In recent years, the domestic new energy vehicle market has undergone a profound transformation, with many automakers making intelligent driving a core selling point of their new models, constantly introducing new and improved features.
In 2024, China's L2-level ADAS penetration rate saw a rapid leap, with "intelligent driving for all" and "equal access to intelligent driving" becoming hot topics in the industry. Behind this trend is an explosive growth in the number of sensors—in the first half of this year alone, nearly 60 million automotive cameras and over 15 million millimeter-wave radars were used.
However, while the industry focuses on innovative breakthroughs in intelligent driving functions, it often overlooks the key components hidden behind cameras and radars. In fact, it is those seemingly insignificant power management chips (PMICs) that form the solid foundation for the stable operation of intelligent driving systems.
In this crucial area, Southchip Technology, a domestic power management manufacturer, is at the forefront of the industry. As early as last year, Southchip Technology pioneered the release of its single-chip automotive camera PMIC series products, and has continued to expand its product line this year, further refining its product portfolio.
How has Southchip Technology been able to quickly build a complete PMIC product matrix? What are its unique technological advantages and market strategies? With these questions in mind, Semiconductor Industry Observer interviewed Zhang Wuyang, Marketing Director of Southchip Technology's Automotive Electronics Business Unit, and Li Wei, Product Line Manager of the Automotive Electronics Business Unit, to delve into the secrets of this domestic manufacturer's success.
Accumulated Strength Leads to Success:
The Secret to Rapidly Building a Complete Product Matrix
Nanxin Technology's journey into automotive-grade PMICs began in September 2023, when its first PMIC product officially entered mass production. In just one year, the company built a complete product portfolio, from peripheral components to core applications—a development speed rarely seen in the industry.
"This is actually the result of years of accumulated experience," said Zhang Wuyang, Marketing Director of Nanxin Technology's Automotive Electronics Division, in an interview. Prior to PMIC mass production, the company had already accumulated profound technical expertise and rich market experience in areas such as USB in-vehicle charging, smart cockpits, and body electronics. More importantly, the team keenly observed the development trend of the intelligent driving sector early on, predicting that the increasing penetration rate of L2.5 level ADAS would trigger an explosive growth in PMIC demand.
Back in early 2022, the domestic intelligent driving market was in a period of rapid expansion, and many companies were still observing and hesitating. However, Nanxin Technology's technical team had already begun to proactively develop its automotive-grade PMIC product line. They deeply understood that as the complexity of ADAS systems continues to rise, traditional discrete component solutions will struggle to meet the stringent requirements of high integration and high reliability, making PMICs the inevitable mainstream choice in the market.
Based on this assessment, Southchip Technology formulated a product strategy covering all scenarios from remote to ECU ends. At the remote fusion sensing level, the company provides dedicated PMICs for cameras and radar; at the ECU end, it offers supporting products such as buck-boost converters and camera protection chips. This complete solution entered the domestic market early, successfully establishing a first-mover advantage.
However, through in-depth communication with customers, Southchip discovered that the needs of different types of customers vary significantly. "We've observed that Tier 1 suppliers are placing greater emphasis on product performance—camera customers focus on image quality and prioritize PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio)," Zhang Wuyang explained. "Millimeter-wave radar customers seek higher power rail integration, while domain controller customers prioritize PMIC compatibility with different brands of MCUs."
To precisely meet these differentiated needs, Southchip Technology continues to accelerate PMIC product development and has also assembled a professional application engineering team to provide customized technical support services to various customers, ensuring the successful application of its products.
Currently, Southchip Technology's product portfolio covers multiple application scenarios: the non-functional safety SC6201Q series for surround-view applications; the functional safety SC6205Q/SC6206Q series (suitable for panoramic views), the SC6208Q series (designed specifically for in-vehicle cameras), and the SC6207Q, SC6258XQ, and SC6259XQ series for radar and MCU applications. With this, the PMIC product portfolio for the three core application areas of cameras, millimeter-wave radar, and MCUs has been basically completed.
Safety First:
The Path from ASIL B to ASIL D
For automotive power chips, safety has always been paramount, especially for ADAS systems. As a critical component of vehicle safety, functional safety is both the bare minimum and the entry requirement for automotive-grade chips.
It is understood that ASIL B in ISO 26262 requires a single-point failure rate greater than 90%, while ASIL D requires 99%. This means that engineers need to conduct detailed fault analysis during product design, using redundancy design and fault detection to avoid single-point failures.
To this end, Southchip has established a dedicated functional safety team, with senior functional safety managers working with the R&D team to develop high-safety-level chips.
"We have always prioritized safety in our R&D, especially in automotive-grade products. From the very beginning, we have made ISO 26262 certification one of our primary goals," said Li Wei, Product Line Manager of Southchip's Automotive Electronics Division. In 2023, Southchip was among the first to obtain ISO 26262 functional safety management system certification, ensuring the standardization of product development at the company level.
Currently, Southchip's SC6205Q and SC6206Q have met ASIL B requirements, while the newly released SC6258XQ and SC6259XQ products have even reached ASIL D standards—the highest level of automotive functional safety.
Creating differentiated advantages
"Compared to leading international products and domestic companies, we have established significant differentiated advantages across multiple dimensions," Zhang Wuyang stated when discussing the company's competitiveness.
From a technological perspective, Southchip Technology has achieved parity with international giants in key indicators such as charge pump technology and buck-boost technology, and in some aspects, even surpasses them. "Take our SC6207Q millimeter-wave radar PMIC and SC6208Q in-vehicle camera PMIC as examples; compared to similar products on the market, their integration level is significantly higher, which directly translates into cost advantages and system simplification advantages for customers," he added.
The advantages at the supply chain level are even more prominent. Southchip Technology's automotive-grade products largely utilize a fully domestically produced supply chain. In the current complex international environment, this advantage helps OEMs effectively accelerate development cycles and reduce supply chain risks. "In our cooperation with customers, we have found that OEMs are increasingly focusing on the stability and controllability of the supply chain, and products with a fully domestically produced supply chain have gained widespread market recognition," Zhang Wuyang said.
Service response speed is also a core competitive advantage of Southchip Technology. Unlike the standardized product strategies of international giants, Southchip can deeply customize its products to meet the specific needs of domestic customers, quickly responding to diverse application scenarios.
For Southchip, differentiating its PMIC products is the first step. With the continued evolution of intelligent driving technology, Southchip's PMICs are undergoing a profound role transformation from a "supporting role" to a "system enabler." Zhang Wuyang points out, "This transformation is not only reflected in the technology level, but more importantly, in the leap in value creation."
Taking Southchip's SC6259XQ series as an example, this product offers hundreds of configuration options for its power and logic functions, precisely meeting the personalized customization needs of domestic customers. This series of products is widely used in multiple key scenarios such as domain controllers, smart cockpits, and ADAS modules, truly playing a system-level enabling role.
"The fundamental driving force behind this role transformation is the exponential increase in the complexity of ADAS systems," he analyzes. "Traditional power management mainly undertakes the function of 'power supply,' while current PMICs need to integrate multiple functions such as intelligent monitoring, fault diagnosis, and system protection, becoming an indispensable core component of the entire intelligent driving system."
Seize the development opportunities of advanced intelligent driving
The accelerated adoption of advanced autonomous driving has fully validated Southchip Technology's strategic foresight in its early deployment of automotive-grade PMICs. However, the rapid market development also places higher demands on the company's R&D capabilities and product iteration speed.
"We believe that future competition in ADAS power chips will focus on two core directions," Zhang Wuyang envisioned. "First, the development path of PMICs towards integration, high efficiency, high security, and high reliability, which may require deep collaboration with main chips in the future; second, achieving specialized and in-depth development in other niche power supply areas."
Based on this assessment, Southchip Technology has formulated a clear development path: continuously deepening its core technologies, iterating products around key needs such as integration, efficiency improvement, and safety assurance; fully leveraging the strategic advantages of its fully domestically produced supply chain to quickly respond to market changes; and further consolidating and expanding its market leadership by deeply catering to customer needs through differentiated customized services.
Conclusion: "System Enablers" in the Era of Intelligent Driving
In the grand narrative of intelligent driving, PMICs may not be the most eye-catching player, but they are an indispensable cornerstone. Southchip Technology has proven in just over a year that Chinese companies can also achieve world-class status in this seemingly niche field.
From the mass production of the first PMIC to the establishment of a complete product matrix, from ASIL B to ASIL D technological leaps, from single products to one-stop solutions—Southchip Technology's development trajectory is a microcosm of the rise of China's automotive electronics industry. In the wave of widespread adoption of intelligent driving, such "system enablers" will play an even greater role.
Source: Semiconductor Industry Observer
