18 Chinese Automotive-Grade Chip Manufacturers You May Want to Get to Know

Technology Author: Yanbing Gao Sep 08, 2022 10:05 AM (GMT+8)

The chip has been seen as a guidepost for technological product iterations and the key to the future. As for intelligent vehicles, chips are the core original component underpinning.

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Automotive-grade chips are vital for smart cars. They work like brains to control all the behavior of cars. Nowadays, vehicles are becoming increasingly intelligent and have made advancements in self-driving, digitalization and electrification. Assisted by deep learning algorithms and stronger data processing capability, automotive-grade chips are becoming particularly crucial for cars.

1.Axera Tech

Axera Tech(Chinese:爱芯元智) is an AI Vision chip R&D and basic computing platform founded in 2019. It is a high-tech semiconductor company focused on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) SoCs for computer vision applications. It has independently developed neural network processors for inference acceleration. Chips with superior AI inference capabilities it produces facilitate the extension of AI intelligence from the cloud to the edge and further to the end devices, suitable for AIoT applications including smart cities, smart transportation, smart manufacturing and smart homes.

2. Genesys

Genesys Microelectronics(Chinese:复睿微电子) is an EV cockpit and Autonomous Driving chipset solution provider established in 2022. Genesys was backed by Fosun Group, a Fortune Global 200 company. It has focused on the research and development of automotive smart cockpit and ADAS chips and. It has been dedicated to providing high-performance chip-based solutions for automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, general computing and other fields. With the advanced chip design capability and artificial intelligence algorithm, it aims to promote the innovative development of the automobile industry and improve people's travel experience through the underlying technology empowerment. 

3.SiEngine Technology 

SiEngine Technology (Chinese:芯擎科技), established in 2018, is an automotive electronic chip developer focusing on the design, development and sales of advanced automotive SoC. It has three product lines: Intelligent Cockpit Chips, Automated Driving Chips and Vehicle Central Processing Unit Chips. In 2021, it released the intelligent cockpit chip “DragonHawk 1”, the only 7nm chip produced by TSMC in China, that will enter mass production in the third quarter of 2022 and will be loaded in the planned amount before the end of 2022.

4.SemiDrive

SemiDrive(Chinse:芯驰科技), founded in 2018, is first China’s company to receive ISO 26262 Functional Safety Certification from TÜV Rheinland. SemiDrive Technology has focused on providing high-performance and high-reliability automotive-grade chips and is also the first provider of “full-scenario and platform-based” chip products and technical solutions in the world. Its products include intelligent e-cockpits, autonomous driving, gateways and MCUs, and cover the most core chip categories of automotive electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture in the future.

5. Hexintek

He Xin Da Science and Technology Co., Ltd.(Hexintek, Chinese:核芯达科技) was founded by a veteran of the semiconductor industry, Shenwei Li, together with BAIC Capital, Imagination and Cuiwei Tower in 2020. It is the first automotive chip design company established by a Chinese state-owned vehicle manufacturer in a joint venture with an international chip giant. It has focused on the development of application processors for autonomous driving and chips for intelligent cockpits, providing advanced solutions for domestic car companies in the field of automotive chips.

6. Thorsianway

Suzhou Thorsianway Co., Ltd.(Thorsianway, Chinese:苏州速显微电子科技), founded in 2015, Thorsianway, is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the design of automotive LCD instrument display control chips and systems and providing a complete autonomous solution for the underlying chip GPU architecture, real-time operating system and codeless secondary development toolchain. Its main product is the LCD instrument panel, which is used to replace the traditional mechanical instrument panel.

7. NOVAUTO

NOVAUTO(Chinese:超星未来), founded in 2019, is an intelligent driving computing platform solution provider dedicated to providing open, efficient, flexible and convenient intelligent driving sensing and control platform for customers in the global automotive industry. It has successfully launched several products such as an intelligent driving computing platform, automatic model optimization tool software, point cloud algorithm optimization deployment tool, custom acceleration IP library and highly reliable system middleware. It has entered into commercial partnerships with OEMs, head Tier1, and L4 autonomous driving solution customers.

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8. ARCOSEMI

ARCOSEMI(Chinese:圭步半导体), founded in 2021, is a high-tech enterprise focusing on millimeter wave RF circuit design and simulation, and radar chip system architecture design. The company has been dedicated to independently developing high precision 4D millimeter-wave radar chip (77GHz) for intelligent driving, based on the application field of vehicle automatic/assisted driving, to build an SoC single-chip solution integrating millimeter wave RF transceiver system, baseband algorithm and antenna, to fill the increasing gap of domestic market demand for millimeter wave radar chip.

9. Calterah

Calterah(Chinese:加特兰微电科技) is a millimeter wave radar chip provider founded in 2014. It has focused on the R&D and design of CMOS process millimeter wave radar chips, and took the lead in mass production of CMOS process 77/79GHz millimeter wave RF chips in 2017, becoming the first company in the world to mass produce CMOS process 77GHz millimeter wave radar single chip. In 2021, its Alps series radar SoC chips successfully passed the audit and evaluation by TÜV Rheinland, becoming the first domestic chip product to fully comply with ISO 26262 standard and obtain third-party certification, reaching the ASIL-B level.

10. IC Valley Microelectronics

IC Valley Microelectronics (Chinese:芯谷微电子) is a microwave integrated circuit designer and developer founded in 2014. It is dedicated to the development and production of microwave and millimeter wave chips. Based on advanced and stable GaAs (gallium arsenide) and GaN (gallium nitride) process lines at home and abroad, IC Valley Microelectronics has a strong design, development and mass production capacity for products in the DC-110G frequency range, such as low noise amplifiers, ultra-wideband power amplifiers, high linear power amplifiers, and high power GaN die.

11. Micro Creative

Micro Creative(Chinese:微度芯创), established in 2017, Microdotec is a CMOS millimeter-wave/terahertz chip and radar module designer and manufacturer, with main application areas including pan-IoT, security and automotive electronics. The company launched 76-81GHz Aries and the corresponding Aries AIP (Antenna-in-Package) chips to penetrate into the pan-IoT (industrial level meter, intelligent transportation, etc.) and security fields. It also launched the first domestic turnkey solution of 2D MIMO array security imaging products based on the Aries-AIP chip, providing customers with high definition, high frame rate, high-speed scanning intelligent millimeter wave security equipment, which has been used in many domestic large-scale events, public security and other areas of pilot applications.

12. ICLEGEND MICRO

ICLEGEND MICRO(Chinese:南京矽典微系统有限公司) is a smart millimeter wave sensor company, established in 2018. It is committed to intelligent RF technology, and the R&D of high-performance chips of wireless technology, aiming to accelerate the productization of high-end RF chip technology. Its products have been widely used in the wireless field such as millimeter wave sensors, next-generation mobile communication, and satellite communication.

13. CHIPWAYS

Chipways Communications Technology Co., Ltd.(CHIPWAYS, Chinese:上海琪埔维半导体有限公司) is an automotive semiconductor chip design company focusing on the development and sales of automotive intelligent core chips. It has a series of key core technologies for intelligent automotive sensing and control chips and has obtained a number of patents. The company now has a series of mass production products such as automotive-grade Hall sensors, automotive-grade microcontroller MCU, BMS AFE for new energy vehicle multi-battery pack monitor, digital isolated communication interface chip, V2X chip for intelligent networked vehicles, etc.

14. BYD

BYD(Chinese:比亚迪) is a high-tech company founded in 1995. The company has established over 30 industrial parks worldwide by now and has played a significant role in industries related to electronics, automobiles, new energy and rail transit. BYD Semiconductor, a subsidiary of BYD, entered the field of industrial MCUin 2007. It soon extended from industrial-grade MCU across to automotive-grade MCU, and took the lead in launching the first generation of 8-bit automotive-grade MCU chips in 2018 and issued the first generation of 32-bit automotive-grade MCU chips in 2019, which were loaded in BYD's full series of models in batch to realize the overall intelligence of the car. BYD Semiconductor has shipped more than 2 billion units of automotive and industrial grade MCU chips so far.

15. Huada Semiconductor

Huada Semiconductor(HDSC, Chinese:华大半导体), a professional IC development platform company under China Electronics Corporation (CEC), has focused on the three major application areas of automotive electronics, industrial control and Internet of Things and the layout of control chips, power semiconductors, high-end analog chips and security chips, forming a competitive product matrix and comprehensive solutions. As a domestic ultra-low-power MCU manufacturer with the largest shipments founded in 2014, it launched HC32F4A0 in 2021, which is the second mass production chip of HDSC's high-performance MCU after HC32F460. HC32F4A0 has been applied in glycated hemoglobin analyzers, 3D printers, short wave therapy devices, robots, industrial inverters, etc.

16. Sine Microelectronics

Sine Microelectronics(Chinese:赛腾微电子) is an automotive electronics chips manufacturer founded in 2016. It has built three major product arrays, including automotive MCUs, MCU+Power combinations and total solutions based on its own chips "MCU+", to meet the needs of car manufacturers and their Tier-I/II suppliers in all aspects. The total number of chips shipped for automotive front-end installation is tens of millions, covering the car body, cabin and new energy vehicle power fields, and the number of car manufacturers and models supplied is among the highest in China. In addition to the automotive electronics field, Seton Micro's MCU + power device portfolio is also widely used in industrial and consumer electronics, especially in motor control, intelligent lamps and lanterns and wireless charging.

17. CVA Chip

CVA Chip(Chinese:曦华科技) is a fabless semiconductor company established in 2018. It has focused on designing sensors and edge computing chips for mobile phone, IoT and automotive markets. CVA’s domain expertise includes human-machine interface (HMI), mixed-signal design, and complex SOC (System-On-Chip). The current product portfolio includes proximity sensors, capacitive touch sensors, pressure sensors, and smart scaler chips. The company covers 32-bit automotive MCU chips, intelligent decoding Scaler chips, 5G SAR chips, TWS Touch chips and other products, five chips have entered the mass production stage.

18. AutoChips Inc

AutoChips Inc.(Chinese:杰发科技) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Navinfo Co., Ltd. (002405, SZ). Established in 2013, AutoChips Inc has focused on the development and design of automotive electronic chips and related systems and provided the SoC and all-in-one solutions including IVI(In-Vehicle Infotainment), Telematics, ADAS and Intelligent cockpit for the global automotive electronics industry. Its wide range of solutions including Body Control Module, Body Safety Module, and Vehicle Gateway MCU has been successfully launched onto the market. Its products are widely used by Tier 1 customers and automotive manufacturers, earning positive feedback.