Infineon’s OktoberTech Event Zeroes In on Decarbonization, Digitalization

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’ residence, to host its annual OktoberTech occasion.

OktoberTech is performed in a number of cities globally. Infineon makes use of the occasion to indicate off its expansive portfolio of ingredient semiconductor options that usually seem in vehicles, industrial energy management merchandise, energy and sensor programs, and safe related choices.

Given Levi’s Stadium’s status as one of the 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 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 Goals

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 ambiance 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 mother or father firm, Siemens AG.

Lots of the government shows delivered on the occasion highlighted the corporate’s efforts to struggle international warming. Thematically, the 30 product demos showcased tied straight 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 an almost 20% share within the industrial electronics house, 15% in microcontrollers, 44% in sensor expertise, 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 expertise 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 the moment use for voice recognition, these microphones are perfect for exterior functions, reminiscent of detecting harmful highway 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 totally different sirens worldwide. Nonetheless, Cerence’s AI expertise can precisely detect a siren, then mechanically cease the automotive, and pull it over to permit emergency automobiles to go.

Infineon’s MEMS microphone expertise can be “hardened” for utilization outdoors of the automotive as it’s certified to the AEC-Q103-003 commonplace, which means that it could actually 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 arduous to digest the intensive library of ingredient capabilities that Infineon markets. Many end-user merchandise that buyers and companies use on daily basis and take without any consideration 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 the majority shoppers are unfamiliar with the corporate, as its expertise is commonly not obvious to the tip consumer. Different ingredient corporations are additionally not immune from this downside, however I feel Infineon would profit from heightened consciousness work and messaging.

Nonetheless, the ultimate product itself wouldn’t be potential with out it. In product classes like vehicles, silicon expertise comprising the general invoice of supplies is rising at a blistering fee as automobiles turn out to be extra digital, EV-oriented, and technology-based.

Even in immediately’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 throughout the OktoberTech occasion — Infineon’s know-how on this house is an incredible asset for continued development.

However the transfer to assist decarbonization and extra aggressively embrace digitalization on the macro-market stage might gasoline the corporate’s development over the following a number of years.

One different level must be made: extra progress should happen to dramatically scale 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 stable, 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.

Lastly, 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 give attention to elementary development and a extra complete vary of functions.

In prolonged interviews with Infineon’s senior government staff, 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 kind of candor and genuineness uttered by a senior government within the expertise house.