Automotive chip content growing fast, says Gartner

LONDON – Semiconductor content in a variety of automotive subsystems will show varying rates of growth over the next five years, according to market analyst Gartner Inc. with content for safety systems showing a compound annual growth rate of 14.1 percent over the five years 2009 to 2014.

The semiconductor content of safety systems will almost double, from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $4.3 billion in 2014, driven by the implementation of intelligent mirrors with rearview cameras, peripheral sensors, lane change warning systems and driver alertness detectors.

Driver information systems — already producing more than $3 billion in revenue

— will show little additional growth with a 1.1 percent CAGR. Driver information systems are dominated by portable navigation systems – satnavs – but these will be partially cannibalized by GPS-based navigational aids for cell phones.

Meanwhile semiconductors for multimedia entertainment systems, as a separate category, will show growth of 7.2 percent CAGR.

Automotive microcontrollers are expected to show 10 percent growth while ASICs and ASSPs will show a 16.8 percent CAGR in safety systems, but only an 8.4 percent CAGR in automotive security systems. The fastest growth rate is expected to come with semiconductor sensors with a growth of 14.0 percent, said Gartner.

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