Can i use Industrial Grade microcontroller in automotive product? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jtronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 12:54:40 pm
content: I would like to know what is the difference between industrial and automotive grade microcontroller?Can i use industrial grade microcontroller in automotive product??Microcontroller is LPC1788

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 01:04:04 pm
content: Usually the difference is the temperature range. Check the datasheet.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 01:06:31 pm
content: For silicon, industrial usually just means the device operates over a wider temperature range than consumer devices. Automotive means the devices have undergone extensive qualification against named automotive specifications.If you are making an after market product, that is not safety related, you can do pretty much what you like. If you are making something safety related, or pretty much anything to be supplied to a car maker, you will need to use devices which have specifically passed automotive qualification.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 03:59:19 pm
content: Just what coppice said.There is much more to automotive qualification than just temperature!If you intend to release a product to market, it will have to get certified one way or another, even if it's a gadget - then it would be auto-certified (meaning that you take the whole responsibility, by the way). You have to assess what the potential risks of a failure are. If you are 100% certain that no harm whatsoever either to the vehicle or to its passengers can be a consequence of a failure, then fine. You can use industrial or even commercial-grade components.Just remember that even if the product is not directly safety-related, it may compromise safety in some cases: let's take a very simple example and say your device fails and catches fire as a consequence. If this device is clearly marketed for automotive use, then you might get into a lot of extra legal trouble if you didn't use automotive qualified parts unless you have documented a very solid reason why you didn't and additionally can prove that it wouldn't have made a difference. Not necessarily trivial.

author: pelule
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 04:40:41 pm
content: Temperature specification may, but mustn't be different.Some manufactures specifiy the same temp-range for industrial and automotive parts.So let's have a more detailed view to the typical difference between an industrial and an automotive grade (AU) products.Usually it starts already during the waver production/testing.For AU products usually the chips at the outermost area of a wafer a not used (highest potential of failures) as well the chips around a defect detected chip are not used.After assembly (bonding, molding) the AU products are tested with some additional/extended test (or narrow test limits).The AEC-Q101 requests to take some parts from each production lot and do additional tests/analysis like CEM, XRAY to verify the production quality of the lot. If there are detected abnormallies, the lot is blocked (Q-Block) and the parts are checked more detailed before they are released for shipment.All production data is recorded and could be documented to the end user in case of a later potential issue (PPAP).All over all this AU-grade products have a significiant higher level of liability and a traceable quality. This additional handling creates extra costs - thus AU grade parts have a higher price.That's the reason why the big car manufactors request the use of AEC-Q101 parts down to the semiconductors/chip level./PeLuLe