Automotive Innovation Trends and Challenges: An Interview with Dr. Burkhard Huhnke

What are the latest trends and challenges in automotive?

We sat down with Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, Vice President, Automotive. Prior to joining Synopsys in early 2018, he was SVP of product innovation and e-mobility at Volkswagen based in Silicon Valley. Dr. Huhnke also initiated the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab at Stanford University. We sat down with him to learn more about current automotive trends and challenges.

Q. Hi, Burkhard. Thanks for taking the time today to talk about automotive. It seems that the automotive industry is changing so quickly. What are the macro level changes you are seeing in automotive design today?

Burkhard Huhnke:

Innovation in automotive design is shifting from mechanical engineering to what I call SmartPhonezation. What I mean by that is, in addition to the drivetrain transitioning to fully electric, the car is becoming a complex hardware and software system with sophisticated, human-friendly user interface.  The scale of this change is similar to what we witnessed with the arrival of smartphones.

Q: What does this shift in innovation mean for car manufacturers?

Burkhard Huhnke:

Historically, car manufacturers have relied on Tier 1 suppliers for their electronic control units. Going forward, to differentiate, OEMs will need to develop their own hardware and software systems by broadening their engineering teams to include semiconductor and software designers. We are now starting to see some car makers focusing their research labs in Silicon Valley for the first time on system-on-chip design.  The center of gravity in automotive innovation is moving away from core mechanical engineering competency to complete silicon, software, and artificial intelligence competency.

Q. What role can Synopsys play in enabling this change in the automotive industry?

Burkhard Huhnke: 

Synopsys has a complete silicon-to-software solution for automotive design. We’ve been working with automotive semiconductor design houses for decades. Now we extend this collaboration throughout the car manufacturer supply chain to provide software security, automotive grade IP, and design and verification tools. We enable them to deliver state-of-the-art hardware and software in alignment with ISO 26262 functional safety requirements for their next-generation cars.

Q: Let’s dive down into the hardware design aspect a little deeper. What do you think are the major challenges for automotive system-on-chip designers today?

Burkhard Huhnke:

One of the biggest challenges for hardware design is meeting the ISO 26262 functional safety requirements for both systematic and random hardware failures. We see at least three aspects to this challenge.

Q: Can you briefly describe each of these aspects?

Burkhard Huhnke:

Certainly. First, during the system-on-chip development phase, designers must carefully consider robust software tools that avoid introducing design bugs and which can also report design bugs if they do occur. Part eight of ISO 26262 addresses confidence in the use of software tools. Synopsys works with the industry’s most trusted independent third-parties to certify our tools in the context of tool chains, so that automotive semiconductor designers can use Synopsys tools with the highest degree of confidence.

Q: Thanks. What is the second aspect?

Burkhard Huhnke:

After the chip is manufactured, the first step is to verify the correctness of the manufacturing process using built-in self-tests, or BIST. Then, these self-test mechanisms operate at key-on and increasingly during the vehicle's operation. Logic BIST is usually used to check for safety faults in device logic. Synopsys TestMAX is the industry’s first X-tolerant logic BIST solution that operates in the presence of unknown X-states and significantly increases fault coverage in less time. Synopsys TestMAX provides the on-chip infrastructure for operating the X-tolerant logic BIST at power-on or periodically during vehicle operation.

Q: And finally, can you describe the third aspect?

Burkhard Huhnke:

Once the chip is in the vehicle, functional safety mechanisms must trigger in the presence of random hardware faults and be effective in managing those faults to avoid life threatening situations. To achieve this, functional safety mechanisms must be correctly implemented and verified during the automotive hardware design phase. Synopsys’ native RTL-to-GDSII automotive solutions deliver complex functional safety analysis, implementation, and verification capabilities using the industry’s first functional safety intent to describe safety mechanism behavior early in the design flow.