Automotive Electronics

BMW has signed a direct supply agreement with INOVA Semiconductors and GlobalFoundries. The agreement guarantees the BMW Group the supply of several million ICs a year. The deal follows a similar agreement struck last month between GloFo and Ford. BMW’s chips  will be used in the ISELED smart LED technology co-developed by BMW, which will be deployed for the first time ...

Intel says it will take Mobileye public in the USA in mid-2022 via an issue of new Mobileye stock. Estimates suggest Mobileye could be worth $50 billion. Mobileye had revenues of  $1 billion in the first nine months of this year and operating income of $361 million. The move will unlock the value of Mobileye for Intel shareholders by creating a ...

The power electronics market is promising a 6.9% CAGR between 2020 and 2026 to reach $26 billion, forecasts Yole Developpement Automotive, industrial motor drives, and telecom will be the main drivers of the discrete component market segment taking it to more than $16 billion in 2026. EV, industrial motors, and home appliances will drive the power module market to almost ...

P-Duke has announced a rugged 30W dc-dc converter in a 1 x 1inch (~25 x 25mm) package for railway and industrial applications. Called the RCD30W series, the converters have 4:1 input voltage ranges suited to rolling stock, with a choice of 9-36V, 18-75V or 36-160V. There are single and dual output models including: 3.3, 5, 5.1, 12, 15, 24, ±12, ±15, ...

Automotive demand for 6-inch SiC wafers is expected to reach 1.69 million units in 2025 thanks to the rising penetration rate of EVs and the trend towards high-voltage 800V EV architecture, says TrendForce. Various major automakers are selling EVs with 800V charging architectures including the Porsche Taycan, Audi Q6 e-tron, and Hyundai Ioniq 5. The  arrival of the 800V EV ...

The sheer volume of automotive electronics in today’s cars is dramatically driving up the transmission requirements and data payload on automotive networks, writes Lukas Droemer of Nexperia. To take the next step we need high-speed, high-bandwidth Automotive Ethernet. And that means getting the right ESD protection in place to ensure it is both safe and secure while we are driving. ...

The automotive industry’s move to full autonomy, including hand-free autopilot and eventually driverless taxis, will require higher levels of safety scrutiny and sensor accuracy, says Steve Bush, technology editor of Electronics Weekly. Allegro Microsystems is advocating GMR (giant magneto-resistive) -effect sensors, instead of Hall-effect ones, for automotive rotary wheel-position sensing. The company, which makes both Hall-effect and GMR sensors, argues ...

Market penetration of electric vehicles is advancing alongside stricter environmental regulations, core technology innovations and falling costs, says Sam Gold of Renesas. The automotive electrification trend to accelerate the shift towards carbon neutrality has exponentially increased in recent times. Electric vehicles (EVs), which use an electrically powered motor rather than an internal combustion engine (ICE), are referred to as xEVs. ...

Tackling range anxiety and cost hold the key to mass electric vehicle adoption. SiC technology could set the wheels in motion, says Timothé Rossignol of Analog Devices. There are two major disruptions affecting the future of vehicular transport and semiconductor technology: we are embracing new means to propel vehicles cleanly with electrical power, and, simultaneously, re-engineering the semiconductor materials that ...

Adoption of electric vehicles is fuelling an industry in power conversion for a comprehensive charging infrastructure, writes Jon Cooper of Avnet Abacus. Electric vehicles (EVs) are here to stay, with more and more governments mandating a switch to hybrid or fully EVs in the coming years. Automotive manufacturers have had targets imposed on them for average fleet emissions and this ...