What are Automotive Chips?
Since the time the first silicon chip was developed, semiconductors are being used in almost every industry. Healthcare, transportation, space industry, tech, electronic, manufacturing, security, education, and automotive industry are some of leading industries in semiconductor chip consumption. Among all these industries, the automotive industry is one such industry in which chips are used widely for various purposes. Automotive chips are utilized for the observing and controlling of different capacities in a vehicle. Such chips utilize calculations to explain different assignments and makes the driving background significantly less demanding for the driver. With the introduction of self driving cars, the demand for automotive chips have increased significantly.
Factors affecting the automotive chip demand:
There are various factors in play which are determining the demand for automotive chips. As new and advanced technologies are introduced in the industry, it has pushed the demand for the automotive chips. Anthony key factors in determining the demand for the automotive chips are increasing awareness among individuals regarding safety. Strict automobile benchmarks, and expanding interest in engine control units (ECU) in cars are a portion of the factors affecting the demand and the development of worldwide car chips.
Types of Automotive Chips:
There are five different types of automotive chips or integrated circuits (ICs) such as general and special purpose logic ICs, microcontrollers, DRAM, analog ICs and flash. General purpose chips are used for supporting the computer and information fields. These chips ensure performance and efficiency. Microcontrollers are used for the purpose of safety and found applications in body, chassis, powertrain etc. Capacitive touch sensing microcontroller is used in button sliders and wheels among other applications. In addition, microcontrollers find use for in-vehicle infotainment, audio processing and Ethernet purpose in automobiles.
Automotive Chip Market: An Overview
Automotive chip market is expanding like never before. Who would have thought that one day semiconductor chips will be used in this industry. NXP Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies, Renesas Electronics, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics were the top five suppliers of microchips for automotive electronics in 2019, with the whole auto chip market slipping slightly by 1.3% to $37.2 billion. The main reason behind this slight fall was the shortage of automotive chips. As most of those chips come from Taiwan, due to the trade war between US-China, the shortage has occurred. But experts are positive about the future of the automotive chip market.
Summary:
There is no doubt that driverless cars will dominate the roads in the upcoming time. Thus, the demand for automotive chips will keep increasing. Although, the current demand for the chips exceeds its supplies. This can be one of the major setbacks for the automotive chip industry, if it is not addressed immediately. According to experts many new companies will start manufacturing automotive chips in order to gain advantage of early adoption.
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