Detroit vs. Silicon Valley: What’s Driving the Proliferation of Automotive Electronics?

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For the past several decades, modern cars have not changed much. They have four wheels, an engine, a radio (possibly even an 8-track) and seatbelts. Over time, however, cars’ electronics parts have evolved faster than any other part of a car with enhancements like power windows, power mirrors, seat heaters and GPS navigation. For the first time in history, the cost of the electronics in the car has surpassed the cost of the raw steel (steel historically represents about 22% of the manufacturing cost). The combination of growing auto demand, coupled with increasing electronic content means significant dollars. IMS Research estimates that the global market for automotive electronics will reach $240 billion by 2020 (Figure 1).

So, what is driving such a rapid proliferation of electronics in automobiles? One report indicates that in the 1970s, luxury car electronics were roughly 5% of the cost of the vehicle’s BOM. This climbed to 15% in 2005, and today, including the hybrids and full electric vehicles, this total can be greater than 35%. How important are these new electronics? According to IEEE Spectrum, a late-model S Class Mercedes contains over 100 million lines of code across 70–100 microprocessors for everything from stereo to emissions to airbags, while a Boeing Dreamliner, for comparison, requires about 6.5 million lines of code to operate.

So where is all this growth happening, and what does it mean to PCB designers and fabricators? In the broadest sense there are three general categories that are rapidly evolving (Figure 2). 

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Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the September issue of The PCB Magazine.