TechInsights Teardown: Bosch Automotive Infotainment Unit

Infotainment has become a huge part of the automotive industry as more features have been added to vehicles over the years to satisfy consumer need for entertainment, navigation and connectivity.

Nearly every new model of vehicle has some type of infotainment source inside the car whether it be navigation directions, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity for internet-enabled devices or media streaming of services such as Netflix or Hulu.

Infotainment units include a host of features from a variety of internet connectivity solutions to satellite for radio services.

The Bosch Infotainment unit includes the processors, memory and subsystems that enable these features inside vehicles. What follows is a partial deep dive into the infotainment system from TechInsights.

Summary points

• Quad-core Arm automotive applications processor
• 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM
• 64 GB MLC NAND Flash

Target market: Automotive

Released: September 2020

Pricing: $3,250

Availability: Worldwide

The main board of the Bosch Infotainment Unit includes the main processing power and memory of the device to power functions. Source: TechInsights

Main board

The main board houses the control functions of the infotainment unit including DDR3 SDRAM from Micron Technology, NXP Semiconductor’s automotive applications processor and a 32-bit microcontroller from Renesas. Other electronic components include:

• Nexperia’s dual Schmitt-trigger inverter and quad 2-input and gate
• Maxim’s 3A slap-down DC-DC converter
• Infineon’s 120 mA LDO regulator
• Texas Instruments’ dual synchronous slap-down controller
• On Semiconductor’s LDO regulators
• Macronix serial flash memory
• ST Microelectronics’ operational amplifier

(Learn more about microcontrollers on Globalspec.com)

The auxiliary board of the contains the touchboard and LED controls for the entire Bosch Infotainment Unit. Source: TechInsights

Auxiliary board

The auxiliary board of the Bosch Infotainment unit contains the touchscreen controller from Infineon and the LED drivers, LDO regulators and MOSFETs from Rohm.

(Learn more about discrete components on Globalspec.com)

The satellite board contains the electronics components that are used to connect satellite radio to vehicles. Source: TechInsights

Satellite radio board

The satellite radio board of Bosch Infotainment unit includes the electronic components that are needed to allow for satellite connections inside the car. The electronic components include:

• Micron’s DDR3L SDRAM memory
• Satellite radio receiver and EEPROM memory from ST Microelectronics
• Maxim’s quad step-down DC-DC converter
• Satellite digital radio RF front-end from Analog Devices
• Serial flash memory from ISSI

(Learn more about flash memory chips on Globalspec.com)

The complete components of the Bosch Infotainment Unit after the teardown. Source: TechInsights

Manufacturing cost breakdown

• Integrated circuits — $83.60
• Modules, discretes and connectors — $48.28
• Display subsystem — $44.24
• Non-electronic parts — $43.47
• Other subsystems — $32.17
• Substrates — $19.98
• Component insertion — $13.20
• Card test — $4.46
• Final assembly and test — $2.15