PARIS – Long-time partners, Bosch Group and STMicroelectronics NV announced a licensing agreement by which Bosch will use ST's smart power and high-voltage technologies to design and manufacture highly integrated automotive products.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bosch said it would license ST's BCD8 (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) smart power technology that is claimed to allow analog, digital and power circuits to be integrated on a single chip. It is based on a 0.18-micron technology. Bosch will also license ST's BCD8 design rules, enabling the company's in-house design teams to develop products autonomously, for production in the wafer fab.

ST asserted that gate density in the logic portions of a BCD8-manufactured chip shows "a four times improvement over the previous (BCD6) technology". The power capability remains the same as in BCD6 despite the smaller lithography, and the established benefits of the technology (high-voltage capability, protection against hostile environmental events, wide temperature range and automotive-grade reliability) are maintained, the Geneva-based company further explained.

Bosch indicated that it would use ST's technology across the whole range of engine management, transmission control, occupant protection, chassis system and other applications. The HVCMOS8 high-voltage CMOS technology that Bosch is also licensing from ST is generally used in applications such as sensor interfaces and analog processing.