Embedded Security Semiconductor Shipments to Top 4 Billion by 2023

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Accelerating demand for embedded security in industrial and automotive segments is driving the market for technologies such as secure microcontrollers (MCU) and trusted platform modules (TPM). ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, forecasts that total global shipments of secure embedded hardware will double by 2023, surpassing the 4 billion mark.

TPMs are finally gaining momentum, notably in new industrial markets, after more than a decade since its standardization. It had largely become static in the PC space, with almost 100% adoption for machines running Windows 10. “The renewed interest is coming from the industrial and automotive sector, in large part boosted by the release of TPM 2.0 in 2016, which adapted the technology to IoT scenarios. Infineon and STMicroelectronics are set to gain significantly in this reinvigorated market, with both offering dedicated TPM 2.0 solutions for embedded applications,” says Michela Menting, Research Director of Digital Security at ABI Research. 

In parallel, emergence of secure varieties of microcontrollers for the IoT market is gaining traction, and is seeing demand in smart cities, homes and buildings, as well as in utilities and the industrial IoT. Improved processing and performance capabilities for MCUs has allowed the inclusion of security features that work well with embedded and deterministic imperatives. NXP and Renesas are both offering secure MCU platforms (Kinetis and Synergy respectively) that have proven hugely successful since their release.

Other strong contenders in the market for secure embedded hardware include Microchip, Cypress (soon to be part of Infineon), RedPine, Nuvoton, Maxim Integrated, Goodix, TI, and MediaTek.

With declining ASPs and growing demand for secure silicon-to-cloud solutions, secure connectivity will have to be anchored in secure hardware for embedded systems. As such, strong growth is projected for the global hardware security market going forward. “As the semiconductor industry moves toward integrating ever more security features on smaller form-factors, competition in the space will increasingly focus on those hardware elements that can provide the best performance for tailored IoT applications,” Menting concludes.

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