self-developed cores, and in areas with high demands for automotive functional safety, such as Infineon's self-developed TriCore core, ST and NXP's e200 series cores based on the PowerPC instruction set architecture, Renesas' self-developed RH850 core, and Texas Instruments' self-developed C28x core, they have taken a dominant position. Among Chinese manufacturers, there are Guoxin Technology's C2000 series based on the PowerPC architecture and Xinwangwei's self-developed KungFu32 core.

Unlike ARM Cortex cores that monopolize 32-bit MCUs in consumer electronics and other fields, the core architecture of automotive MCUs is more diverse. According to Guosen Securities and related leading manufacturers, ARM architecture processors currently occupy about 75% of the global market share in the fields of smart cockpits, in-vehicle entertainment and ADAS systems. However, the proportion in the fields of body domain controllers, chassis and powertrain is still small, and its market is mainly occupied by PowerPC architecture and TriCore architecture. At the same time, more automotive electronic chip manufacturers have begun to try to develop products based on RISC-V, and it is expected that they will gradually occupy a certain market share in the future.

In general, in the mid-to-high-end automotive MCU application fields such as powertrain and chassis domains, Infineon's Tircore architecture and PowerPC architecture account for a high proportion, while smart cockpits, in-vehicle entertainment and ADAS systems are mainly based on ARM architecture, and RISC-V is in its infancy.

3. Comparative analysis of chassis and power domain MCU core applications

Common MCU cores in the MCU industry include 8051, PowerPC, RISC-V open source cores, ARM authorized cores, and self-developed cores of foreign MCU manufacturers such as TriCore. In the mid-to-high-end application fields of MCUs such as automotive powertrain and chassis, PowerPC and TriCore account for a large proportion, ARM grows rapidly, and RISC-V has a layout. Relatively speaking, the TriCore core combines the real-time capability of the microcontroller, the DSP computing power and the cost-effective characteristics of the RISC load/store architecture in one core, making it more competitive. The PowerPC cores of ST and NXP are scalable, convenient and flexible, and their market share is relatively stable. After years of iteration, ARM has achieved rapid market growth with its high compatibility, strong performance, low power consumption and ecological resource advantages. Manufacturers such as NXP have gradually turned to this market.

Overall, in the mid-to-high-end MCU application fields such as automotive powertrain and chassis, TriCore and PowerPC chips are relatively mature due to their excellent performance and highly integrated characteristics. ARM's advantages mainly lie in its relatively low cost and rich ecological applications. In addition to automobiles, its major ecological markets in China are well developed and have great potential for future development.

(1) TriCore core products lead in growth

The Tircore architecture is Infineon's unique secret. AURIX TriCore integrates a RISC processor core, a microcontroller and a DSP in a single MCU. It can be said to be a fusion of the strengths of the three companies and has its own independent development ecosystem and tool chain system. Compared with its competitors, it has advantages in optimizing motor control applications and signal processing. Combined with its rich peripherals, it is also widely used in complex and high-reliability automotive electronic control products, such as internal combustion engines, electric and hybrid vehicles, transmission control units, chassis domains, braking systems, etc.

Infineon officially announced that in the TC series MCU, Infineon's chassis applications and EPS applications ranked second in market share and ranked first in passenger safety applications. According to the 2023 financial report, Infineon's total revenue from chassis and safety, powertrain, etc. reached US$2.59 billion, accounting for 15% of total revenue.

(2) ST's development in the PowerPC camp is stable, and NXP has turned to ARM

The PowerPC core is one of the product series with a relatively large proportion of MCUs in the fields of powertrain and chassis, and its future growth is relatively stable. From the perspective of major manufacturers, ST's high-performance automotive MCUs represented by the SPC58 series have been steadily iterating, and the growth in the European and Chinese auto market is relatively stable; NXP's market application focus has gradually shifted to high-growth markets such as autonomous driving, and the PowerPC architecture has stagnated in technology iteration for nearly a decade, with the main products being the S32K1 and K3 series Arm architecture products; as for emerging manufacturers, represented by China National Core Technology, the application of its Power PC architecture products has developed rapidly.

Among them, ST's PowerPC architecture automotive MCUs are mainly based on the SPC5 series, which are divided into general and high-performance categories. The application areas include gateways, electric vehicles, ADAS, engine and transmission control, body, chassis and safety.

The SPC58 series of the SPC5 series of high-performance MCUs has up to 3 cores and functional safety. It is ST's main TriCore product in chassis and powertrain that matches Infineon.

NXP was once one of the main suppliers of PowerPC architecture. Its MPC5xxx microcontrollers based on Power Architectur have obvious advantages in expansion, integration and reliability. However, the company's PowerPC architecture product iteration has stagnated in recent years. It currently mainly promotes ARM architecture products such as S32K1 and K3 series. Its marketing personnel also focus on promoting ARM architecture products. According to the summary of various information, NXP will mainly transform to ARM architecture products in the next 5-10 years.

(3) The ARM market is growing rapidly

ARM architecture chips focus on low power consumption and high cost performance. The main market is concentrated in the mobile terminal represented by mobile phones. With the demand for intelligence and cost reduction in the automotive industry, ARM architecture chips are gradually developing towards the whole chain in the automotive body domain, cockpit and autonomous driving. With the rich ecological chain and development tools, as well as the iterative optimization of process and architecture system, leading manufacturers represented by NXP and ST take the lead in launching chip products for high functional safety fields. The ARM platform MCU chip market has huge growth potential.

In general, the high market share of foreign MCU manufacturers in the automotive-grade MCU market is closely related to the important position of Japanese, European and American automobile brand manufacturers behind them in the global automotive industry chain. With the gradual rise of Chinese automobile brands, especially new energy automobile brands, it will bring long-term development support to Chinese automotive-grade MCU manufacturers.

Among them, the power and chassis domains are the parts with the highest requirements for automotive functional safety. In the short term, the PowerPC architecture, Infineon TriCore, Renesas self-developed cores, etc. will "divide the world into three parts", and in the long term, ARM may occupy a certain market, with a large overall growth space.

At the same time, with the rapid development of automobiles towards electrification, intelligence, and networking, automobiles are upgraded from traditional vehicles to intelligent and networked mobile terminals based on electricity, driving the continuous increase in automotive-grade MCUs. As the world's largest new energy vehicle market, China has reviewed the revenue and net profit growth of the top MCU manufacturers in the past decade. Automobiles are the most important driving force for the growth of MCU manufacturers' revenue scale. The overall ASP has increased rapidly with the development of automobile electrification, intelligence, and networking. There is huge room for future development of mid-to-high-end automotive MCUs.

It is worth noting that in recent years, the fields related to integrated circuits and new energy vehicles have been strongly supported by national and local policies. In 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission's "Guidelines for Key Products and Services of Strategic Emerging Industries (2016 Edition)" listed MCU as a key product of strategic emerging industries, and manufacturers with IP and independent development capabilities will become the focus of support.

In addition, international trade frictions are frequent. In the field of mid-to-high-end MCU applications such as automotive chassis and power domains, foreign manufacturers such as Infineon, NXP and ST are the main ones. In order to ensure the security of the supply chain, Chinese auto parts manufacturers and vehicle manufacturers that originally used MCU products from foreign manufacturers have gradually started the introduction of domestic MCU suppliers and gradually increased procurement from Chinese MCU manufacturers. Domestic MCU manufacturers are obviously benefiting.