Products & Workflows
Process and device physics, from simulation to the fab floor
EDA tools, licensed IP, verification and enablement
Why Silvaco
Solutions
Resources
TCAD
Analog and Custom Design
Parasitic Extraction
SPICE Simulation
Variation and Yield
The Simulation Standard
Technical journalFoundry support
Process Design KitsSupport and Downloads
Partners
TCAD
Lithography
Plasma
Circuit Simulation
Analog and Custom IC
Design IP
Automotive semiconductor content splits into three engineering problems that rarely share a team. Power conversion in the electric and hybrid drivetrain. Displays in the cabin. And the SoCs and control units that run the rest of the car, talking to each other over CAN, LIN and FlexRay.
A phone chip can be tuned for the average case. A vehicle chip gets judged on the worst one. Your part has to keep working through heat and electrical faults for the life of the car. Any function that touches safety also needs an ISO 26262 argument, graded ASIL A through ASIL D. That changes how you simulate the device, and what evidence your IP supplier owes you.
Start from the part you're building. The device simulation and the IP come from one vendor, so a program that spans all three has one supplier to qualify.
Take SiC, GaN and silicon drivetrain devices from process concept to a SPICE model. The TCAD power device flow hands your circuit team a model it can use.
Develop OLED, TFT, LCD and microLED panels for the dashboard and cabin. Device physics, circuit simulation and extraction run in one display flow.
License Design IP that's already running in volume production, including controllers built for your functional safety case.
Each device area has its own physics. Qualification and functional safety cut across all of them.
Diodes, SiC MOSFETs and GaN HEMTs for electric and hybrid drivetrains. Each one is simulated as a process and as a device. It leaves as a compact model before you commit a wafer lot.
Cabin panels on a-Si, LTPS or IGZO TFT backplanes, carrying OLED, LCD or microLED, and verified at full-panel scale.
Silvaco's in-vehicle network controllers cover CAN, CAN FD, LIN and FlexRay, with more than a billion units behind them. You set each one's gate count through the configuration you choose. For cameras and radar, Mixel's ASIL-B MIPI D-PHY CSI-2 IP already sits inside automotive radar processors.
Find the weak point in simulation, before qualification testing finds it on silicon. TCAD shows how your device behaves at temperature, as it self-heats and as it ages. It also covers unclamped inductive switching outside the safe operating area.
On the IP side, the evidence ships with the block. The networking controllers count as Proven in Use under Part 8 of ISO 26262. Mixel's MIPI IP comes with a safety manual and functional safety deliverables. It's designed to support AEC-Q100 Grade 1.
From the traction device to the safety case.
Your safety case is only as strong as the evidence behind each block. Start with the record.
Integrated Mixel's ASIL-B MIPI D-PHY CSI-2 TX and RX IP into its automotive radar processors and MMICs. A safety manual and certified safety deliverables came with it.
“We needed a MIPI IP provider that could support our strict automotive requirements to further our radar portfolio and enable efficient and scalable ADAS architecture solutions.”
Peter Gulden, EVP Radar Systems and Software, indie
Chose Silvaco's FlexCAN IP as the networking backbone for its latest automotive ASIC. The controller complies with ISO 11898-1 and supports CAN FD.
“Silvaco’s industry-proven FlexCAN IP efficiently supports our pursuit of innovation and excellence.”
C.H. Chien, VP of R&D, Faraday Technology
Each automotive controller's grades and safety status, plus the MIPI PHY IP used in safety-critical radar.
The automotive communication IP portfolio, the standards it meets, and where it sits against ISO 26262 safety integrity levels.
Why a GaN power HEMT's ruggedness outside the safe operating area belongs in qualification, and how to simulate it.
Dynamic RDS(on), leakage and breakdown predicted in TCAD, with machine learning to explore the design space.
A traction device, a cabin panel or a safety-relevant SoC? Name the part and the safety level it needs. Our engineers will point you to the flow or the IP that fits, with the safety evidence behind it.
The vehicle sets a harder bar than consumer electronics. Parts face heat, self-heating and electrical faults over a long service life, and safety-relevant functions must fit an ISO 26262 case. So reliability work starts in TCAD, and IP gets chosen for its safety evidence as well as its function.
ISO 26262 is the functional safety standard for road vehicles, grading safety functions from ASIL A, the least demanding, to ASIL D, the most. For IP, selection becomes a question of evidence. That means a service record accepted under Part 8 Proven in Use, or certified development processes with a safety manual and deliverables.
The TCAD power device flow covers them end to end. You build SiC, GaN or silicon devices in virtual fabrication, simulate their electrical, thermal and reliability behavior, then extract a SPICE model and check it in a circuit. Victory Process, Victory Device, Utmost IV and SmartSpice handle those four steps.
The same way as any modern display: pixel device first, verified panel last. Engineers simulate the TFT backplane and the emitter and extract compact models, then simulate, lay out, extract and verify the full panel. Silvaco's display flow covers a-Si, LTPS and IGZO TFTs alongside OLED and microLED emitters.
Two families. Automotive networking IP covers CAN, CAN FD, LIN and FlexRay through controllers that hold ISO 26262 Proven in Use status, and over one billion units have shipped to date. From Silvaco's Mixel product line, Mixel IP includes an ASIL-B D-PHY CSI-2 TX and RX pair, already integrated into automotive radar processors.
On silicon, against stress tests such as AEC-Q100 for integrated circuits. TCAD gets you ready by showing where a device weakens at high temperature or under unclamped inductive switching, so you fix weak points before any parts exist. For IP, Mixel's MIPI blocks target AEC-Q100 Grade 1.