Dongbu HiTek to manufacture automotive Ethernet ICs

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Dongbu HiTek has been qualified by Micrel Inc. to manufacture automotive Ethernet ICs in concert with the rigorous ISO/TS16949 quality standard.

The Korean foundry’s initial support will focus on Micrel-designed chips at the 0.18-micron node for automotive networking and diagnostics applications. Micrel is an industry leader in analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions products that include advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs.

“We’re very pleased to win approval to manufacture automotive Ethernet ICs for Micrel Inc., the world’s first company to deliver Ethernet devices qualified for use in automobiles per AEC-Q100,” said Y.J. Lee, VP/GM Dongbu HiTek’s Mixed-Signal Foundry Business Unit. “Our unrelenting discipline to ensure the highest quality levels combined with our special process technologies is making Dongbu HiTek a preferred foundry for Tier-1 suppliers to the automotive industry.”

“As a foundry partner, Dongbu HiTek, is very supportive of our automotive Ethernet business,” said Richard Zelenka, VP Quality Assurance, Micrel. “Dongbu HiTek has demonstrated they are able to meet the demanding requirements of the automotive industry.”

The automobile continues to be a voracious user of semiconductor technology. By some estimates, today’s automobiles can deploy up to 100 processors plus a wide array of peripheral chips. Moreover, the worldwide market for automotive semiconductors is expected to grow from about $25 billion this year to nearly $30 billion in 2012 according to Databeans research.

The utilization of open-platform Ethernet devices promises significant advances in performance, flexibility and cost savings over the CAN (Controller Area Network) and MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) systems that have been widely deployed by major automobile manufacturers.

Dongbu HiTek’s specialized foundry capabilities to manufacture ICs for automotive environments carries with it opportunities to deliver higher value to customers. Unlike ICs designed for commercial applications such as computers and mobile phones, those destined for harsh automotive environments must be designed to tighter specifications and manufactured to operate reliably over a much wider temperature range (from minus 40 to plus 105-deg C instead of 0˚C to 85˚C) while specifying a longer product life (15 years instead of 10 years).