Chip demand for auto electronic systems promising
Sales of automotive electronic systems are forecast to grow 7.0% in 2018 and 6.3% in 2019, the highest growth rate in both years among the six major end-use applications for semiconductors, according to IC Insights.
Sales of automotive-related electronic systems are forecast to increase to US$152 billion in 2018 from US$142 billion in 2017, and reach US$162 billion in 2019, IC Insights indicated. Furthermore, automotive electronic systems are expected to enjoy a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% from 2017 through 2021, again topping all other major system categories.
The automotive segment is expected to account for 9.4% of the US$1.62 trillion total worldwide electronic systems market in 2018, a slight increase from 9.1% in 2017, IC Insights said. Automotive has increased only incrementally over the years, and is forecast to show only marginal gains as a percentage of the total electronic systems market through 2021, when it is forecast to account for 9.9% of global electronic systems sales. Though accounting for a rather small percentage of total electronic system marketshare in 2018 (larger only than the government/military category), automotive is expected to be the fastest-growing segment through 2021, IC Insights noted.
Technology features that are focused on self-driving vehicles, ADAS, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, on-board safety, convenience and environmental features, as well as ongoing interest in electric vehicles, continues to lift the market for automotive electronics systems, despite some highly publicized accidents involving self-driving vehicles this year that were at least partly blamed on technology miscues.
New advancements are more widely available onboard mid range and entry-level cars and as aftermarket products, which has further raised automotive system growth in recent years. In the semiconductor world, this is particularly good news for makers of analog ICs, MCUs and sensors since a great number of all of these devices are required in most of these automotive systems, IC Insights suggested.
IC Insights continued that it is worth noting that the automotive special-purpose logic category is forecast to increase 29% in 2018, second only to the DRAM market, and the automotive application-specific analog market is forecast to jump 14% this year as backup cameras, blind-spot (lane departure) detectors, and other "intelligent" systems are mandated or otherwise being added to more vehicles. Meanwhile, memory (specifically, DRAM and flash memory) is increasingly playing a more critical role in the development of new automotive system solutions used in vehicles.