Tomorrow's Technological Revolution is Today's Science Fiction

Smart technology has been revolutionizing human life endlessly. However, this is just the beginning.Technologies that are still nascent will soon become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. In a candid conversation with Badrinarayanan Kothandaraman,EVP-DCD & Executive Director, Cypress India, he talks about this imminent transformation in areas that Cypress plays in.

Trends Shaping the Industry

Technology is allowing human interactions with gadgets to become more natural – using voice, touch, gestures. For example, the usage of mechanical buttons on electronic devices is soon going to be history. Touch technology has revolutionized the way people interact with mobile phones, televisions, induction cook tops, laptops, and others. Soon, mechanical switches for lights, fans, and other electrical devices will be replaced by touch-enabled switches. The automobile industry is also adopting touch for interactive electronic controls. Cypress offers superior capacitive sensing and touch technology to their customers through an array of products.Capacitive sensing technology processes the capacitance between the finger and the button to detect a finger touch.

3-D gesturing is another technology which uses a sensing device to detect hand movements and identify direction controls. Cypress' EZ-USB® FX3 solution is being used in the Leap Motion Controller for its 3-D motion sensing and control technology to create a three-dimensional interaction space that allows users to control their PCs with intuitive hand gestures.

Bluetooth low energy is another technology ready to transform our lives. The technology equips any device to communicate with other devices with minimal battery consumption. For example, a heart monitoring device equipped with Bluetooth low energy chip can monitor and transfer the relevant data to the user’s mobile phone, which in turn can either store or automatically upload the information onto the web for doctors to remotely view the data real time. Real-time patient monitoring gives a major impetus to the healthcare sector. Bluetooth low energy also enables a user to wirelessly connect and monitor home appliances such as refrigerators, televisions, and washing machines and control them through smart devices such as PCs and mobile phones.

Challenges: Semiconductor Industry

The biggest challenge facing the semiconductor industry today is the ability to build chips that are programmable and impose minimal changes to system hardware while adding features. Cypress' PSoC (Programmable Systems on Chip) is the world's only programmable embedded system-on-chip integrating high-performance analog, PLD-based programmable logic, memory, and a microcontroller – all on a single chip. This enables an engineer to integrate complex digital and analog processing into a single programmable chip, thereby, reducing number of board components and the cost of manufacturing.

It is important for a semiconductor company to make innovations at the right time and for the right target market. Be it touch technology in mobile devices, BLE in the healthcare and fitnessmarket, or the EZ-USB solution for Leap Motion's 3D gesture product, Cypress believes that innovation is the key to success and has always strived to help the industry move to the next generation.

The semiconductor industry also faces a significant challenge of selling differentiated products at competitive prices. The best cost for best performance is Cypress' motto. Cypress believes in providing value to its customers and uses the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system to serve them better. "We take feedback from customers directly and make sure each customer's feedback is acted upon very seriously."

Stick to Grow

Persistence is the driver to long-term success; not only for a company but also for an employee. With respect to individual growth he says, "I have seen a lot of people hopping jobs to see a hockey stick growth in their salary. This provides only short term success. But in the long term, professional contentment and passion for what you do takes over monetary benefits.Sticking to a company will always provide a defined and responsible position in the long run. I always advise people to build their careers within the company and explore all opportunities available for growth."

Roadmap ahead

"India is a major site for Cypress and we believe in building our team and providing opportunities to passionate employees. Last year around 95 fresh graduates joined our company and this year also we look to infuse fresh talent into our company.

Cypress is making fast progress in its three verticals of focus - PSoC, Memory and USB products. The industry will see more innovations coming in these verticals from us."
(As told to Anamika Sahu)

Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) delivers high performance, mixed signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with exceptional system integrationand rapid time-to-market. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company has a current market capital of $1.63 Billion.