From 2009 to 2019, CMOS image sensors (CIS) created an "unbeaten myth" of continuous decade growth. Sales increased from less than $5 billion in 2009 to $18.4 billion in 2019, making it the fastest growing semiconductor product in the past 10 years. According to IC Insight's prediction, the compound annual growth rate of CIS for vehicles from 2018 to 2023 will reach 29.7%, exceeding the average growth rate of CIS, which is the fastest growing area of CIS. However, ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance System)/AV (Automatic Driving Vehicle) will promote the development of on-board cameras from the configuration with only rear view cameras to ADAS with more than 6 cameras and even automatic driving with up to 16 cameras, which will greatly increase the use of CIS, and the prospect of CIS for vehicles is widely optimistic.
ADAS and automatic driving drive rapid growth of CIS
The camera is the "eye" of the car and the basis for building the car perception. Among the car cameras, the cost of CIS accounts for more than 50%, which is the core device.
With the popularity of ADAS, the car camera has developed from a rear view to a comprehensive scheme including front view, side view, look around, rear view and interior view. According to data from Yole and Huatai Securities, in 2023, the average number of vehicle mounted lenses on a single vehicle in the world will increase from 1.7 in 2018 to 3, while ADAS generally requires more than 6 cameras. For example, Tesla Autopilot is equipped with eight cameras, including three front view cameras with narrow field of view, main field of view and wide field of view, two side front view cameras located at the B pillars on both sides of the vehicle, two side rear view cameras to monitor the rear blind areas on both sides of the vehicle, and a rear view camera to assist in reversing. The increasing number of on-board cameras will rapidly increase the market volume of CIS.
In the field of automatic driving, the number of vehicle cameras has been further improved. For L4 autopilot, the universal Cruise AV is equipped with 16 cameras. Huawei's autopilot on-board computing center mdc600 can process data from 16 cameras, 6 millimeter wave radars, 16 ultrasonic radars and 8 LiDARs.
Xi Yunxia, Marketing Director of Greater China of Intelligent Perception Department of Anson Semiconductor, said that with the increasing demand for ADAS and automatic driving in the automotive field, the degree of automotive intelligence and automation has been continuously improved. Therefore, it is necessary to use different CIS installed on the vehicle to collect data at the first time, to identify and detect the environment and objects outside and inside the vehicle, so that the vehicle can detect potential hazards as soon as possible to take corresponding measures to improve vehicle driving safety. Among them, the camera not only plays the role of the 'eye' of the automobile robot in the process of automobile intellectualization and automation, but also goes far beyond the vision of the human eye. Through the cameras installed in all directions of the automobile, adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, emergency braking, lane maintenance system, parking assistance, pedestrian detection, signal detection, fatigue detection of cabin drivers and passenger detection are realized.
Sitwei said that automatic driving can be divided into four or five levels. When the level reaches L3, L4 and higher, automatic driving vehicles will need more visual cameras, including binocular, monocular, monochrome and color camera systems, to achieve front collision warning, pedestrian touch warning, automatic parking and other functions from the perspective of improving the environmental adaptability of decision-making perception system to functional safety and information security.
"When the development of automatic driving at home and abroad is moving towards L4 and L5 levels, cars increasingly rely on more accurate image data provided by CIS to judge road conditions, signal signs, emergencies, etc., so as to use artificial intelligence algorithms to make decisions related to driving operations. In addition, other in car and out of car video applications are also increasing the demand for CIS loading, to help drivers and passengers get a better driving experience, and Ensure the safety of driving and road traffic. " The relevant person in charge of Sitwei said.
Vehicle CIS involves several key technical indicators
Compared with CIS for mobile phones and other consumer electronics, CIS for vehicles has more stringent requirements for performance and reliability, higher threshold for development and certification, and involves a number of key technical indicators. Ma Yaobin, senior analyst of CCID Think Tank Institute of Integrated Circuits, said that compared with the field of consumer electronics, automotive CIS has higher requirements for sensitivity, dynamic range and other performance. The car CIS needs better low light level performance. Compared with the dynamic range of about 70dB for consumer electronics, the dynamic range of the car CIS is generally greater than 100dB. In addition, car CIS has more significant demand for near-infrared, LED anti shake, global shutter and other technologies. In terms of product development and application, on-board CIS shall meet the vehicle specification level chip standard. For example, the chip must withstand the extreme temperature conditions of - 40 ℃~105 ℃ to meet the AEC-Q100 Class 2 industry standard.
Xi Yunxia detailed the key technical indicators of CIS for vehicles, including high dynamic range, elimination of LED flicker, global shutter and infrared response, multiple optimized color filter arrays, reliable packaging technology and functions, and network security.
Among them, HDR is the key to the normal operation of the camera under special lighting conditions. For example, the street lights at night will contrast with pedestrians in dark places, and the details of bright places outside the tunnel will contrast with those of dark places inside the tunnel under strong light. If there is no HDR, only the exposure in the highlight area is taken care of, the dark details will be lost; If you take care of the dark details, the highlights will be overexposed.
Eliminating LED flicker can prevent CIS from being affected by traffic lights, lights and other LED light sources, resulting in blurred images collected, thus affecting the accuracy of detection. Therefore, CIS should ensure the output of high fidelity images with both HDR and LED flicker elimination, and ensure that both are realized at the same time.
The global shutter and infrared response are used for driver detection. The driver's monitoring camera should capture the driver's eye and head movements, and the global shutter image sensor can capture rapid movement without dragging shadows. CIS with infrared response can clearly see the driver's eyes under infrared conditions.
A variety of optimized color filter arrays are used to adapt to different applications and scenes, and the machine vision perception system ADAS is used to achieve higher signal-to-noise ratio to better detect and identify objects.
At the same time, the vehicle CIS shall also meet the requirements of vehicle specification semiconductor. First of all, reliable packaging technology can ensure the safety of devices in the automotive life cycle, and high-quality image sensor chip packaging technology can ensure the reliability, safety and durability of the entire camera system in harsh and extreme environments such as high and low temperatures, humidity, pressure, vibration, etc. Secondly, with the increasing complexity of the automotive industry, people have increased efforts to develop safety compliance systems. The design of ADAS and autopilot L2 and above should conform to the corresponding ASIL standard of ISO26262, and have a more perfect safety mechanism in terms of functional safety, making the system functional safety design easier to achieve. Thirdly, network security helps to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the whole system, especially when multiple cameras around the vehicle body are connected to a central system, and data and commands must be transmitted through the line between the sensor and the processor. In order to ensure that the image sensor is not attacked by hackers, the mechanism of network security is essential in the implementation of image sensors.
Manufacturers accelerate the layout of the Chinese market
The monthly automobile production and sales data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in June this year, the production and sales of automobiles in China reached 2.325 million and 2.194 million, up 22.5% and 11.6% year on year, respectively, hitting the historical best level of single month sales in June. According to the prediction of the Institute of High Industry Intelligence Industry, in 2020, the penetration rate of China's rear view cameras will be 50%, the penetration rate of front view cameras will be 30%, the penetration rate of side view cameras will be 20%, and the penetration rate of built-in cameras will be 6%. This means that there is still huge room for growth in China's car camera market.
In the field of vehicle mounted CIS, the market share of Ansomy is the most prominent, followed by Howell, and Samsung and Sony are also actively deploying their two CIS giants. At the same time, Gekewei, which recently accepted the application for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, as well as other manufacturers such as Sitwei and BYD, have also actively laid out in the field of vehicle mounted CIS.
Chi Yunxia said that China's automobile market has also been greatly affected by the epidemic, but it has seen an obvious recovery since June 2020. With the continuous upgrading of automatic driving technology, the number of cameras is growing exponentially, so CIS has a good prospect in China's automotive market. Later, based on the scalable image sensor series, Ansenmey will allow customers to start early development with one sensor to adapt its algorithm to pixel performance and system characteristics, and then expand to more resolutions through further testing. To shorten the time to market of the project, reduce the overall development cost, and facilitate the upgrading and cost control of the customer system platform.
"The impact of the epidemic situation will accelerate the trend of automobile intellectualization in China, and more CIS will be needed for automobiles. This represents a continuous CIS growth opportunity, and Sammy Semiconductor will be fully prepared to provide innovative and competitive intelligent sensing solutions." Chi Yunxia pointed out.
Sitwei has introduced the LED flicker suppression function based on QCell technology, and has built advantages in such fields as high sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio, night vision full color performance, and HDR with higher dynamic range. In June this year, Stevie acquired Shenzhen Anxin Microelectronics. Next, Stevie will focus on the development of a full range of cost-effective on-board CMOS imaging chips, standard definition coaxial analog video output, and enable the application market of reversing cameras and panoramic on-board cameras.
"The CIS vehicle market has a huge prospect. In addition to relying on the choice of local vehicle manufacturers, the core competitiveness of domestic manufacturers lies in the breakthrough of innovative technologies. Local CIS manufacturers should seize the opportunity of the current intelligent vehicle image market, insight into customers and market needs, and devote themselves to developing and designing innovative technology products with excellent performance to meet the increasingly complex and diversified application needs." The relevant person in charge of Sitwei pointed out that.
Ma Yaobin said that the trend towards electrification, intelligence and networking of automobiles will accelerate the use of CIS to perceive information inside and outside the vehicle. At the same time, China has more than half of the global sales of electric vehicles, and CIS has obvious advantages in the downstream market. Therefore, technical opportunities and market advantages make China's vehicle CIS face good development opportunities.
"In terms of building differentiated competitiveness, we can take advantage of our local market, strengthen interaction with domestic car enterprises and Tier1 manufacturers, and accelerate product validation. At the same time, our CIS enterprises can first enter the more accessible aftermarket and gradually penetrate into the forward aftermarket." Ma Yaobin said.