The automotive industry is undergoing a period of dramatic change in both its technology and its players. More than 80 companies are developing autonomous vehicles and many more are involved in providing sensors and computational systems for decision making for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). System design, package choices, materials, and process integration are critical to the successful implementation of the new safety features that are part of ADAS.

There is debate as to when autonomous-driving vehicles will be introduced on a wide scale, but there is no question that the use of safety features incorporating multiple sensors is increasing dramatically. ADAS adoption requires greater semiconductor content at each level of adoption. It requires the use of cameras, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), radar, and other sensors, as well as communication systems and fast processing capability. The potential use of artificial intelligence or machine learning to provide the analytics enabling safety features is driving the adoption of advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration.

The focus of the market forecast in this report is for new packages introduced as a result of ADAS adoption. Different combinations of sensors will be used in each vehicle and the particular combinations will be determined by each carmaker. For example, the Audi A8 uses one camera, five radars, two ultrasonic sensors, and one LIDAR system. Tesla’s autonomous driving system uses four to eight cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and one forward-facing radar.

This report also examines the impact of the adoption of electric vehicles on packages used for the powertrain.