For cmOS image sensors (hereinafter referred to as CIS), the next few years will still be the best in the landscape. But against the backdrop of slowing growth in the smartphone market, cars are becoming the main growth engine for CIS in the future.
JW insights believes that with the continuous improvement of the degree of intelligence of cars, the average number of CIS in bicycles is increasing exponentially, and because car cameras have higher requirements in terms of high temperature, shockproof, waterproof, etc., the value of CIS will also be greatly improved. Whether it is an international giant or a domestic rising star are entering the game, automotive CIS is becoming a new highland in the CIS industry.
The driving force of the CIS will be converted
Typically, a camera module (CCM) consists of three core components: CIS, optical lens, and voice coil motor. Among them, CIS is the key component with the largest proportion of camera product value, according to Yole Développemen statistics, CIS in the camera module value accounted for nearly 50%.
The CIS manufacturing process has improved significantly over the years, and the industry has transitioned from the FSI (front-illuminated) process to the BSI (back-illuminated) process and now to the stacked BSI process. In stacked BSI technology processes, TSV (Silicon Through Hole) technology is used to connect sensor arrays to logic chips. The application of this technology has improved the high-speed shooting capability of CIS, which is 4 times faster than traditional sensors. At the same time, the technology also increases the proportion of the pixel layer in the area of the chip, which greatly reduces the physical size of the CIS.
Due to the multi-camera application in smartphones, CIS has maintained a high growth trend in the past few years. According to Yole Développement, the size of the CIS industry increased from $10.2 billion in 2015 to $20.7 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.1%, accounting for 4.7% of the global semiconductor industry ($440 billion in output value), and by 2026, the entire market size will reach $31.5 billion.
A handful of companies dominate the entire CIS market, with the top ten players accounting for 93 percent of the market, according to Yole Développement. Among them, Sony has the largest market share (40%), Samsung has a market share of 22%, and Howey (which has been incorporated into Vail shares) has a market share of 12%.
Mobile phones will remain the largest CIS segment in the coming years, but cars will be the most dynamic market segment. According to the latest report of IC Insights, by 2025, the compound annual growth rate of automotive CIS is expected to be 33.8%, which is much higher than the 6.3% growth rate of mobile CIS.
The Great Leap Forward for Automotive CIS
There are two major reasons for the outbreak of the CIS market for driving vehicles: the number of cameras and the increase in the number of pixels. According to Yole Développement statistics, the global average number of bicycle cameras used in 2020 is 2.2, and with the improvement of the level of autonomous driving, the demand for cameras is also increasing.
For example, L4/L5 self-driving cars need to be equipped with 8-11 cameras outside the cabin (4 imaging cameras + 4 to 7 perception cameras), and 3-4 cameras (2-3 cabin surveillance cameras + 1 driving recorder) in the cabin, that is, L4/L5 cars need to be equipped with 11-15 cameras.
The number of pixels in automotive CIS is also greatly improving, from VGA to 2M to 8M. At present, the rearview camera on the market is generally VGA ~1M level, and the frontview camera is between 1M and 2M (M million), for example, tesla Model series camera pixels are 1.2 million, Xiaopeng P7 car camera pixels are 2 million. The new models in 2021 began to use 8M cameras to achieve better information collection accuracy, such as the NIO ET7 camera pixel of 8 million, the ideal ONE SUV car camera pixel of 8 million.
Compared with mobile phone CIS, the technical threshold of automotive CIS is higher, because the working conditions of the vehicle are more demanding, and it is necessary to pass the vehicle regulation certification and adapt to the requirements of different functional safety. The design philosophy is also different, requiring redundancy and protection, which is based on functional safety considerations.
Under normal circumstances, automotive CIS requires a high dynamic range of 120-140dB, which can operate normally at -40-+105 °C, has good night vision capabilities and solves problems such as traffic light recognition, LFM and artifacts. Because the size of the module is not limited, the automotive CIS mostly uses BGA packaging, while the mobile phone CIS uses CSP packaging. In addition, the two also have their own emphases on the path of technological development.
To achieve 8 million pixels for automotive CIS, the sensor size will be relatively large, about 1.1/7 inches or 1.1/8 inches, and the cost is very high. Therefore, in the case of the same pixel, the price of the car CIS itself is higher than that of the mobile phone CIS, and the price of 1-2M is about 3-8 US dollars, and the unit price of 8M mass production is about 15-20 US dollars. The high value of the ciS per car is also the main reason for attracting manufacturers to participate.
According to JW insights, CIS integration of ISPs is becoming a trend, especially in the 1M pixel stock market, and in the 2M, and even higher 8M fields, the close integration with machine learning is more popular.
However, the development of AI algorithm models needs to be based on machine learning supported by a large amount of test data, which requires CIS products to cooperate with algorithm developers to conduct a large number of pavement tests to collect a large amount of data. This is a big challenge for CIS vendors.
Who dominates the market ups and downs
In the field of automotive CIS, the top three manufacturers are ON Semiconductor, Howey (which has been merged into Weier shares), and Sony, which occupy more than 90% of the market share, and the market concentration is higher.
The leader ON Semiconductor has no mobile phone CIS products, lacks the accumulation of small pixel technology, and cannot achieve large and small pixel exposure technology. Although ON Semiconductor is still a dominant company in the automotive CIS market in 2019, the lack of large and small pixel technology accumulation is a hard injury, and as the advantages of other manufacturers in the three-in-one (sensor, logic circuit and DRAM) fusion technology solution gradually appear, ON Semiconductor's automotive CIS market share may gradually decrease. However, there are also views that for ON Semiconductor, this is not a technical difficulty, but a matter of choosing the optimal route. ON Isem reaps the power of super exposure, and the final product must be a fusion of multiple technologies.
Howey has a very early layout in the automotive field, and its CIS chips are currently mainly used for European and American car brands, occupying more than 20% of the automotive CIS market. Moreover, the product continues to upgrade, and in June 2020, the world's first automotive wafer-level camera was launched, with a size of only 6.5mm×6.5mm. Joining NVIDIA's self-driving vehicle development ecosystem in 2021 is expected to achieve significant growth in the Asia-Pacific market while consolidating and expanding the European and American markets in the future.
In contrast, Sony and Samsung entered the automotive market late, and although they have also launched very distinctive products, they have a lower presence in the entire automotive CIS market. However, Sony and Samsung, which see the potential of the automotive market, are also mobilizing resources to rearrange.
Some insiders pointed out that Sony and Samsung have deep technical accumulation in the field of high-end CIS products, coupled with their ability to mobilize production capacity, if the future is sharply inclined to the direction of automotive CIS, it is not good news for ON Semiconductor and Howey Technology.
At present, the 8M market is mainly dominated by ON Semiconductor, and Howey and Sony also have 8M products and follow-up plans.
Domestic rising stars are also in a tight layout. For example, In 2020, Steway acquired Shenzhen Accell microelectronics to expand the automotive product line and open the front-loading night vision imaging market with sc100AS and SC1330AS products.
From the perspective of market competition pattern, the 1M automotive CIS market is dominated by Howey, 2-3M is dominated by Howey and Sony, and 8M is dominated by ON Semiconductor. The main shipments of the entire vehicle CIS are 1M products, and 2-3M and 8M have not yet been shipped in large quantities. According to incomplete statistics, the application of ciS in the past three years has been very long, and there have been more than 3-4 million vehicle coverage.
For CIS manufacturers, the biggest challenge at present is the shortage of production capacity. Because the entire CIS market is in short supply, ciS, which accounts for a larger proportion of vehicles, will face more capacity allocation problems. And this problem will also plague the entire CIS industry for a long time.
Finally, the process of automotive electronics is just beginning, and there are many more opportunities for automotive CIS that have yet to be explored. Therefore, JW insights believes that with the evolution of technology, automotive CIS will continue to generate many new needs, so whether it is for those who have entered the market or those who are latecomers, the opportunities will be equal. (Proofreading/Sami)