Infineon India: Ingeniously Enhancing Energy Efficiency along Entire Supply Chain Date:   Thursday , April 09, 2015 The dream castles of nearly all emerging technologies are built on the cornerstone of Semiconductors. Be it ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), industrial robotics, smart factory or smart home, they all require gathering of data, interpreting them and acting upon them. In semiconductor world, there are sensors, microcontrollers and power switches as actuators or drivers working under a complex system. As modern society\'s need combined with steroidal growth of Indian economy has magnified the semiconductor demand, Infineon - the global semiconductor innovation leader in energy efficiency, mobility and security, is excited with this more than welcome challenge. Noting that enhancing energy efficiency is the company\'s major focus area, its innovative power semiconductors and packaging technology helps to reduce power consumption, heat and switching losses; thereby reducing the impact on environment. Walking the Green Talk With a new government and emphasis on renewable sources, MNRE is fervently pushing initiatives for solar & wind segments. \"Solar power can be a game changer for India, to address massive power shortage problem and help India achieve its economic goals in an environmentally sustainable manner,\" foresees Vinay Shenoy, Managing Director, Infineon Technologies (India). \"To meet future energy, security and environmental considerations, India\'s solar ecosystem must be nurtured in next decade so that the green shoots that have emerged can grow strong and provide the platform for solar power,\" he adds. Aside from rigid CO2 regulations and safety rules, massive urbanization is also magnetizing more investment towards clean technology such as electric drive train. Noting that 43 percent of its total product innovations are environmental innovations, Infineon is geared up for this paradigm shift towards e-mobility. The company\'s products raise the ecological efficiency of end-products and help generate savings in relevant applications over their whole lifecycle of approximately 15.8 million tons of CO2 equivalents. Upholding the corporate philosophy of \'sustainability\', Infineon\'s products enable electricity generation from renewable sources, minimize power loss and aid to boost efficiency at every link in supply chain. Ebbs & Flows Born on April 1999 in Bangalore, as a spin off from Siemens AG, Infineon has come a long way. The company has divested broadband and wireless communications. The year 2009 was a lean period for global business, but the company\'s leadership and strategic focus enabled it to sail through the tough times and to remain profitable. As evidence, look no further than the IMS Research which substantiated that Infineon continues its decade long global market leadership in Power Semiconductors. Having spread its wings worldwide, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in U.S., APAC and Japan with over 20 R&D locations across Austria, China, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore among others. Built strong technology portfolio with 19,000 plus patents and patent applications, Infineon today has emerged as Germany\'s largest and Europe\'s second largest semiconductor company. In FY 2014, the company reported sales of - 4.3 billion with about 29,800 employees worldwide. The company has established a wide network jointly with local and global customers who have set up their operations in India. Especially in automotive field, Infineon has created a strong presence in both two- and four-wheeler markets by offering smart and efficient semiconductor solutions to OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers. \"As such there is no one-size-fits-all business model,\" explains Vinay. While businesses like chip card and security need project-based approach via partnership or consortium, standard products in a fragmented market require distribution channels to address the mass market. In automotive case, Infineon establishes strong collaborative relationship with customers that include joint product development. P2S - Innovating From Product Thinking to System Understanding The company\'s security controllers are instrumental in ensuring critical authentication and security performance in electronic communications to achieve protection in a user-friendly manner, and are used today in many applications including e-passports, credit cards, transportation and ticketing. \"In addition to software concept engineering and product development, the software R&D unit regularly trains its partners/customers and offers consultancy as needed,\" says Prakash Balasubramanian, Senior Staff Engineer - Automotive Software, Infineon India and an adept author of numerous patents. Infineon\'s Automotive Microcontroller Business Unit ensures burgeoning sales of microcontrollers globally with its enabler and premium software offerings. With over 450 qualified professionals, Bangalore today is one of the major development centres within Infineon\'s R&D network and plays a vital role in software development and hardware design. The company\'s annual investments in R&D and the development of the India market currently total over - 10 million. \"The central R&D ensures an EDA license cost structure which is industry benchmark and transparent to our Business Lines,\" says Chandhra Kypa, Head - Design Engineering Services, Infineon India and IIM alumni with robust management proficiency. Other responsibilities of central R&D include: Enabling designs and support\'s business units throughout product development cycle by providing a Design environment for all active technologies at optimal usability, accuracy, and quality Providing IP blocks that support strong product differentiation, enable maximum development productivity up to product tape out and are pre-developed in-time, highly reusable, and easy to integrate Providing product implementation services including IC physical design, IC manufacturing, testing, board design, system design and testing at industry benchmark (quality & productivity) Transparency+Inclusivity+Diversity =High Performance Culture with Commitment \"Our people initiatives are tagged under the \'My Infineon My Opportunities\' (MIMO) umbrella, an overarching framework which drives various people agenda like \'Get & Keep, Develop & Reward\',\" explains Vijay Manjeshwar, Director & Country Head - HR, Infineon India, who proficiently drives HR operational excellence. By engaging tactics like alumni network, the company prevails in the war for top talent and hires them based on the transparent \'Infineon behaviour model\'. The multinational matrix culture maximizes potential and creates visibility for talents globally across Infineon sites through development conference. Infineon works with International Universities for grooming top talent for future. While rewards committee analyse & evaluate reward nominations, fun team ensures employees\' participation in Sports & Fun Events. UR@Infineon, the University Relations team connects different universities & Infineon to facilitate formal education for those pursuing higher education while at work. The blend of ideas from diverse personalities contributes to high performance. Innovation forums are empowered and interesting ideas are incubated and supported with innovation funds. Strengthening Competitiveness \"Growth for Infineon will be led by automotive and followed by renewable energy. Local companies will be developing innovative electronics systems for Indian market thereby driving closer technical collaboration with Infineon,\" anticipates Vinay. Infineon\'s existing engineering activities will also be expanded further by initiating a new competence centre for power electronics. In January 2015, the company acquired U.S.-based International Rectifier Corporation, a leading provider of power management technology, with revenues of $1.1 billion and 4,200 employees. This merger enables Infineon to further tap numerous regions (especially SMEs in U.S. and Asia) and expand its expertise in power semiconductors and add system know-how in power conversion while expanding its expertise in compound semiconductors (Gallium Nitride on Silicon). \"This acquisition will drive greater economies of scale in production, strengthening our competitiveness,\" concludes Vinay. Panel Key Management Vinay Shenoy, Managing Director With a proven track record of launching, grooming and operationalizing giant MNCs & startups, Vinay leverages 22 years of experience to orchestrate the Country Strategy, Sales, Business Development, R&D, Government Relations & Public Affairs, Compliance matters, HR and Communication at Infineon. Recently, Vinay has been appointed as the IESA Chairman - 2015-16. Offerings The B2B company with 4 business divisions offers innovative semiconductor solutions that are the basic building blocks for intelligent and optimal use of energy resources in automotive electronics systems, renewable energy sector like solar and wind power, power management for a wide range of power ratings covering HVDC transmissions, traction for locomotives, UPS, telecom infrastructure, power supplies in white goods and consumer electronics, as well as hardware security solutions for electronics identification and payment. A few of them are: Renewable Energy SiC Diodes & active switches for solar inverters PrimePack Modules for wind inverters IGBTs for e-drive in cars, commercial vehicles and ferry boats IHM Modules for trains, wind inverters, gas pump stations Automotives AUTOSAR Compliant Device Drivers for TricoreTM based microcontrollers, ISO26262 compliant Safety Monitor libraries Fully functional Pre-Silicon development models Industrial ARM Cortex-M based XMC family of microcontrollers DAVE4 IDE, an application library code generator with built-in IDE and debugger that reduces application development time by more than half. DAVE APPS, LEGOTM like application building blocks that enables to build industrial applications from scratch in virtually no time Production quality Low Level Device Drivers for XMC peripherals