LPDDR5 Unleashes Enhanced EV Functionalities in Response to Consumer Demand

The market for electric vehicles (EVs) is huge and growing at a CAGR of 24.5% to reach an estimated $980 billion by 2028↗¹. This rapid growth is spurred on by several factors:

• New legislation promoting increased tax credits for EV buyers – to the tune of $7,500 for an EV vehicle↗² purchase – is providing incentive for consumer demand.
• Shared by TIME, 53% of active shoppers say they are considering a more fuel-efficient vehicle in response to high gas prices↗ and 40% of the 2,176 people surveyed Americans by CarGuru now expect to own an electric car in the next five years, up from 32% in February and 30% last year.
• EV technology has continued to progress even through the pandemic – including advances in battery technology that promise to eliminate previous challenges with EV batteries (the new cobalt-free lithium-ion battery↗³ will “charge in seconds, last months and power over-the-air”).

Thanks to these and other market developments, Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that EVs will reach 28% of global passenger vehicle sales by 2030↗.⁴ To capitalize on this exploding market, vehicle manufacturers are introducing exciting in-car infotainment features and safety functions. These systems are more connected than ever and support 5G, over-the-air updates, in-car gaming and other advanced capabilities to meet consumer demand for premium in-car experiences, infotainment and assisted/autonomous driving safety functions. Consumers can connect their smartphones to the vehicle directly using onboard Wi-Fi sensors to access messaging, navigation, music, and other apps. And, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) provide pedestrian detection, lane departure warnings, and other critical safety functions that prevent deaths and injuries by reducing the number of accidents. These are just a few examples of new data-intensive technologies being incorporated into EVs to drive consumer demand. However, the increased data processing and power consumption of these innovative features pose significant EV design challenges. While each system carrying specialized functionality has a set power budget, the total energy capacity for EVs isn’t increasing, due to battery constraints related to rising battery costs. According to Goldman Sachs Equity Research↗⁵, the cost of EV battery-related materials is rising in parallel with electrification. The battery pack price per kWh will increase by 18% in 2022 to $160, up from $136. Meanwhile, margins are shrinking due to increasing commodity and material costs for EVs. To mitigate the impact of these trends, OEMs are looking for ways to improve power efficiencies across all systems within the vehicle – from Infotainment systems to ADAS, motor controllers, battery management systems and sensor hardware. Samsung is playing a significant role in enabling more EV functionalities and eliminating barriers to EV adoption with constant innovation in memory products for automotive use cases. Let’s take a look at Samsung’s Low Power Double Data Rate 5 (LPDDR5) DRAM memory and how this technology delivers higher performance and better power efficiency for enhanced EV functionalities. Samsung’s Next-Generation DRAM Provides Processing

Since August 2020, Samsung has been in mass production for its third-generation 10nm-class 16Gb LPDDR5, which is designed to drive further growth throughout high-speed data service applications such as those used in today’s EVs. This powerful memory solution offers data processing speeds of up to 6.4 Gbps – 1.3 times faster than previous versions. When used with the latest infrastructure innovations such as dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) and Flexible Bank Architecture, LPDDR5 can reach 50% higher bandwidth at 6400 Mbps compared to LPDDR4X’s 4266 Mbps, and can transfer up to 51.2Gb/s of data compared to the LPDDR4x’s 34Gb/s (see Figure 1). The beauty of this enhanced technology also lies in its low power consumption: it can achieve 21.7pJ/Byte –0.77x operating power compared to LPDDR4x.* By leveraging the higher power efficiency of Samsung’s LPDDR5, EVs will be better equipped to bring consumers richer experiences at no cost to battery consumption from mileage. _{*Compared LPDDR5 6400 with LPDDR4x 4266 under the circumstance of DVFS 0.9V Peripheral/1.05V Core.}

Below is a product feature and performance comparison between the last generation of DRAM and Samsung’s LPDDR5.

The Future of Mobility is Bright From premium in-vehicle entertainment, to connected driving, improved road safety and autonomous driving capabilities, the future of EVs promises endless possibilities. Samsung will be instrumental in removing barriers to progress, with memory products that support the rapid, high-bandwidth data transfers necessary to bring these innovations to market, without compromising on energy efficiency. Learn more about Samsung’s solutions for Automotive, including the new LPDDR5 for mobile and automotive applications.

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_{¹ The report, Electric Vehicle Market Size, analyzes various factors and their implications on the electric vehicle market’s growth. ² Vehicles must cost below $80,000 to qualify for the tax credits. ³ NAWA Technologies designed and patented an Ultra Fast Carbon Electrode, which could be a game-changer in the battery market. ⁴ Recent figures show that there are over 5.6 million EVs worldwide — up 64% since 2018. ⁵ Goldman Sachs’s 2022 global auto sales volume outlook shows a decrease of -2.1% YoY.}