These are exciting times for the mobility industry. Hybrid and electrical vehicles are growing in popularity in response to environmental regulations and governmental policy. The “connected car” is seamlessly taking over our “connected life.” The race is on for fully autonomous vehicles, with carmakers offering advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) features that reduce accidents and casualties.
These automotive megatrends further accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), ADAS, and smart cockpit/infotainment systems. Consequently, this drives continuously increasing silicon content per car, spanning application processors (APs), microcontroller units (MCUs), in-car networking, sensors, and power management ICs (PMICs).
Electronic components drive 80% of today’s automotive innovation. Intelligence, connectivity, sensing, and control applications are evolving to keep pace with the growing complexity in “Safer, Smarter, and Greener” vehicle design. Every new application requires more semiconductors, constantly increasing the overall silicon content in today’s advanced vehicles. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into these vehicles, enhancing functions from ADAS to cockpit systems.
Backed by proven high-volume manufacturing, TSMC’s Automotive Platform provides a comprehensive spectrum of technologies and services to meet the automotive industry’s unique semiconductor challenges.
For advanced logic technologies, TSMC introduced its N3 Auto Early (N3AE) program providing automotive process design kits (PDKs) to enable early design start before the technology is auto-ready. N3AE was introduced in 2023 and migrated to N3A with the V1.0 PDK released in 2025.Customers have also successfully qualified automotive products for automotive applications on TSMC’s N7A and N5A technologies, and these products entered volume production for automotive OEMs in 2023 and 2025, respectively. In addition, N4A is scheduled to be ready by the end of 2026, and we are adding N6A to the family to support our customers.
Advanced specialty technologies for compute-intensive ADAS applications include:
- RF technologies for 5G connectivity and millimeter wave (mmWave) radar
- Non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies for next-generation micro-controller units (MCUs) and AI memory
- CMOS image sensor (CIS) technologies for high-sensitivity CMOS image/light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, featuring our industry-leading LOFIC technology which integrates a 3D, high-density MIM cap to enhance HDR
- BCD technologies for PMICs
TSMC validates all its Automotive Platform process technologies using AEC-Q100 specifications. To support customers’ automotive design and production, TSMC offers comprehensive Automotive IP ecosystems and Automotive Service Packages for enhanced manufacturing.
