Microcontroller Unit (MCU) lead times are currently twice as high as the market average for semiconductors. This is mainly due to a front-end bottleneck with ~90% of the market being controlled by the top 5 MCU designers.

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) alone holds ~70% of the market share, but only makes 4% of its total revenue from MCU sales, resulting in high dependence and low bargaining power for the automotive industry.

This paper demonstrates all the current challenges – and offers solutions – for automotive manufacturers who highly depend on MCUs.