With the trouncing of the San Francisco 49ers by the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Sunday, it’s honest to say that Infineon Applied sciences had a significantly better week than the Niners. In spite of everything, Infineon used Levi’s Stadium, the 49ers’ house, to host its annual OktoberTech occasion.
OktoberTech is performed in a number of cities globally. Infineon makes use of the occasion to point out off its expansive portfolio of ingredient semiconductor options that usually seem in vehicles, industrial energy management merchandise, energy and sensor programs, and safe linked choices.
Given Levi’s Stadium’s fame as probably the most energy-efficient and sustainable arenas within the Nationwide Soccer League, Infineon particularly selected the venue to host OktoberTech to advertise its decarbonization and digitalization themes that permeate its product choices.
Infineon shouldn’t be a light-weight within the know-how area. As of September 2021, the corporate employed greater than 50,000 workers globally and reported revenues of 11.06 billion euros, or roughly US$10.9 billion.
OktoberTech’s Aims
As articulated by Infineon’s North America President, Bob LeFort, OktoberTech is an interesting car to point out 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 father or mother firm, Siemens AG.
Most of the govt displays delivered on the occasion highlighted the corporate’s efforts to combat international warming. Thematically, the 30 product demos showcased tied immediately or not directly to mitigating the affect of carbon emissions and optimizing electrical power utilization.
Infineon’s mission is bolstered by its legacy of success in a number of high-profile market classes. The corporate reviews a virtually 20% share within the industrial electronics area, 15% in microcontrollers, 44% in sensor know-how, and 25% in security-based merchandise.
Infineon Automotive Options
A number of of the demos showcased on the OktoberTech occasion concerned automotive capabilities. For instance, Infineon’s microelectromechanical programs (MEMS) microphone know-how was proven in collaboration with Cerence, a specialist in AI, on the occasion.
Demos performed at Infineon’s OktoberTech occasion at Levi’s Stadium, Oct. 20, 2022
Primarily the identical Infineon microphones that automakers at present use for voice recognition, these microphones are perfect for exterior purposes, similar to detecting harmful street situations or siren warnings.
The distinctive engineering problem with siren identification is that police and emergency automobiles make the most of greater than 1,500 completely different sirens worldwide. Nevertheless, Cerence’s AI know-how can precisely detect a siren, then routinely cease the automotive, and pull it over to permit emergency automobiles to move.
Infineon’s MEMS microphone know-how can also be “hardened” for utilization outdoors of the automotive as it’s certified to the AEC-Q103-003 normal, which means that it may 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 exhausting to digest the intensive library of ingredient capabilities that Infineon markets. Many end-user merchandise that customers and companies use daily and take as a right wouldn’t be potential with out Infineon’s innovation, design-in prowess, and, maybe most significantly, cost-effectiveness.
From an exterior advertising and marketing standpoint, Infineon’s chief problem is that almost all customers are unfamiliar with the corporate, as its know-how is usually not obvious to the tip person. Different ingredient corporations are additionally not immune from this downside, however I feel Infineon would profit from heightened consciousness work and messaging.
Nevertheless, the ultimate product itself wouldn’t be potential with out it. In product classes like vehicles, silicon know-how comprising the general invoice of supplies is rising at a blistering price as automobiles develop into extra digital, EV-oriented, and technology-based.
Even in in the present day’s non-EV automobiles, 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 Ideas
Undoubtedly, there are a number of market tailwinds at Infineon’s again. With vehicles quickly turning into a “pc 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 area is an incredible asset for continued development.
However the transfer to assist decarbonization and extra aggressively embrace digitalization on the macro-market stage might gas the corporate’s development over the subsequent 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 area shortly lose their enchantment with customers and companies if it takes a number of weeks to fulfill native allowing guidelines.
Infineon’s place in IoT options, at all times considered one of its specialties, ought to stay stable, with the buyer market anticipated to develop at a hyper-level, with the Matter inoperability initiative lastly poised to point out up in tangible merchandise in early 2023.
Lastly, Infineon’s 2020 acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor has the potential to distinguish the corporate from its opponents. The addition of Cypress permits Infineon to solidify additional the corporate’s deal with basic development and a extra complete vary of purposes.
In prolonged interviews with Infineon’s senior govt workforce, it seems that its management grasps its enterprise alternative and company accountability 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 nice energy comes nice accountability.”
Not many profit-driven corporations would invoke that adage throughout a major company occasion, and it’s refreshing to see that sort of candor and genuineness uttered by a senior govt within the know-how area.
