Automotive to drive 5G IoT growth

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Although outdoor surveillance cameras are forecast to be the biggest market for 5G  internet of things (IoT) solutions over the next three years, the automotive market is expected to become the largest driver by 2023, according to Gartner Inc. The surveillance camera market will account for 70% of the 5G IoT endpoint installed base in 2020 with 2.5 million endpoints, reaching 11.2 million units in 2022 before falling to 32% of the market by the end of 2023.

Gartner’s report “Market Trends: 5G Opportunities in IoT for Communications Service Providers,  predicts that the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will more than triple between 2020 and 2021, from 3.5 million units in 2020 to 11.3 million units in 2021. By 2023, the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will near 49 million units (See Table 1 ), driven by connected cars and outdoor surveillance cameras

In 2023, the automotive industry will become the largest market for 5G IoT solutions, accounting for 53% of the 5G IoT endpoint units. The biggest 5G use case is expected to be embedded modules for connected cars. Gartner estimates that embedded endpoints in connected cars for commercial and consumer markets will represent an installed base of 19.1 million units out of a total of 25.9 million 5G endpoints in the automotive sector in 2023.

“The addressable market for embedded 5G connections in connected cars is growing faster than the overall growth in the 5G IoT sector,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian , senior research director at Gartner, in a statement. “Commercial and consumer connected-car embedded 5G endpoints will represent 11% of all 5G endpoints installed in 2020, and this figure will reach 39% by the end of 2023.”

The report also finds that the share of 5G-connected cars actively connected to a 5G service will grow from 15% in 2020 to 74% in 2023. Market share is expected to reach 94% in 2028, when 5G technology will be used for cellular V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communications.

This V2X connectivity will allow cars to talk to internal sensors and systems, other cars on the road, infrastructure, pedestrians, and cyclists. These subsets of V2X  are vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-network (V2N), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P).

The 5G wireless standard is driving a new collaboration between automotive and communication industries  as the 5G networking technology becomes a key ingredient in connected cars. The big two reasons are that 5G lowers latency and increases data speed and cellular coverage reliability, which will be important in connected cars and autonomous vehicles.

Innovation and new products

While 5G capabilities open up new enterprise market opportunities for communications service providers, as cited by Gartner, it also means big opportunities for automotive OEM component suppliers, ranging from microcontrollers to RF semiconductors to connectors and passive components, for a range of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving solutions. It also gives engineers working on next-generation automotive systems access to new innovative products that can simplify their design, increase performance, and reduce costs.

There’s no doubt that the semiconductor industry will be a big winner in the move to 5G technology. Market research firm IHS Markit  predicts that the deployment of 5G technology will pull the semiconductor industry out of its downturn in 2019, resulting in a 5.9% rebound in 2020, an 18-percent swing compared to 2019. Global revenue will reach $448 billion in 2020, up from $422.8 billion in 2019, according to the market research firm.

The 5G rollout into the automotive sector is driving improvements and integration in the RF semiconductor market. Earlier this year, major automakers announced cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) trials using Qorvo’s RF front-end module (FEM), which includes an HBT PA, PHEMT LNA, and PHEMT switch, and Qualcomm’s C-V2X 9150 chipset reference design. The linear output power and thermal management of the Qorvo FEM are important to supporting the real-time wireless safety communication system between vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, and infrastructure, said the company.

Automotive-grade timing devices are also improving for 5G connectivity, along with a variety of other automotive applications. As an example, Silicon Labs recently released a variety of AEC-Q100-qualified timing devices  including the Si5332 any-frequency programmable clock generators, Si5225x PCIe Gen1/2/3/4/5 clocks, Si5325x PCIe buffers, and Si5335x fanout clock buffers. These timing devices are designed for automotive applications such as camera sub-systems, radar and LiDAR sensors, ADAS, autonomous driving control units, driver monitoring cameras, infotainment systems, Ethernet switches, and GPS and 5G connectivity.

These timing devices are available now in 32-QFN and 40-QFN package options. Silicon Labs also offers a range of evaluation boards that work with the company’s ClockBuilder Pro that enables engineers to customize devices and evaluate performance.

5G also is driving technology innovation and collaboration among providers. A recent example is the partnership between Trimble and Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc. The companies are collaborating on precise-positioning solutions for automotive applications. 

Image: Qualcomm

The Trimble and Qualcomm collaboration will leverage Trimble’s RTX technology  , which provides real-time, multi-constellation GNSS corrections and positioning capable of achieving 2-cm horizontal accuracy worldwide, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon automotive 4G and 5G platforms , which feature integrated multi-frequency and multi-constellation high-precision GNSS technology, to develop accurate positioning solutions for absolute in-lane positioning. An RTX-enabled Snapdragon evaluation kit will be available by early 2020, for automotive OEMs.