Renesas anticipates that the new flash memory circuit technology will enable it to add flash memory to automotive analog devices with improved performance and reliability. This superior circuit technology makes possible the industry’s first P/E endurance of over 100 million cycles under a high junction temperature (Tj) 175°C, while also delivering low rewrite energy of 0.07 mJ/8 KB (millijoule: one thousandth of a joule) for low energy consumption.

Recently, alongside calls for improved fuel efficiency, there is demand for automobiles that offer greater interior space and comfort, which has led to an increase in the number of electronic control units (ECUs) used per vehicle. Along with the issue that automotive control is becoming more and more complicated and the complexity to control them, as result, making ECUs lighter, more power efficient, and more compact have become important issues.

In particular, the large number of compact motors used in radiators, water pumps, vehicle air conditioning systems, and the like has created a need for the integration of ECUs and the unification of mechanical and electrical elements.

Since it hitherto has not been possible to add flash memory to the automotive analog and power devices that control the high-voltage (HV) drivers used for compact motors without changing the base process used to manufacture them, the need for memory to store tuning data for optimizing the performance of analog circuits is typically addressed either by incorporating eFUSE technology or by utilizing external EEPROM chips.

The newly developed flash memory technology restrains additional process costs while providing an easy way to add flash memory to automotive analog and power devices. This means that analog circuits for connecting sensors and motors can employ devices that mix microcontroller (MCU) logic and flash memory based on the new technology. It has the potential to substantially reduce the number of chips used in motor control systems, while helping to make them more compact, lightweight, and power efficient.

The new technology will help promote ECU integration and the unification of mechanical and electrical elements and will contribute to the realization of fuel efficient automobiles with more fuel-efficiency, interior space and comfort.

Additionally, the new flash memory technology achieves over 100 million P/E cycles, making it suitable for applications such as automatic calibration or status recording using high-frequency sampling under actual usage conditions in the field. This has the potential to bring greater precision to automotive control and contribute to improved fuel economy.