Automotive and Drone GNSS Comparison: Technology, Performance, and Dual-Use Implications

Yole Group’s technology & cost report entitled, Automotive and Drone GNSS Comparison, delivers a comprehensive benchmark of GNSS semiconductor solutions deployed across both automotive ADAS platforms and drone navigation systems, covering key chipsets from u-blox, including M9140 and F10150, STMicroelectronics STA8100GA, and Trimble ECP916830B-2N.

Each device is analyzed within its real-world system integration, including platforms such as u-blox NEO-M9L-01A, NEO-F10N-00B, and ZED-F9K-00B-01, as well as Desay IPU03, Tesla Model S Driver Assist Autopilot 4.0, Quectel LG69T, and Trimble BD990, ensuring a fair and application-relevant comparison that reflects actual deployment conditions rather than standalone specifications.

All evaluated solutions support multi-constellation reception, including GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou, and increasingly incorporate advanced capabilities such as anti-jamming, anti-spoofing, and tightly coupled dead reckoning to maintain positioning reliability in dense urban environments, tunnels, and contested electromagnetic conditions.

The comparison highlights two distinct operating tiers, with compact u-blox-based platforms enabling extended dynamic ranges up to about 80,000 m for UAV and aerospace applications, while automotive-focused receivers are typically limited to around 18,000 m but optimized for robustness, cost efficiency, and integration into safety-critical systems. Differences are also observed in performance metrics such as velocity accuracy, acceleration tolerance, and resistance to harsh dynamics, with high-end solutions offering significantly tighter precision and enhanced resilience. By combining physical teardown, process technology analysis, manufacturing flow evaluation, and detailed cost modeling, the report provides a unique side-by-side assessment of design strategies, semiconductor node choices, integration complexity, and resulting economic trade-offs across vendors.

Dual-Use GNSS: From Civilian Tech to Battlefield Deployment

In parallel, open-source forensic investigations have recently reported that dual-use GNSS modules based on u-blox M9140 have been identified across several UAV categories, including both kamikaze and reconnaissance platforms. Among them is the Shahed-136 MS001, also known as Geran-2, a long-range loitering munition with a reported strike reach of up to 2,500 kilometers. Initially developed as a kamikaze system, it has also reportedly been adapted to carry the Soviet R-60 air-to-air missile as well as the fourth-generation infrared homing 9K333 Verba missile, originally designed as a surface-to-air weapon but in this configuration effectively used in an air-to-air role.

Reportedly, the same broader component visibility extends to reconnaissance-oriented systems such as the Supercam S350 and S150, which are designed for aerial photography, high-detail digital mapping and cartography, surveillance operations, and, in military use, reconnaissance, observation, and munitions deployment. Open-source investigations indicate that another example is the Orlan-10, a multipurpose unmanned aviation complex intended for surveillance of both long-range and local targets in hard-to-reach areas, and which has included a strike modification since 2022. Taken together, these findings may highlight the broader implications of widely available commercial GNSS technologies across civilian and military domains and their growing strategic relevance in ongoing conflicts, where such platforms could be deployed on scale.

Inside the M9140: Performance Meets Resilience

Within this context, the M9140 chip analyzed in this report appears to serve as the core of two advanced dual-use GNSS platforms developed by U-Blox, namely the NEO-M9L and ZED-F9K, both specifically designed for high-performance dead reckoning applications. The platform supports multi-band and multi-constellation GNSS reception, enabling accurate and continuous positioning even in degraded signal conditions, while also allowing tight integration with external 3D sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes to further enhance navigation robustness. It incorporates built-in spoofing and jamming detection mechanisms, complemented by an integrated anti-jamming solution, demonstrating a strong level of resilience against intentional and unintentional signal interference.

From a specification standpoint, the platform is reported to operate across a wide temperature range from −40 to +105 °C and supports dynamic conditions with a maximum velocity of 500 m/s and an operational altitude of up to 80 km, making it suitable for both automotive and UAV environments, including high-dynamic and high-altitude use cases. In addition, the receiver architecture, featuring up to 92 channels, may enable efficient tracking of multiple satellite constellations simultaneously, potentially reinforcing positioning accuracy, reliability, and overall system versatility across a wide range of dual-use applications.

28 nm Design and Fabless Strategy Uncovered

From a semiconductor manufacturing perspective, the u-blox M9140 appears to be built on a silicon substrate processed on 300 mm wafers, using a CMOS front-end that combines logic, RF analog functions, high-performance SRAM, and read-only memory. The delayering and SEM observations reported for the die indicate a CMOS transistor gate pitch of 28 nm, which consists of an advanced performance-oriented node for compact GNSS applications. The memory analysis is particularly notable, as the High-Performance 6T-SRAM is observed, while the die also integrates ROM blocks alongside the logic and RF analog regions.

The metallization stack is equally significant, with a total of nine metal layers identified, composed of eight copper interconnect layers and one aluminum top layer. Taken together, these structural characteristics support an estimated CMOS 28 nm manufacturing process, consistent with TSMC’s 28HP platform, and point to a design optimized for both integration density and performance. On that basis, it is reasonable to assess that the ASIC design was carried out by u-blox under a fabless model, while front-end wafer fabrication was outsourced to a 300 mm foundry. This interpretation is also consistent with the broader reverse-engineering findings in the report, which characterize the M9140 as a highly integrated GNSS chip manufactured through an advanced outsourced semiconductor process rather than an internally fabricated device.

From Teardown to Cost: A Complete Industry Benchmark

Additional physical analysis details for the M9140, along with the full reverse-engineering and comparative analyses of other solutions by u-blox, STMicroelectronics, and Trimble, are available in the Automotive and Drone GNSS Comparison 2025 report. The study also includes detailed manufacturing process flow reconstructions, cost modeling, selling price simulations, and side-by-side comparisons across the analyzed devices, providing a deeper view of the technology choices, integration strategies, and economic trade-offs behind each solution.

About the Author

Ihor Pershukov, PhD, is a Technology & Cost Analyst, Radio Frequency at Yole Group. With a deep expertise in semiconductor manufacturing, materials, and radio frequency (RF) devices, Ihor oversees reverse engineering and costing analyses. Collaborating closely with the laboratory team, he defines analysis objectives and establishes methodologies to unveil the structure of RF devices. Prior to Yole Group, Ihor served as a researcher at CEA-Leti, concentrating on piezoelectric materials for the manufacturing of acoustic devices. Ihor holds a master’s degree in Nanoscale Engineering from École Centrale de Lyon (France) and a master’s degree in Applied Physics and Nanomaterials from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine). He has a PhD in Materials Science from École Centrale de Lyon.