Infineon Technologies AG today announced a partnership with UL Solutions to accelerate the implementation of ISO 26262 functional safety compliance for its automotive customers. The international standard provides a process for managing and reducing safety risks associated with the integration of electrical and electronic systems for automotive safety applications essential for dependable connectivity, electromobility, and higher levels of automated driving.

UL Solutions’ Software Intensive Systems group will offer Infineon’s customers help in achieving ISO 26262 compliance with the accurate use of Infineon chipsets in ASILx applications, enhancing vehicle safety while reducing product development costs and the average time to market for new vehicles.

“With the rise of electrification, vehicle automation, and driver-assistance functions, along with functional safety, continue to be critical elements for OEMs and customers,” said Bill Stewart, VP of Marketing for Americas for Infineon Technologies. “By partnering with UL Solutions, automotive customers now have robust support and tools to become ISO 26262-compliant and to help ensure their systems are functionally safe, reliable, and secure. Customers will also have access to additional tools to aid in keeping their functional safety systems up to date for the life cycle of their vehicle.”

Customers using Infineon’s Aurix and Traveo-II microcontrollers, Optireg PMICs (power management ICs), Motix gate drivers, and Xensiv sensors will have access to UL Solutions’ suite of services, including ISO 26262 training, customized consulting during product development, and external assessment of standard compliance.

“Functional safety is a critical piece of automotive design,” said Florian Schmidt, Senior Director and General Manager of the Mobility and Critical Systems Group at UL Solutions. “Our collaboration with Infineon provides their customers access to a comprehensive suite of our services to help expedite their time to market while unlocking innovation, market expansion, and a seamless integration of safety, security, and sustainability.”

In April, Infineon Technologies announced that it had bolstered its global and regional market leadership positions in automotive semiconductors, including its strong position in microcontrollers, according to the latest market research from TechInsights, its “2024 Automotive Semiconductor Vendor Market Share” report, published in March.

In 2024, Infineon achieved a market share of 13.5% in the global automotive semiconductor market, followed by NXP Semiconductors (10.4%), STMicroelectronics (8.8%), Texas Instruments (8.4%), and Renesas Electronics (6.8%). The rest in the top 10 were Onsemi, Micron, Qualcomm, Bosch, and Analog Devices.

In Europe, Infineon climbed to the top spot with a 14.1% market share, up from second in 2023. In North America, it rose from third to the second-largest market participant with a 10.4% share. Its global market share in microcontrollers rose to 32.0%, increasing the lead over the second-placed competitor by 2.7 percentage points.

Further up the semiconductor food chain, the company is accelerating the buildup of its system capabilities for SDVs (software-defined vehicles) with the acquisition of Marvell Technology’s Automotive Ethernet business, also announced in April. The acquisition is intended to further strengthen Infineon’s number one position in microcontrollers and its strong footprint in the U.S., including extensive R&D activities. Ethernet is a key enabling technology for low-latency, high-bandwidth communication, which is crucial for SDVs and has significant potential in adjacent fields such as humanoid robots.

“We will leverage this highly complementary Ethernet technology by combining it with our existing, broad product portfolio to provide our customers with even more comprehensive, leading solutions for software-defined vehicles,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon, in April. “The transaction will support our profitable growth strategy going forward, including new opportunities in the field of physical AI such as humanoid robots.”

Marvell’s market-leading Brightlane automotive Ethernet portfolio of PHY (short for physical layer) transceivers, switches, and bridges supports network data rates ranging from 100 Mbps up to market-leading 10 Gbps, supporting the security and safety features required for tomorrow’s in-vehicle networks.

Among the customers of Marvell’s automotive Ethernet business are more than 50 automotive manufacturers, including eight of the ten leading OEMs. The strong customer relationships are backed by a design-win pipeline of around $4 billion until 2030 and a strong innovation roadmap, paving the way for future revenue growth. The business is expected to generate revenue of $225-250 million in the 2025 calendar year with a gross margin of around 60%.

Infineon believes that Ethernet connectivity solutions are vital to SDVs and the basis for highly efficient E/E architectures comprising central compute, zones, and endpoints. Sophisticated technologies such as advanced driver-assistance systems, autonomous driving, and over-the-air software updates require massive amounts of secure data processing, networking, and storage. The combination with the Aurix microcontroller family will create a more comprehensive product offering communications with real-time control.