According to reports, Austrian chip maker Amys Semiconductor (ams) has made a name for itself in the Apple supply chain, providing a variety of laser pointer sensors for the iPhone X and iPhone 8. It has recently announced that it will be further used in fast-growing autonomous vehicles. The sensor business is marching. The Swiss-listed company has developed sensors for mapping, auto-driving car shift controllers and chassis.
On March 7, 2018, Renesas Electronics equipped a self-driving car on the test driveway in the small town of Stroud, Ontario, Canada with enough cameras and sensors.
Alexander Everke, CEO of ams, said in a conference call on July 24th that “the strong demand for automotive solutions in the market has attracted us to include it in the product line of ams. Ams has already launched a 'pioneer' enterprise on the global autonomous driving platform. Collaborate and attract other partners in the car's in-vehicle surveillance solutions.” Lighthouse, the autonomous automotive division of Alphabet, Cruise, a subsidiary of General Electric, and certain German carmakers such as Volkswagen and Audi are in line with the statement. The description of the pioneer.
Ams did not disclose the company's profitability in the automotive electronics arena, but in the first six months of sales, automotive, industrial and medical accounted for 27%, sales of 686 million US dollars.
Automakers need multiple sensors to help the car achieve the functions of the human eye and other senses while driving. As a result, analysts believe that ams is a company focused on advanced sensor product lines, thanks to Alexander Everke's M&A frenzy in the past few years. Since becoming the CEO of ams in March 2016, he has sold unneeded units and acquired several niche companies to establish a one-stop laser pointer sensor platform.
In the automotive industry, ams' goal is to expand the market with ultra-fast and efficient laser diodes, mainly for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for autonomous automotive laser radar (LiDAR). According to the report of Memes Consulting, Lidar technology has been applied in aerospace, science and technology archaeology, building measurement, wind power industry and other fields, and is currently facing a huge opportunity: the desire of automatic driving for laser radar. Yole expects the global automotive laser pointer radar market to reach $5 billion in 2023 and $28 billion by 2032.
Ams is discussing with the manufacturer a new sensor that can detect if the driver's hand is on the steering wheel. Everke believes this feature is very attractive to the market. "More importantly, we have seen this feature become mandatory."