32-bit MCU designs are expected to generate almost 77% of automotive microcontroller revenues this year, according to IC Insights.
www.eetasia.com, Aug. 12, 2021 –
The huge market for automotive microcontrollers–which accounted for about 40% of total MCU sales over the last decade–has been on an uneven ride in the past several years. After climbing 12% in 2017, worldwide automotive MCU sales slowed to a crawl in 2018, rising just 1%. A borderline global recession stalled demand for new vehicles in 2019, and then came the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which wrecked the worldwide economy in 2020.
Once the worst of the coronavirus-driven downturn was over in the summer of 2020, automotive and other end-use markets stabilized and demand returned by the end of the year. But ramping up deliveries of MCUs and other semiconductors produced on decades-old 200mm wafer fab lines with less-than leading-edge processes, lagged behind the rebound-driven upturn. Despite some ongoing shortages of microcontrollers and automakers having to temporarily close assembly lines this year, automotive MCU sales are forecast to surge 23% in the economic recovery of 2021 to a record-high level of $7.6 billion, followed by strong increases of 14% in 2022 and 16% in 2023, according to IC Insights' Mid Year Update to The McClean Report 2021.