Samsung System LSI is CIS vendor for Hyundai’s latest car

Samsung System LSI, Samsung’s logic chip designing business unit, has been registered as a secondary vendor of automotive CMOS image sensor (CIS) for Hyundai Motor’s latest car model, TheElec has learned.

The primary vendor for the car model, which launched during the first half of the year, is Omnivision, sources said.

Samsung System LSI is the secondary vendor, and its CIS is supplied to Hyundai Mobis which makes it a complete camera module and supplies it to Hyundai Motor, they added.

The CIS market grew on the back of smartphones for the past decade but more automobiles are also adopting them.

More units of the sensors are expected to be used in future cars as they adopt more self-driving features.

The sensors act as eyes for automobiles and supply them with image data.

Automotive CIS are generally more expensive than CIS used in other products as they need to be more durable.

According to Yole Development, the global automotive CIS market was worth US$4.4 billion in 2018 but will be worth US$8.7 billion in 2024.

The global automotive CIS market is led by ONSemiconductor and Omnivision. Sony and Samsung, which are powerhouses in CIS for smartphones, are considered tier-2 to these top vendors.

Automobile companies are also slow to change vendors for these components as they have more stringent safety requirements. But the growth in the sector is giving opportunities for Sony and Samsung to secure more shares.

Samsung System LSI has been showing results since executive vice president of its automotive sensor team Haechang Lee joined the company two years ago, sources said.

Lee has previously worked for six years at Google as head of the company’s sensor team.

Since the EVP joined the tech giant, Samsung’s technology in automotive sensors has jumped substantially, the sources said. Samsung System LSI head Park Yong-in had made considerable efforts to hire Lee.