July 9, 2025 Sudipto Bose, Vice President of Automotive at GlobalFoundries We often hear modern vehicles described as “smartphones on wheels.” But perhaps a better analogy is a human. Just as we use our senses to understand and react to the world – to see, to hear, to touch, to feel – today’s vehicles depend on an array of sensors to navigate the world around them. Cameras, radars, lidar and ultrasonic sensors work together to power advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), enabling a safer driving experience and laying down the foundation for the future of autonomous vehicles. We spoke to Sudipto Bose, GF’s Vice President of Automotive, to dig into how ADAS has transformed since its inception, the forces propelling innovation forward and how GlobalFoundries is innovating in partnership with customers and automotive leaders to support the future of safe driving. Tell us about how ADAS has evolved over the years. What did it look like when it first began, and what does it look like now? These systems’ smart safety features in your vehicle – known as ADAS – have come a long way over the past two decades. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class was one of the early pioneers of ADAS, debuting the Distronic adaptive cruise control feature back in 1999. This version of cruise control relied strictly on radar to maintain a certain distance from the car in front of it. Fast forward to today, modern ADAS features are tapping into cameras, lidar and ultrasonic sensors to create a more comprehensive view of the driving environment. What began as a system to help with braking or maintaining distance is now evolving into something much more advanced. Now, ADAS features are taking the steering wheel both literally and figuratively, progressing to systems capable of controlling the vehicle with little human intervention. Increasingly, ADAS is not just supporting drivers, but beginning to replace them – signaling a clear shift toward fully autonomous driving. You mentioned cruise control moving beyond radar — what kinds of sensors are key to ADAS today, and what role does each one play? “Your ADAS is only as good as your sensors.” A phrase you hear often in my industry, but there is plenty of truth behind it. At GF, we play an essential role in enabling the sensing technologies that power ADAS. These sensors are the driving force behind real-time decisions made by cars, informed by the collection and analysis of data that helps the vehicle interpret its surroundings. ADAS relies on a combination of sensors, each with a distinct role. The four major types include: Camera: Cameras capture images around the car to determine speed limits, lane markings, turn signals and more. Unlike smartphone cameras designed for human viewing, automotive cameras are optimized for machine vision. So, while cars do not need a 20 megapixel camera to identify whether an object crossing the street is a human, they do need high dynamic range to perform accurately in challenging lighting conditions, whether that is directly facing a setting sun or navigating pitch-black roads. Radar: Drivers do not stop for bad weather — and radar does not either. It accurately detects objects over long distances, even in rain, snow or fog. Lidar: Think of lidar as a laser beam scanning the scene to map out the car’s surroundings. Unlike cameras and radars, lidars excel at object classification, with an ability to differentiate between a pedestrian, bicyclist, animal, car or trash can with high precision. Ultrasonic: Finally, ultrasonic sensors are used in cars to monitor the immediate surroundings of the vehicle, emitting high-frequency sound waves to measure distance to nearby obstacles – like when you hear beeping while reversing into a tight space. What forces are driving this continuous innovation in ADAS technology? One of the biggest drivers of ADAS innovation is the push for better sensing performance to ensure high-fidelity perception. Every OEM is focused on achieving the best output power of sensors to extend detection range and ensure a clear image of the vehicle’s landscape. But it is not just about fidelity — power efficiency plays a crucial role, too. Even small differences in power consumption can have major implications. For example, a sensor operating at too high of a temperature can overheat quickly. When this happens, the sensor shuts down to cool off, then restarts once it is within a more ideal temperature range, repeating over and over. This process— known as duty cycling — reduces the sensor’s uptime and reliability. Think about it this way: if you blink every half a second, you miss a lot more of what happens around you than if you blink every 3 seconds. A sensor turning on and off frequently is missing critical information. That is why low-power sensor design is a major area of focus to help sensors stay online longer and deliver more consistent data to the vehicle’s automation engine. What are the challenges OEMs are running into when it comes to enabling ADAS features, and how semiconductor technologies are shaping the future of safer vehicles? Believe it or not, aesthetics are actually one of the most critical design challenges. The reason for this is that as cars gain more ADAS features to improve vehicle safety, they take up space in the vehicle. If you have ever ridden in a self-driving car like a Waymo, you have likely had an inside look at interior displays. While as a passenger you are likely impressed by the real-time sensor data and the vehicle’s surroundings, these are not necessarily features you would want in your own personal vehicle. Let’s face it — no matter how much ADAS improves safety, most people still choose cars based on design and how they look. That puts pressure on automakers to integrate sensors discreetly, driving demand for smaller, seamlessly designed components. Technologies like silicon photonics are enabling lidar and radar systems to be integrated onto a single chip, resulting in smaller, less power-hungry sensors. This means manufacturers can add more safety features without compromising design. As the future of vehicles relies not just on adding more sensors, but on doing so elegantly, this is only possible with advanced semiconductor technologies that support high performance in miniaturized form factors. Where does GF fit into the picture, and how is it innovating for the future? At GF, we are driving the next generation of ADAS by delivering innovation that enables key automotive sensors. For cameras, our 40nm and 22nm platforms provide low-noise performance and high dynamic range to capture accurate visual data in varying light. In radar, our Silicon Germanium 8XP, RF technology and 22FDX® platform support long-range object detection with high fidelity. We are also leveraging silicon photonics on our 45SPCLO platform to combine emission, reflection, and processing on a single chip for lidar, reducing the size of sensors for seamless vehicle integration. From global leaders like Bosch, indie semiconductor and Arbe, we are proud to help our customers make next-generation ADAS features a reality. As the industry accelerates towards autonomous vehicles, we are confident our technology will play a critical role in supporting a future of safer, smarter driving. Sudipto Bose is the Vice President of Automotive End Market at GF. He leads the Automotive team focused on the key semiconductor trends in the electrified and automated software defined vehicle and formulating GF’s product and commercial strategy in that space.
