Semiconductors for the coming trends
Ahead of the Customers' Needs
Three trends will drive semiconductor manufacturers in 2020 to develop new technologies and components for their customers. Michael Anfang from STMicroelectronics sees a particular need for microcontrollers and sensors in addition to power semiconductors with wide bandgap.
As a semiconductor supplier our mission is to develop technologies and products that will serve and enable needs from our customers 3, 5 or 10 years from now. That is why is important to be focused on long-term trends driving the electronics market and the associated challenges our customers are dealing with. Among there are three trends that STMicroelectronics considers fundamental today: Smart Mobility, Power and Energy Management, and the Internet of Things.
Smart Mobility
Smart Mobility means thinking in a different manner the way we live our lives today, and will influence how people, businesses, and communities interact. Smart Mobility will shape our prosperity and quality of life in the future. It is about reducing accidents, congestion, pollution and wasted time. It implies enabling new business models through vehicle digitalization and supporting infrastructure. It encourages alternative forms of transport and new models for vehicle ownership and sharing. Its drives the e-Mobility to make cities cleaner and reduce our carbon footprint.
Semiconductors play a key role in Smart Mobility as they bring innovation.
- First, in enabling vehicle electrification with higher efficiency for example thanks to wide band-gap technologies, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC), that are at the heart of the drive-train and charging systems of the most efficient electric cars on the road today.
- Second with digital and RF technologies that support ADAS such as high-performance low-power vision processors, V2X (Vehicle to Everything) connectivity technologies, Precise Positioning with safety critical levels of protection, or Radar and Lidar solutions.
- Third, with next generation of secure and safe microcontrollers supporting the evolution of the E/E system architecture of the car with a new class of powerful domain controllers.
Power & Energy Management
Energy demand is increasing globally along with an urgent need to reduce the environmental impact of power generation and consumption. It is therefore crucial to innovate in technology and products for power and energy management. Semiconductors play a key role in making electrical machines in factories, buildings and homes energy efficient, as well optimizing the power consumption of each new generation of machine or electronic device.
Here again, the latest generation of wide-band semiconductor technologies will play a key role in making high-power devices, such as industrial motors and drives or electric vehicle charging stations, more energy efficient. Other power and energy management solutions will also be key: such as highly integrated power, analog and digital system-on-chip solutions, smart motor control solutions, and microcontroller-driven digital power control.
Internet of Things
The IoT is transforming every area of our lives today – where we work, where we live, the cars we drive, and the objects we use. Today connection to the Internet means connection to added value. Whether in a factory, in the city or in our homes, the collection, processing and secure transmission of data to the cloud brings value for consumers, device manufacturers and service providers. Connection of industrial devices to the internet will drive new value generation for device and system manufacturers and their customers. For example, machine life-cycle management will be transformed through connected smart sensor systems that can monitor, analyze and share data about machine condition and enable predictive maintenance.
Semiconductors can provide cost effective industrial sensors such as accelerometers, vibrometers, pressure and temperature sensors to monitor every aspect of machine performance. They provide long and short-range wireless connectivity for green-field installations as well as wired connectivity options where in-facility cabling exists. They bring AI-powered microprocessor and microcontrollers to process and analyze data as well as secure microcontrollers to ensure data integrity and security from device to Cloud.
The author
Michael Anfang
is Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing for STMicroelectronics’ Europe, Middle East and Africa Region (EMEA), and has held this position since November 2018.
Anfang started his career with Siemens Semiconductor AG in 1990 in product engineering, followed by responsibilities in product design, automotive and strategic marketing. In 1999, he joined ST as an automotive business development manager. In 2002, Anfang was given responsibility for microcontroller product marketing at ST’s Automotive Division in Agrate, Italy and was promoted to Director of Marketing & Applications in 2005. Four years later, he was appointed Digital Automotive Business Unit Director of the Automotive Product Group and became a member of the management team responsible for the MCU Joint Development Program between Freescale and STMicroelectronics. In 2013, Anfang joined the EMEA regional organization of STMicroelectronics as Automotive Marketing & Applications Vice President.
Michael Anfang was born in Kitzbühel, Austria, in 1968. He graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Higher Technical School in Saalfelden, Austria, and a degree in Business Management and Marketing from the FU University in Hagen-Munich, Germany.
michael.anfang@st.com
