Automotive MCUs are essential for powering electrical equipment security functions
Orix 2nd Generation, ASIL D Certification from External Organization
Reducing the burden of functional safety assessment on equipment manufacturers


As demand for technologies such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) increases, many electronic components are being installed in vehicles.

The role of electronic control units (ECUs) and the need for V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communication are also continuously increasing, so the trend of increasing the installation of electrical components is expected to continue.

The automobile industry's ultimate goal of commercializing autonomous vehicles is also accelerating this trend. In January, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport introduced Level 3 autonomous driving safety standards for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles, and Level 3 autonomous vehicles will be available for release and sale starting in July.

The industry predicts that Level 5 autonomous vehicles will be commercialized between 2030 and 2050. The interior of Level 5 autonomous vehicles, which require no driver intervention at all, will become a space completely unrelated to driving. The appearance of cars as we know them will gradually disappear.

But one thing never changes: cars move. Therefore, their occupants are always at risk of accidents. When it comes to automobiles, the safety of passengers is the most important value and this will never change.

We met with Hwang Geon, Executive Director of Infineon Korea Automotive Business Unit, to ask him about how the industry is currently achieving security in electrical components and what engineers must know to release electrical components with sufficient security features.

Mr. Hwang Geon, Executive Director, said, “MCU is one of the core elements of electrical components,” and “Now, automotive MCUs must be able to implement real-time computational processing functions, additional functions related to functional safety, and in-vehicle electrical component security functions.” He emphasized in-vehicle electrical component security functions that can encrypt and recover in-vehicle data in particular.


◇ Three major security features of the battlefield, “Secure boot, communication, and debug”

To implement security features, an algorithm-based hardware engine is required to implement symmetric or asymmetric keys required to encrypt and recover data within the vehicle. Hardware space to store these keys is also required.

Mr. Hwang Geon, Executive Director, explained three representative vehicle security features.

The first is Secure Boot. This is a function that checks whether the software in the device is normal whenever the device is first powered on, and only powers up the device if it is normal.

The second is Secure Communication. If data exchanged through various networks in a vehicle is tampered with due to hacking, it can cause the vehicle to malfunction. Secure Communication is a function that encrypts data to prevent this and determines who the communication subject is.

The third is Secure Debug. The debugger interface is one of the interface methods for developing and implementing MCU software. If there is no security measure in place, hackers can tamper with the software in the battlefield through the debugger interface. Secure Debug is a function that prevents this.


◇ Securing credibility and shortening development period through ASIL D certification from an external organization

The International Standard for Automotive Functional Safety, or ISO 26262, is an international automotive functional safety standard established by ISO to prevent accidents caused by electronic and electrical errors installed in automobiles. The first edition was released in 2011, and the second edition in 2018.

Since 2011, many companies have been working to manufacture electrical components that comply with ISO 26262. “If a vehicle’s steering, braking, or safety devices malfunction, it can result in a fatal accident, so they must be designed to satisfy ASIL D, the highest safety level specified in ISO 26262,” said Executive Director Hwang. “Infineon is already supplying products that are compliant with ASIL D.”

Infineon’s AURIX™ MCU family, designed for automotive applications, complies with the latest ISO 26262 standard as revised in 2018. The AURIX family consists of the first generation (AURIX TC2xx) and the second generation (AURIX TC3xx).

Mr. Hwang Geon, the executive vice president, said there was a big difference between the first and second generations in how they tested whether the safety mechanisms that detect and respond to electronic and electrical errors in the vehicle worked.

The first generation tests the operation of safety mechanisms using software. The powertrain developer must implement this software separately. This test software does not operate independently and is complex, so it inevitably takes up some of the powertrain processor performance.

On the other hand, the second generation implemented the safety mechanism test function in hardware. Engineers do not need to implement test software. It does not take up processor performance.

Mr. Hwang Geon, Executive Director, said that the ASIL D certification of the second-generation Oryx product line was obtained from an external organization (TÜV Saarland), which gave it credibility. In the case of the first-generation, there was no such official certification, so the electrical component manufacturer had to go through the functional safety assessment (Safety Audit) process with Infineon when developing the electrical components. This is a task that requires a significant amount of time and effort, but the second generation does not need to do that.


◇ Developing a high-performance MCU product line for autonomous driving

“The hottest potato in the automobile industry is autonomous driving,” said Executive Director Hwang Geon. “In order to implement autonomous driving, the processors installed in the car must automatically detect, analyze, and utilize data, so they must have high performance.”

“Infineon is developing new product lines by anticipating these market needs,” he said.