With the San Francisco 49ers being trounced by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, it’s fair to say that Infineon Technologies had a much better week than the Niners. Eventually, Infineon used Levi’s Stadium, home of the 49ers, to host their annual OktoberTech event.
OktoberTech is organized in many cities around the world. Infineon uses the event to showcase its wide portfolio of component semiconductor solutions that often appear in automobiles, industrial power control products, power and sensor systems, and secure connected offerings.
Given Levi’s Stadium’s reputation as one of the most energy-efficient and sustainable arenas in the National Football League, Infineon has extended its decarbonization and digitization themes pervading their product offerings, especially to host Oktobertech. Place chosen for promotion.
Infineon is not light in terms of technology. As of September 2021, the company employed over 50,000 employees globally and recorded revenues of EUR 11.06 billion, or approximately US$10.9 billion.
Objectives of OktoberTech
As articulated by Infineon’s North America President Bob Lefort, OktoberTech is an engaging medium that showcases its solution catalog in a friendly and casual environment and encourages enthusiastic discourse with event attendees and company partners. does.
The OktoberTech moniker pays tribute to the company’s German heritage. Headquartered in Neubiberg, Germany, Infineon was spun off from its former parent company, Siemens AG, in 1999.
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Several executive presentations given at the event highlighted the company’s efforts to fight global warming. Thematically, 30 product demos tied directly or indirectly to reducing the impact of carbon emissions and optimizing electrical energy use.
Infineon’s mission is fueled by its legacy of success in several high-profile market categories. The company reports about 20% in the industrial electronics space, 15% in microcontrollers, 44% in sensor technology, and 25% in security-based products.
Infineon Automotive Solutions
Many of the demos showcased at the OktoberTech event included automotive capabilities. For example, Infineon’s Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) microphone technology was shown at the event in collaboration with AI specialist Cerence.
Demo held at Infineon’s OktoberTech event at Levi’s Stadium on October 20, 2022
Essentially the same Infineon microphones that automakers currently use for voice recognition, these microphones are ideal for outdoor applications, such as detecting dangerous road conditions or siren warnings.
The unique engineering challenge with identifying sirens is that police and emergency vehicles use over 1,500 different sirens around the world. However, Cerence’s AI technology can accurately detect a siren, then automatically stop the car, and pull it over to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
Infineon’s MEMS microphone technology is also “hardened” for use outside the car because it is qualified to the AEC-Q103-003 standard, which means it can work in low (-40 degrees F) and high (221 degrees F) temperatures. can work. These microphones also have a form of noise cancellation for capturing distortion-free audio that is needed for loud environments.
Analyst Tech
The extensive library of content capabilities available in the market by Infineon is hard to digest. Many of the end-user products that consumers and businesses use every day and are taken for granted, would not be possible without Infineon’s innovation, design-in prowess, and perhaps most important, cost-effectiveness.
From an external marketing standpoint, Infineon’s main challenge is that most consumers are unfamiliar with the company, as its technology is often not clear to the end user. Other ingredient companies are also not immune to this problem, but I think Infineon will benefit from awareness work and messaging.
However, without this the final product itself would not be possible. In product categories such as automobiles, silicon technology that comprises the overall bill of materials is growing rapidly as cars become more digital, EV-oriented and technology-based.
Even in today’s non-EV vehicles, there are estimated to be around 1,000 chips embedded, and in EVs that number rises to 2,000, underscoring Infineon’s strategic business opportunity.
closing thoughts
Undoubtedly, there are several market tailwinds in the back of Infineon. With automobiles increasingly becoming “computers on wheels” – a phrase used in many interviews with Infineon executives during the OktoberTech event – Infineon’s know-how in this area is a tremendous asset to continued growth.
But supporting decarbonization and adopting digitization more aggressively at the macro-market level could fuel the company’s growth over the next several years.
Another point needs to be made: more progress must be made to dramatically reduce bureaucracy in the local permitting and regulatory areas related to EV chargers. As I reported a few weeks ago, companies like Infineon are able to delve into the EV charger space if it takes several weeks to meet local permitting regulations, which quickly lose their appeal with consumers and businesses.
Infineon’s position in IoT solutions, always one of its forte, should remain solid, with the Matter Inoperability initiative, expected to grow at the hyper-level of the consumer market. eventually It is set to appear in tangible products in early 2023.
Finally, Infineon’s 2016 acquisition of Cyprus Semiconductor has the potential to set the company apart from its competitors. The addition of Cypress allows Infineon to focus on the company’s core growth and a much broader range of applications.
In an extended interview with Infineon’s senior executive team, it appears that its leadership understands its business opportunity and corporate responsibility to maximize decarbonization with its solutions.
Interview with Infineon’s leadership at the OktoberTech event at Levi’s Stadium on October 20, 2022
Bob Lefort quoted from the film “Spider-Man” as saying that Infineon believes that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Not many profit-driven companies will apply that adage during an important corporate event, and it’s refreshing to see that type of clarity and reality uttered by a senior executive in the technology sector.