FrombegiMings in ignition control and entertainment, electronics is now moving towards a more prominent role in automotive systems. Today an increasing number of vehicles are equipped with electronic controls for the engine, transmission, mirrors, and so on. In many instances these systems control high current loads. Consequently the systems are dependant on the availability of solid-stateload drive circuits. This paper will review some of the unique requirements of automotive applications and show the technology approaches that can be applied to the requirements. Trade offs in terms of technology selection, MOS versus Bipolar, and structure will be discussed. IC design examples will be presented to illustrate the trade off selections for applications like high side drivers, ignition and low side drivers.The Technologies two broad categories; technologies with horizontal current flow in the power transistors, and technologies that have vertical current flows using the back of the die as the collector (drain) of the power transistor. With the first type of technology multiple power transistors may be integrated on a single device. However, for devices with vertical current flows, the output configuration is generally restricted to a single power transistor or a simple topology where the collectors (drains) of the output devices are common.These two categories can be subdivided according to the type of technology used, bipolar or mixed. The mixed technologies typically include MOS devices for logic and as the power device. Horizontal structuresA typical mixed technology using the horizontal structure for the power device is the Multipower BCD process, DMOS Power Tramlator CMOS NPN PNP D S S D G E E C E B DMOS 60 V Bipdar&CMOS 2 0 V Figure 1 -Multipower BCD Technology output topology that may be integrated. Consequently, the availability of several technologies allows the best choice in terms of both the technical characteristics and price.As the name, Multipower, implies multiple DMOS power devices may be integrated on the same chip with both the drain and source electrically isolated. It is therefore possible to make-ICs with several DMOS devices in a common source or bridge configuration. In H-bridge drivers, the body diode (drain to source) of the DMOS In general the technologies used to manufacture smart power ICs for automotiw applications can be classifisd into

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