With the trouncing of the San Francisco 49ers by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, it’s honest to say that Infineon Technologies had a a lot better week than the Niners. After all, Infineon used Levi’s Stadium, the 49ers’ residence, to host its annual OktoberTech occasion.
OktoberTech is carried out in a number of cities globally. Infineon makes use of the occasion to indicate off its expansive portfolio of ingredient semiconductor options that always seem in cars, industrial energy management merchandise, energy and sensor programs, and safe linked choices.
Given Levi’s Stadium’s popularity as one of the vital energy-efficient and sustainable arenas within the National Football League, Infineon particularly selected the venue to host OktoberTech to advertise its decarbonization and digitalization themes that permeate its product choices.
Infineon is just not a light-weight within the expertise house. As of September 2021, the corporate employed greater than 50,000 staff globally and reported revenues of 11.06 billion euros, or roughly US$10.9 billion.
OktoberTech’s Objectives
As articulated by Infineon’s North America President, Bob LeFort, OktoberTech is an interesting automobile to indicate off its options catalog in a pleasant and informal environment and encourage spirited discourse with the occasion’s attendees and the corporate’s companions.
The OktoberTech moniker pays homage to the corporate’s German heritage. Headquartered in Neubiberg, Germany, in 1999, Infineon was spun off from its former guardian firm, Siemens AG.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Many of the manager displays delivered on the occasion highlighted the corporate’s efforts to combat world warming. Thematically, the 30 product demos showcased tied immediately or not directly to mitigating the impression of carbon emissions and optimizing electrical vitality utilization.
Infineon’s mission is bolstered by its legacy of success in a number of high-profile market classes. The firm reviews an almost 20% share within the industrial electronics house, 15% in microcontrollers, 44% in sensor expertise, and 25% in security-based merchandise.
Infineon Automotive Solutions
Several of the demos showcased on the OktoberTech occasion concerned automotive capabilities. For instance, Infineon’s microelectromechanical programs (MEMS) microphone expertise was proven in collaboration with Cerence, a specialist in AI, on the occasion.
Demos carried out at Infineon’s OktoberTech occasion at Levi’s Stadium, Oct. 20, 2022
Essentially the identical Infineon microphones that automakers at the moment use for voice recognition, these microphones are perfect for exterior functions, equivalent to detecting harmful street situations or siren warnings.
The distinctive engineering problem with siren identification is that police and emergency autos make the most of greater than 1,500 totally different sirens worldwide. However, Cerence’s AI expertise can precisely detect a siren, then routinely cease the automotive, and pull it over to permit emergency autos to move.
Infineon’s MEMS microphone expertise can be “hardened” for utilization outdoors of the automotive as it’s certified to the AEC-Q103-003 commonplace, that means that it may well function in low (-40 levels F) and excessive (221 levels F) temperatures. These microphones even have a type of noise cancellation to seize distortion-free audio, which is required for loud environments.
Analyst Take
It’s laborious to digest the in depth library of ingredient capabilities that Infineon markets. Many end-user merchandise that buyers and companies use day by day and take without any consideration wouldn’t be doable with out Infineon’s innovation, design-in prowess, and, maybe most significantly, cost-effectiveness.
From an exterior advertising standpoint, Infineon’s chief problem is that the majority shoppers are unfamiliar with the corporate, as its expertise is commonly not obvious to the top consumer. Other ingredient corporations are additionally not immune from this downside, however I believe Infineon would profit from heightened consciousness work and messaging.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
However, the ultimate product itself wouldn’t be doable with out it. In product classes like cars, silicon expertise comprising the general invoice of supplies is rising at a blistering charge as vehicles change into extra digital, EV-oriented, and technology-based.
Even in as we speak’s non-EV autos, estimates are that round 1,000 chips are embedded, and that quantity grows to 2,000 in EVs, underscoring Infineon’s strategic enterprise alternative.
Closing Thoughts
Undoubtedly, there are a number of market tailwinds at Infineon’s again. With cars quickly turning into a “computer on wheels” — a phrase utilized in a number of interviews with Infineon executives in the course of the OktoberTech occasion — Infineon’s know-how on this house is an amazing asset for continued development.
But the transfer to help decarbonization and extra aggressively embrace digitalization on the macro-market degree may gasoline the corporate’s development over the following a number of years.
One different level must be made: extra progress should happen to dramatically cut back paperwork within the native allowing and regulatory areas regarding EV chargers. As I chronicled just a few weeks in the past, the capabilities that corporations like Infineon allow within the EV charger house rapidly lose their enchantment with shoppers and companies if it takes a number of weeks to fulfill native allowing guidelines.
Infineon’s place in IoT options, all the time one in all its specialties, ought to stay strong, with the patron market anticipated to develop at a hyper-level, with the Matter inoperability initiative lastly poised to indicate up in tangible merchandise in early 2023.
Finally, Infineon’s 2020 acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor has the potential to distinguish the corporate from its rivals. The addition of Cypress permits Infineon to solidify additional the corporate’s concentrate on basic development and a extra complete vary of functions.
In prolonged interviews with Infineon’s senior government group, it seems that its management grasps its enterprise alternative and company duty to maximise decarbonization with its options.
Interviews with Infineon’s management at OktoberTech occasion at Levi’s Stadium, Oct. 20, 2022
Bob LeFort quoted from the film “Spider-Man” by saying that Infineon acknowledges that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Not many profit-driven corporations would invoke that adage throughout a big company occasion, and it’s refreshing to see that sort of candor and genuineness uttered by a senior government within the expertise house.