The process of "triple-play" of automobiles is accelerating, and there is great potential for automotive-grade MCU. As the process of "intelligent", "electrification" and "networking" of automobiles continues to accelerate, the demand for various types of automotive The demand for various types of automotive semiconductors has increased to varying degrees, and automotive-grade MCU is a type of automotive chip with a wide range of applications, and the market for automotive-grade MCU has a bright future. Automotive-grade MCU is one of the "protagonists" of this round of "lack of core" events, multiple factors contributed to a serious automotive industry chain "lack of core" crisis, which led to the global automotive production At this stage, automotive-grade MCUs are still one of the most scarce types of automotive chips. The epidemic will eventually pass, and the development trend is unstoppable. The automotive electronic/electrical (E/E) architecture is changing, and the demand for automotive-grade MCUs will change accordingly.
MCU (Microcontroller Unit) named micro control unit or microcontroller, is the frequency and specification of the central processor to do appropriate reduction, and the memory, counter, peripheral interface and other content are integrated in a single chip, forming a chip-level computer. It is widely used in consumer electronics, Internet of Things, automotive electronics, industrial control and other fields.
According to IC Insight data, the global MCU market climbed 23% to a record $19.6 billion with strong economic recovery in 2021, after falling 2% in 2020 under the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. IC Insights forecasts that global MCU sales will grow 10% in 2022 to reach a record high of $21.5 billion The growth of automotive MCUs will outpace that of most other end markets. According to IC Insights 2021 mid-year data, despite the impact of chip shortages and epidemics, global automotive MCU sales are expected to reach $7.6 billion in 2021, up 23 percent compared to 2020, with more than three-quarters of automotive MCU sales coming from 32 bits, or about $5.8 billion. Global automotive MCU sales are expected to have 14% and 16% growth rates in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and will reach $10 billion by 2023. The current epidemic impact of new energy vehicle sales counter-trend increase, in the face of the huge downstream market demand for the entire car factory into the phase of active inventory, automotive chip demand continues to remain high, it is expected that the high demand for automotive MCU chips will continue until the end of 22, the investment in capacity expansion is expected to achieve a large volume of production scale in 23 years to enhance. Usually, it takes 12-16 weeks for MCU to complete internal production. The MCU shortage is more pronounced than in 22Q1, with most MCUs in short supply, especially ST and NXP. Automotive MCUs are currently available only from Renesas and Cypress with 32-45 weeks lead time, while other brands are in shortage. 2022, automotive MCU orders are almost full and prices continue to rise. Among other things, STMicroelectronics announced on March 24 that it will raise prices for all product lines in the second quarter. Today, the demand for MCUs is not only quantitative. As emerging industries are driven by new requirements for low power consumption, high computing power, customization, and specialized peripherals are gradually increasing. 2021, the cumulative production reduction in the global automotive market is about 10.2 million units due to chip shortage. As of May 15, due to chip shortage, the cumulative reduction in the global automotive market this year is about 1.72 million units. Among them, the cumulative reduction in China's auto market increased to 92,000 units, accounting for 5.3% of the cumulative reduction in global production. In addition to the chip shortage, automotive "three" is also an important driving factor for MCU.
Intelligent: currently still in the L0-L2 autonomous driving penetration rate is rapidly increasing stage, intelligent driving demand will continue to increase the amount of ECU and MCU: as the core of the internal computing and processing of automotive electronic systems, MCU is the key to achieve automotive intelligence. According to iSuppli report, MCU chips account for about 30% of the number of semiconductor devices used in a car. This means that each vehicle needs to use at least 70 or more MCU chips. Electrification: Global sales of electrified electric vehicles reach 675,000 units in 2021, up 108% from 2020, due to a low base in 2020, despite extreme year-over-year growth rates in 2021.
Networking: The increase in IoT devices has boosted the demand for networking capabilities, and MCU as a key component of connected devices also needs to take into account cost and power consumption, prompting wireless MCU solutions to quickly enter the industry vision.
ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is the electronic control unit, which is the "computer" that controls the functions of the car, including MCU, memory, input/output interface, analog-to-digital converter (A/D) and other integrated circuits inside. Under the distributed system, a single ECU controls a certain function of the car, and the increase of ECU will bring the increase of MCU when the car function is increased. The chip is mainly a SoC chip, which includes high computing power microprocessor, memory, input/output interface, etc. Under domain control, certain functions of the car are integrated and controlled by the DCU, and the number of ECUs is reduced, resulting in a decrease in the amount of MCUs. There are many functions in the car, some of which have existed since the day the car was born, while others have been used and retained in the car at some point in time with the development of the automotive industry. With the trend of intelligence, various new functions are being added at an accelerated pace and continue to be updated and iterated. Bosch has divided the whole car into power domain, chassis domain, body domain, cockpit domain and autonomous driving domain by car functions. Based on Bosch's concept, the power domain, chassis domain and body domain, which are integrated with traditional functions, are grouped together, and the cabin domain and autonomous driving domain are grouped together as the emerging functions.
VANCEER ELECTRONICS believes that the automotive MCU market, with its high threshold, long cycle time, strong security, and late entry of Chinese chip manufacturers, has led to foreign semiconductor manufacturers have been occupying a larger market share. However, with the development of the market and the entry and rise of Chinese MCU vendors, the automotive electronics industry will develop towards a diversified ecology, and new application scenarios will continue to emerge, which will evolve into more segmented tracks, which will mean that there will be more opportunities left for the rising domestic automotive MCU vendors.
