AEC-Q100 vs ASILD

[Vindhyachal.takniki]

SOme IC are AEC-Q100 while some as ASIL-D
Whats the difference?

[sigma_xi]

To my understanding, ASIL-D and AEC-Q100 are both related to dependability, but their meaning is completely different.

AEC-Q100 is a standard specifying the quality of individual components to such an extent that they can be applied in the automotive industry without extensive testing (that would otherwise be necessary). Citing from Wikipedia:
``Components meeting these specifications are suitable for use in the harsh automotive environment without additional component-level qualification testing.''

ASIL-D is a classification of hazardous events that can occur in any part of your system, and is related to how you deal with them to avoid life-threatening situations. As such, "ASIL-D" is not a characteristic or standard of a single component. However, in order to meet the requirements of ASIL-D (or any other ASIL level) at the system level, the ICs used in your system have to provide certain functionalities. Take for example the NXP MVR5510AMBA4ES power management IC (which I randomly picked from DigiKey). In the general description section of the datasheet it says: ``The VR5510 includes enhanced safety features with fail-safe outputs'' . These fail-safe outputs help in achieving compliance with ASIL-D. Otherwise, you would have to include additional measures in the system to make the power management dependable.

In a nutshell: AEC-Q100 is a quality standard for components, whereas components tagged with ASIL-D include additional functionalities that help you build a highly dependable system. In general, dependability is more than just reliability (i.e. component quality).