SFI Electronics Technology :Offering Automotive Protection Devices for Control Units

Although 2020 will be primarily remembered for the pandemic, it has also been a watershed moment for the electric vehicle (EV) industry. This has pushed EV manufacturers to better their designs in order to gain market share. To elucidate, electric vehicles no longer have an engine due to structural changes, so there is no requirement for load dump 5A. But surges are still generated by other systems (ECU) and often occur in complex vehicle environments. That’s why automotive electronic products—such as stereos and trip computers—that use a large number of microelectronics components are easily damaged by surges. In such a situation, the entire EV industry is making great strides to protect these precision electronic products from surges destruction.

Enter SFI Electronics Technology—the manufacturer of protective components in circuit.

“We started our journey in 2000 and at that time, our main products were multilayer ceramic products. Over the years, we have developed series of surge/ESD protection components with various sizes. Today, SFI is engaged in the development and sales of overvoltage protection devices,” says Dr. Lien Ching-Hong, the president at SFI Electronics Technology.

SFI’s automotive protection devices can protect various control units in automotive electronics from damage due to transient surges.

Automotive products are mainly developed and applied to suppress the load dump that often occurs in automotive power supplies. SFI is also engaged in the development and sales of overvoltage protection devices. The company’s products include multilayer varistor and also semiconductor TVS (Super new generation diode). SFI also manufactures CSPD (Chip Surge Protection Devices) products. These products are made using ceramic since it offers good surge/esd protection.

For example, for the DC-DC converter IC in automotive or linear regulators, the clamping voltage will be under 60V. To ensure reliability, the automotive requirement of surge protection is ISO7637 and ISO16750, Pulse 1 and Pulse 5b. If the surge protection is not sufficient, the automotive devices will be affected and damaged. And that’s exactly where SFI’s products shine with their better current resistance and heat dissipation capabilities.

Functioning as an IATF16949 supplier, SFI ensures that its clients receive products of the utmost quality. “We specialize in development, production, quality control, and always ensure that the best and efficient products go out,” mentions Dr. Lien. He goes on to mention that many development tendencies of varistor materials have obtained great progression and high-performance products. As a result, SFI has taken up varistor as one of the new materials that the company would be manufacturing. Not only the company can reduce the consumption of energy with varistor, but they can minimize the use of hazardous organic solvents. Therefore, it will contribute to the protection of the environment and natural resources.

SFI has also developed a series of overvoltage protection components and supplied to customers, which applies in networking, security, among others while offering high-performance products for the automotive field. The company’s excellent R&D team develops protection components with more applications, and can supply customized products as per the need of customers. This has enabled it to conduct deep research to fulfil the industry’s requirement of smaller system products with higher functionality.

What steers SFI ahead of other players is the fact that the company’s products come with Commercial General Liability Insurance for customer safety concerns. No wonder that SFI has received several patents and developed superb performance products for various applications. Going forward, the company will supply its components to the T1 automotive field. “A reliable supplier whose products perform well is what the automotive field needs now. For me, SFI is at the cusp of being the leader in this space,” concludes Dr. Lien.