Automotive Chip

Carmakers want to design automotive SoCs using the most advanced foundry processes for AI, in-vehicle-infotainment, in-vehicle networking. This is partly due to the performance and power benefits of these advanced finFET devices, and partly due to the long design cycle. So rather than using a 28nm chip that will be outdated in five years, many of these designs are starting at the bleeding edge.

To support the automotive industry along this paradigm shift, imec develops advanced automotive chiplet integration, chiplet-based high-performance compute architectures, and next-generation automotive semiconductor technologies, enabling smarter, safer and more affordable mobility for everyone.

Texas Instruments offers a wide range of semiconductor solutions across various sectors, including wireless communication, consumer electronics, automotive, medical, and industrial automation. In the field of wireless communication, TI provides advanced wireless chips and technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 5G.

As a result of these trends, McKinsey forecasts that automotive chip sales will show higher growth than the overall industry figure, and S&P Global Mobility believes that the total addressable semiconductor market for the automotive sector will show 9% CAGR between 2024 and 2030.

Modern passenger cars entail nearly 1000 to 3000 semiconductor chips in its body, which assists the vehicle and driver in multiple functions and ensures smooth processing and operations. From fuel availability to tire pressure monitoring, almost every alert and warning related to performance, efficiency, and necessities is linked to these automotive chips.

Automotive chips are integrated circuits (ICs) designed specifically for automotive applications . They are widely used to control the electronic systems of automobiles, including engine management, vehicle control, driving assistance, infotainment

Chiplet architectures will drive high-performance computing in software-defined vehicles. Imec and its partners prepare this shift through reference architectures and physical testbeds. Automotive semiconductor technologies are crucial to making mobility more sustainable, safe, and affordable.

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An automotive chip is a specialized and entertainment units. Automotive chip uses semiconductor that possess a conductivity level between conductors (such as metals) and insulators .

These chips are designed to deliver lightning-fast performance and handle complex tasks, but they usually operate in a relatively stable environment. Now, picture a semiconductor inside a car’s engine control unit, dealing with high temperatures, vibrations, and even exposure to oil and other fluids. It’s a completely different wheelhouse (apologies)! In this context, it’s easy to see why the automotive industry leans towards more mature nodes.

Different interconnect and interface types have been proposed to serve varying purposes, while emerging chiplet technologies for dedicated functions — processors, memories, and I/Os, to name a few — are changing the approach to chip design. “There is a realization by automotive OEMs that to control their own destiny, they’re going to have to control their own SoCs,” said David Fritz, vice president of virtual and hybrid systems at Siemens EDA.

In modern cars, a single vehicle can have 70–100 MCUs handling tasks across ADAS, steering control, airbags, and transmission systems—making them one of the most widely deployed semiconductors in automotive industry today. SoCs combine CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, and other components on a single chip.

Automotive Chip Market to be worth USD 173.60 Billion by 2035, registering a CAGR of 10.66% during 2025 - 2035. Global automotive chipset market analysis by application, vehicle type, size, share, trends, demand, top companies, sales, technology and region with forecast.

In today’s automotive industry, semiconductor chips have become as vital as the engine itself. Different automotive chips are used in cars to deliver enhanced safety, performance, connectivity, and comfort. As a professional electronic component distributor, UniBetter will shed light on semiconductor chips for cars in this article.