System basis chip

A system basis chip (SBC) is an integrated circuit that includes various functions of automotive electronic control units (ECU) on a single die.^[1][2]

Example partitioning of a system basis chip with bus interfaces (green), central logic (yellow), and outputs (red) for voltage regulators (LDO), high-side, and low-side switches (HS, LS)

It typically includes a mixture between digital standard functionality like communication bus interfaces and analog or power functionality, denoted as smart power. Therefore, SBCs are based on special smart power technology platforms.

The embedded functions may include:

• Voltage regulators
• Supervision functions
• Reset generators,
• Watchdog functions
• Bus interfaces, like Local Interconnect Network (LIN), CAN bus
• Wake-up logic
• Power switches

The complexity range for SBC starts with rather simple hardwired devices to configurable state-machine controlled devices (e.g. through a serial peripheral interface).

Various major automotive semiconductor manufacturers offer SBCs.

References

1. Chen, Wayne; Trichy, Narasimhan; Soundarapandian, Kannan; Pendharkar, Sameer; Carpenter, John; Kohout, James (2005). Experiences and Challenges of CAN Transceivers in Upintegrated System Basis Chips (PDF). International CAN Conference. Dallas, Texas. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 Oct 2023. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
2. Robert Bosch (Hrsg): Autoelektrik Autoelektronik. 5. Auflage. Vieweg & Sohn Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-528-23872-8 (in german)