According to Gartner statistics, in the application field of automotive semiconductor market in 2018, the market value of Body (body) was the largest at USD 7.37 billion. With the increasing demand for safe assisted driving, the market value of ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) is expected to be USD 7.75 billion in 2020, which will surpass Infotainment (audio-visual entertainment multimedia) with a market value of USD 6.72 billion to become the second largest application. The market value of ADAS in 2021 is expected to be 10.95 billion U.S. dollars, and Body, which has a market value of 9.68 billion U.S. dollars, will become the largest product application market for automotive semiconductors. In 2023, the market size of ADAS will rise to 16.69 billion U.S. dollars.

1. Business opportunities in the global automotive semiconductor market continue to rise

According to Gartner statistics, in the application field of automotive semiconductor market in 2018, the market value of Body (body) was the largest at USD 7.37 billion. With the increasing demand for safe assisted driving, the market value of ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) is expected to be USD 7.75 billion in 2020, which will surpass Infotainment (audio-visual entertainment multimedia) with a market value of USD 6.72 billion to become the second largest application. The market value of ADAS in 2021 is expected to be 10.95 billion U.S. dollars, and Body, which has a market value of 9.68 billion U.S. dollars, will become the largest product application market for automotive semiconductors. In 2023, the market size of ADAS will rise to 16.69 billion U.S. dollars.

Based on the analysis of future growth momentum, among the nine categories of automotive electronic products, the top three with a compound growth rate from 2018 to 2023 are ADAS: 26.5%, EV/HEV (electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle): 22.0%, Instrument Cluster ( Dashboard): 11.4%, of which ADAS has the highest growth rate. The expansion of business opportunities in the ADAS market is not only caused by popular demand, but also the mandatory installation of ADAS products in various countries is another force behind the demand.

Figure 1 The global automotive semiconductor application market trend from 2018 to 2023

Source: Gartner (2019/07)
Figure 1 2018-2023 Global Automotive Semiconductor Application Market Trend

Figure 2 The automotive electronic semiconductor market in 2023 and the application market CAGR of automotive semiconductors from 2018 to 2023

Source: Gartner (2019/07)
Figure 2 The automotive electronic semiconductor market in 2023 and the application market CAGR of automotive semiconductor in 2018-2023
 

2. Analysis of current situation and major events of automotive semiconductor manufacturers
 

The major suppliers in the global automotive semiconductor market include NXP Semiconductors (NXP), Infineon Technology (Infineon), Renesas Electronics (Renesas) and Texas Instruments (TI). According to Strategy Analytics statistics, in 2018, the global automotive semiconductor manufacturers market share rankings, the first NXP Semiconductors (NXP) market accounted for 12.0%, the second Infineon Technology (Infineon) market accounted for 11.2%, and the third place Renesas City accounted for 8.9%, Texas Instruments (TI) City ranked fourth with 8.2%, STMicroelectronics City ranked fifth with 7.6%, Bosch City ranked sixth with 5.4%, and Anson ranked seventh. ON Semiconductor market accounted for 4.9%, eighth place Rohm semiconductor (Rohm) market accounted for 2.8%, ninth place Analog Devices (ADI) market accounted for 2.6%, tenth place Toshiba company (Toshiba) market accounted for 2.6%, the top ten cities account for a total of 66.2%, which has reached 2/3 of the global market. The following will analyze the recent mergers and acquisitions of automotive semiconductor manufacturers.

(1) NXP acquired Marvell to strengthen its wireless connection technology

NXP Semiconductors ranks first in global automotive semiconductors, and automotive electronics accounted for 48% of its 2018 revenue, which is the main source of revenue. NXP's strengths lie in the automotive semiconductor field, especially in the field of sensor chips and automotive microcontrollers. NXP's product line is quite complete, from automotive analog/RF/DSP, automotive microcontroller market, commercial automotive MEMS sensors, to automotive audio-visual entertainment multimedia, automotive security access control, body and vehicle network, security, power Transmission systems, etc., have product portfolios.

In May 2019, NXP announced that it would acquire Marvell’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip portfolio business for US$1.76 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the first quarter of 2020. After the acquisition, NXP will sell Marvell to customers Wireless networking products include WiFi, Bluetooth, and edge computing platforms required by the industrial, automotive, and communications industries. Marvell is the world’s leading wireless communications manufacturer, and the key to achieving the Internet of Things is wireless communications technology. This is also the key reason why NXP is optimistic about Marvell. NXP’s acquisition of Marvell’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip portfolio business will strengthen its presence in the Internet of Things. The status of the industry and technical reserves also mean that NXP will focus on the field of Internet of Vehicles.

(2) Infineon's acquisition of Cypress to enhance competitiveness

Infineon has a global leading position in automotive semiconductors, power semiconductors, and safety controllers. According to Infineon’s market plan, autonomous driving and electric vehicles will still be Infineon’s main focus in 2019. In terms of semiconductors, Infineon's products have been focusing on two major aspects: sensors and microprocessors.

Cypress has a differentiated product portfolio such as microcontrollers, software, and connection components. Cypress’s development focus in the automotive market includes five major areas including V2X, body electronics, instrument panels, ADAS, and infotainment systems. field. Among them, Cypress has an absolute leading position and advantage for the application of general storage components in the automotive market. Its products are widely used by various car manufacturers or component factories, and it has a huge market share in ADAS systems. rate. In addition, Cypress also has a layout in the field of Internet of Things. After its acquisition of Broadcom's wireless Internet of Things business unit, Cypress has been in the leading position in the wireless WiFi/Bluetooth chip market ranking.

On June 3, 2019, Infineon spent 9 billion euros to acquire Cypress of the United States, hoping to strengthen its competitiveness through the synergy of mergers and acquisitions, provide customers with the most comprehensive product portfolio, and expand its The potential for growth in the automotive and Internet of Things fields. After the acquisition of Cypress, Infineon will be able to provide more comprehensive and advanced solutions for high-growth applications in the automotive industry, such as electric vehicle motors, battery-powered devices, and power supplies, because of the combination of the technical advantages and resources of both parties. Infineon's expertise in the security field, coupled with Cypress's connection technology, will enable Infineon to accelerate its future expansion in automotive and IoT applications.
 

Based on the above analysis, Infineon’s acquisition of Cypress also values ​​its advantages in automobiles and the Internet of Things. In particular, the two parties have a certain complementary role in automotive technologies such as ADAS, instrument panels, and automotive power devices. After this acquisition, Infineon will also expand its layout in autonomous vehicles, and enhance its ability to compete with NXP, Renesas, and ST in ADAS applications, which will also make Infineon the eighth largest in the world The chip manufacturer has become the largest supplier of automotive semiconductors.
 

(3) Intel's acquisition of Mobileye to deploy self-driving cars
 

Intel is actively expanding the automotive market to acquire Altera and Mobileye as a key step in the layout of the autonomous driving chip market. Among them, Intel announced in June 2019 that its subsidiary Mobileye plans to first build a self-driving taxi test in Israel. It is expected to be on the road in Israel in 2020 and will continue to expand in other countries in the future. And in 2018, Mobileye has established alliances with German Auto Flowserve and Israeli car dealers to jointly launch self-driving car rental services.
 

Intel merged it into the Autonomous Driving Division after acquiring Mobileye. Among them, the fourth-generation EyeQ4 of the Mobileye EyeQ series chip has been mass-produced in 2018 and uses 28nm process technology, while Mobileye's next-generation EyeQ5 has produced engineering samples in 2018 and is expected to be mass-produced in 2020 and will use 7nm FinFET process technology.
 

Mobileye itself focuses on Camera-based ADAS technology. Through Camera technology, motion sensing software and algorithms, it has successfully entered car manufacturers and Tier 1 manufacturers. The evolution of Mobileye EyeQ is mainly to increase the number of supported cameras, and the emergence of EyeQ4 Deep Learning, the main function is to solve a large number of image recognition problems.

The purpose of Intel's acquisition of Mobileye is to quickly enter the automotive electronics market. Combining Mobileye's self-driving car ADAS technology and Intel's strength in computer computing and networking chips, it provides a complete solution for autonomous driving cloud-to-car. It intends to attack 2021. The first wave of business opportunities for the development of the autonomous driving market. For Intel, Mobileye is a technology supplier that provides high-precision maps for autonomous driving based on AI and image recognition technology, which helps optimize the most important driving strategy in Intel's final autonomous driving solution.
 

3. Conclusion
 

In the future market of automotive semiconductor applications, ADAS will grow the most. It is estimated that the market value of ADAS in 2023 will be 16.69 billion U.S. dollars, and many major semiconductor manufacturers have also deployed in this field. Among them, after the acquisition of Cypress, Infineon, the second-ranked automotive semiconductor manufacturer, has highly complementary technologies and will further expand its potential in the automotive market; Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel, has deployed EyeQ series chips in the ADAS field, and EyeQ4, launched in 2018, can be applied to level 3 of autonomous driving. EyeQ5, which is expected to be launched in 2020, can be applied to level 4 to level 5 of autonomous driving.
 

With the continuous update and breakthrough of technology in the semiconductor industry, it is expected that the content of semiconductors in the entire vehicle will become higher and higher in the future, which also means that the existing vehicle operation mode will be changed. In the future, drivers will no longer need to concentrate on driving. The various safety considerations of driving and the entertainment and interaction of passengers in the car will also reshape the layout of the entire automotive industry and drive another wave of business opportunities for the upward development of automotive semiconductors.