June 24, 2024 /SemiMedia/ -- According to reports, DB Hitek, a South Korean foundry, will produce a chip for Tesla cars. The chip was designed by a US fabless chip company, which will audit DB Hitek in June and October. The June audit will be conducted by the fabless foundry alone, while Tesla will also participate in the October audit.

After the audit, DB Hitek is expected to use its bipolar-CMOD-DMOS (or BCDMOS) process to manufacture the chips. This process combines analog, logic and high-voltage devices into one chip, thereby reducing chip size, production time and cost. This process is mainly used to manufacture power management ICs.

The report pointed out that Tesla currently uses a variety of fabless and foundry chip companies to manufacture its chips. It designs its own advanced driver assistance systems and SoCs and outsources the production to Samsung foundry.

For commercial chips such as power management ICs and silicon carbide (SiC), Tesla will hand over the design workload to other fabless companies.

Another Korean foundry, SK Keyfoundry, is also manufacturing power management ICs for Tesla and plans to start production in July.