Under ETC's pre-installed tuyere, domestically-made car-regulated chips have risen strongly

For a long period of time in the past, ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System) has been installed as the mainstay in the future. Starting from about 2019, spurred by policies such as the cancellation of expressway toll stations on provincial borders and the selection of ETC for new cars, the installation method of ETC has gradually shifted from rear-mounted to front-mounted, and more and more OEMs and related suppliers have Accelerate the pace of ETC pre-installation work. In the field of ETC car-regulated pre-installation chips, Broadcom Integration has become a leader among many "trends".

Based on more than ten years of R&D accumulation in the field of ETC chips, Broadcom Integration successfully launched the new car-regulated ETC chips BK5870T and BK3435T this year, entering the field of ETC pre-installation and becoming a supplier of vehicle manufacturers. Among them, BK5870T has been officially mass-produced. It is reported that this product is the first ETC chip certified by the international authoritative third-party laboratory ISE laboratory, which is of great significance for accelerating the popularization of ETC.

Policy-driven, ETC pretends to be the general trend

From the perspective of working principle, ETC mainly uses DSRC technology to allow the on-board unit OBU to communicate with the roadside unit RSU to realize non-stop toll collection. In this way, not only can the traffic restriction management be optimized, and the traffic efficiency of the road network can be greatly improved, but also the information interconnection between vehicles, roads and passengers can be promoted to improve driving safety. Therefore, this technology has been regarded as an important part of intelligent transportation in the past two years, and it has been promoted in the country.

In March 2019, the government work report clearly stated that the toll stations on provincial highways across the country should be basically cancelled within two years, and fast non-stop toll collection will be realized. Subsequently, relevant departments have issued several documents to guide various localities to accelerate the development of ETC, and put forward the requirement that the number of domestic ETC users reach 180 million by the end of 2019.

Under the guidance of this goal, the domestic ETC installation rate increased rapidly last year. According to data from the Ministry of Transport, as of December 31, 2019, the number of ETC users nationwide has exceeded 200 million, and the growth is very rapid. However, at that time, the installation method of ETC was more mainly for later installation, that is, the user went to the relevant service point to handle it after purchasing the car.

In February 2020, the new car optional ETC policy issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has provided an important boost for ETC to enter the pre-installation market from the aftermarket. On February 11 this year, the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued on the adjustment of the "Road Motor Vehicle Product Access Review Requirements", which clearly stated that from July 1, 2020, new models applying for product access should be in the optional configuration Add ETC vehicle-mounted device for users to choose and install independently. The implication is that from July 1 this year, many new cars such as passenger cars, trucks, buses and special vehicles sold in the country are likely to be pre-installed with ETC. More specifically, all new cars on the market in the future automotive field will have options. Pre-installed OBU product features, the future ETC pre-installed will be the general trend.

"What does this mean? The pre-installed OBU marks that this technology has entered the mandatory requirements of the national standard, and the product specifications have been upgraded to the level of car regulations. In the future, the product quality and brand requirements will be greatly improved." The relevant person in charge of Broadcom Integration said. "For example, in the past, after-installation OBUs required a product shelf life of 5 years, while most of the pre-installation hopes to have a lifetime warranty during the life cycle of the car, and the requirements for the process level and the probability of finished products are also higher for the front-installation OBU."



Take the core OBU chip as an example, whether it is in terms of chip design process, packaging and testing, or shipment, the pre-installation standards are more stringent than the post-installation. For example, in terms of testing, according to industry standards, the shortest time to complete a car gauge test is 145 days, including car gauge wafer production, car gauge packaging development, three-temperature test and AEC-Q100 test, the most important of which is the three-temperature cycle test , Only the high-temperature working life test requires at least 3 months, which is evident in the stringent standards. "In addition, the test project coverage of the pre-installed OBU chip is also more extensive, and the required production equipment is more advanced."

Because of this, in order to better meet the requirements of ETC pre-installation and to develop chip products that meet the requirements of car regulations, Broadcom Integration is based on more than ten years of research and development accumulation, after long-term investment, it has been fully upgraded specifically for car regulations, using the industry’s most advanced technology. The most advanced and stable technology, and the selection of experienced packaging and testing plants, the use of new test procedures for product development, so as to ensure quality shipments, and finally this year successfully launched the car certification ETC series products BK5870T and BK3435T, before enabling ETC Pack.

Compliance with car regulations is only the first step, "ETC+" is the future

As a leader in the domestic ETC chip market, Broadcom Integration has been deeply involved in the development of the ETC industry from the initial GB/T20851 national standard to the latest GB/T38444 standard, and has successively launched BK5822, BK5823, BK5824 and integrated integrated SoC BK5863, etc. A variety of products, each product's market performance is very good. At present, Jinyi Technology and Wanji Technology, among the three leading domestic ETC terminals, are both Broadcom integration customers. The company's market share has reached about 70%, and it can be described as an out-and-out leader in the ETC chip field.

This time, Broadcom integrated the new car-regulated ETC chip that is a good proof. Based on the research and development experience of ETC chips in the past ten years, the BK5870T and BK3435T on the one hand continue the advantages of the previous post-installed OBU chips in terms of stability, compatibility, and program maturity. The quality and other aspects have been improved to fully meet the vehicle regulations. Not only that, by combining these two chips with Broadcom's self-developed Bluetooth series chips to form a full range of ETC SoC solutions, it can also provide customers with a single-chip solution for the rapid and low-cost development of OBU systems to meet customer OBU systems. Secondary software development requirements.



Based on the improvement of vehicle regulations for products that are widely shipped in the after-installation market, these two products have passed the AECQ-100 certification of the international third-party laboratory ISE laboratory, whether in terms of compatibility, stability or reliability. , The performance is very good. With these advantages, Broadcom integrated related products are rapidly penetrating the field of ETC front-loading.

"Broadcom Integration's achievements today are not accomplished overnight. From the initial single RF chip to the current integrated SOC chip, Broadcom Integration has undergone 13 years of iterative product upgrades in the ETC chip field. Compared with other chip suppliers , Our chip products are more comprehensive, the application audience is wider, the process is more stable, and the shipment volume is larger. At the same time, the technology has always been far ahead and is considered to be the vane of the ETC national standard." The person in charge said. It is worth mentioning that the ETC national standard is the only national standard independently formulated by China and the only national standard that China has successfully promoted by itself. Broadcom Integration has played an important role in the formulation of relevant national standards.

"In the future, with the advancement of time and technology, China's ETC national standard will inevitably become more mature and perfect, and China's ETC industry will also go higher and farther." The person in charge pointed out. This can be glimpsed from the development trend of the automobile industry. Although the growth rate of new car production and sales in China has slowed sharply in the past two years, the number of cars per 1,000 people is still less than 200, only reaching the global average level, compared with mature markets such as Europe and the United States. There is still a lot of room for growth in the vehicle ownership level of 500-800 vehicles per 1,000 people. As a closely related industry, ETC will certainly benefit. What's more, ETC is also a key supporting technology in terms of intelligent transportation that the country is vigorously developing.

Therefore, in addition to providing relevant technical support for the ETC pre-installation market, Broadcom Integration is currently actively planning for the future. "For example, by allowing ETC technology to complement each other with 5G and V2X technologies, we will carry out relevant technical reserves in terms of technology integration. In addition, we will accumulate technology and upgrade corporate strategies in intelligent transportation and smart cities to contribute more excellent products to the industry. "In terms of intelligent transportation, it is understood that Broadcom Integration will rely on the previously developed fully integrated chip BK5863, which is suitable for my country’s ETC national standard, to extend the development of application fields such as path recognition, anti-congestion and parking lot management, and strive to develop in intelligent Further breakthroughs have been made in the transportation field, helping ETC move from a single expressway non-stop toll collection at this stage to a broader application scenario in the city to a broader application field, such as smart parking lots and assisting urban traffic management, forming the "ETC+" industry extension trend.

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Keyword：ETC   Domestic car regulation chip   Passenger car   Truck   Passenger car   Special car   Commax-Tech Electronic