Vol. 79, No. 5, September 2024

MORI Taro

KAWAGUCHI Yusuke / KURUSHIMA Shoichiro / KOINO Seiji

Innovation activities related to CASE (connected, automated, shared and service, electric) mobility are bringing about technological transformations such as electric automobiles, advances in electrical/electronic (E/E) architectures, and enhancement of automotive cybersecurity to the automobile industry.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation is endeavoring to develop and offer a wide range of semiconductor products as key devices of in-vehicle systems aimed at achieving CASE vehicles through continuous functional and performance improvements to support the development of a mobility society in the future.

MATSUOKA Yuma / HAYASHI Masato / YOSHIKAWA Daiki

In recent years, the proliferation of electrified vehicles (xEVs) is driving demand for automotive semiconductor products. This has resulted in greater focus on insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), as a main power device for xEV traction inverters, which is required to achieve higher breakdown voltage from conventional 750 V to 1 200 V to improve xEV electricity consumption.

As a solution, Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has developed silicon (Si) IGBT products, including (1) a 750 V IGBT capable of improving the trade-off between on-voltage (V_CE(sat)) and turn-off switching loss (E_off) while maintaining sufficient tolerability by optimizing the backside structure, and (2) a 1 200 V reverse conducting IGBT (RC-IGBT) capable of improving reverse recovery energy (E_rr) through optimizing the surface structure while reducing the chip size via the RC structure.

SAITO Keita / SHIOTANI Toshio

The increased momentum toward mitigating global warming caused by air pollution has led to the rapid introduction of environmentally-friendly vehicles as typified by hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), worldwide. As the battery monitoring system (BMS) plays a key role in expanding the cruising range of these vehicles, there is an urgent need for improving the performance of multiple semiconductor devices used in BMS, such as semiconductor relays necessary for battery voltage monitoring and ground fault detection circuits, as well as reducing the size of packages in order to downsize BMS.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation  has developed photorelay and photocoupler products as part of efforts to expand its lineup of semiconductor relays for BMS. The new photorelay products feature a package design that is three-quarters the size of conventional products thanks to the use of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) chip miniaturized by optimizing the electric field strength distribution. We have confirmed that the products offer sufficient reliability through thermal cycle testing lasting 1 000 cycles, and high-temperature/high-humidity testing lasting 1 000 hours. The new photocoupler products deliver 1.9 times higher minimum open circuit voltage compared with conventional products, resulting in low-cost, compact, lightweight semiconductor relays.

KAWASE Minoru / KADONO Hiroshi

To accurately inspect the printed circuit boards (PCBs) of in-vehicle electronic equipment via automated optical inspection (AOI), ensuring the visibility of each semiconductor device mounted on the PCB is necessary to detect any failures caused in the mounting processes.

To enhance visibility in AOI for bottom-electrode packages, Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has developed a small signal package by utilizing the following technologies: (1) optimization of the step-cut dicing method by selecting dicing tape and the method of attaching dicing tape to the lead frame, and (2) establishment of a wettable flank structure method capable of forming stable solder fillets leading to enhanced solder mounting status visibility. We have also released the DFN2020(WF) package.

TERAMOTO Hayato / TAKAGI Hajime / HARADA Shigeru

As part of efforts to achieve a sustainable society, promotion of electric vehicles is accelerating worldwide to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations. This trend has led to advances in electronic control units (ECUs) playing a crucial role in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and fully autonomous driving (AD), resulting in an increasing number of ECU parts to meet the need for redundancy and assure excellent reliability and robustness.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation is now developing a power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) by integrating two MOSFET chips into a compact 2-in-1 package with superior reliability and heat dissipation in response to customer requirements to downsize ECUs. This device will make it possible to reduce the footprint of the half-bridge circuit by about 41% compared with products using the conventional 1-in-1 package.

WATANABE Hiroki / HIRAYAMA Takayuki / AIZAWA Toshimitsu

In line with the global trend toward using electric automobiles as part of carbon neutrality efforts, there is a need for low-cost, downsized on-board systems using various electric motors. Demand for compact, low-cost motor driver integrated circuits (ICs) as a key device of on-board electric motor systems has also continued to grow.

The Toshiba Group has developed the TB9M003FG, a SmartMCD™ series of integrated motor control driver (MCD) ICs with an embedded microcontroller, with mass production being handled by Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation. The TB9M003FG incorporates hardware for a single-shunt field-oriented control (FOC) and vector engine (VE) for approximately one-third the cost and area of parts for current detection compared with conventional ICs for brushless DC motor control.

KIM Taewon

With recent increases in the number of electronic components installed in vehicles, automotive network communication integrated circuits (ICs) compliant with the Local Interconnect Network (LIN) and the Clock Extension Peripheral Interface (CXPI) standards have been introduced to communicate with terminals such as in-vehicle sensors, switches, actuators, etc., as a replacement for wiring harnesses that hinder lightweight vehicle designs. However, difficulty in controlling communications when an abnormality is detected in the terminal IC and mitigating electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise generated in the bus communication signals have become issues of vital importance.

To resolve these issues, Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has developed the following automotive network technologies for CXPI communication ICs: (1) proactive abnormality detection technology to identify abnormalities that can occur in the terminal ICs in advance and (2) EMI noise waveform control technology to suppress rapid changes in bus communication voltage and current waveforms. These technologies allow electronic control units (ECUs) to control terminal IC input-output signals and are expected to reduce EMI noise by about 5 to 15 dBμV.

AKIMOTO Yosuke / WANG Ping / FUJIWARA Naoya

In recent years, carbon dioxide (CO₂) resource conversion technologies to convert CO₂ into chemical raw materials, fuels, etc.,  have garnered attention as a means of achieving a carbon-neutral society. To ensure highly efficient CO₂ resource conversion equipment, high-speed sensing of individual gas concentrations in gas mixtures emitted from equipment containing water vapor, CO₂, etc., is necessary.

Toshiba Corporation has developed new gas sensing technology capable of rapidly measuring individual concentrations in gas mixtures via multiple thermal conductivity gas sensors with different sensitivities fabricated using our proprietary microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Demonstration experiments on a prototype MEMS gas sensor module using gas mixtures containing CO₂, hydrogen (H₂), and carbon monoxide (CO), have confirmed that it can measure the concentrations of each gas more than 150 times faster than those obtained by commercial gas chromatography (GC) equipment.

TAGO Kiichiro / YAMADA Masahiro / TAKAO Yoshihiro

The Taiwan Railway Corporation (TRC) operates passenger and freight trains using its lineup of traction systems including E200, E300, E400, and E1000 electric locomotives.

To replace these aging electric locomotives, we received an order to deliver 68 units of E500 electric locomotives in 2019, delivering the first unit in August 2023. E500 incorporates the following features: (1) substantial improvements in operability and maintainability by encompassing all functions of existing electric locomotives, (2) application of a high-power auxiliary power supply system with superior reliability by adding redundancy to the main equipment, and (3) further enhancement of maintainability by employing a modular design. In addition, E500 is equipped with speed setting and brake holding functions to support passenger train operation and a regenerative brake to reduce the impact on the environment.