Silicon Labs
| File:Silicon Labs 2015.svg | |
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: SLAB |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Founded | 1996[1] |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, United States |
|
Key people
|
Tyson Tuttle (CEO), Bill Bock (President), Nav Sooch (Chairman) |
| Products | Microcontrollers Sensors |
| Revenue |  US$ 620.7 million (2014)[2] |
| US$ 51.4 million (2014) |
|
| US$ 38.02 million (2014) |
|
| Total assets | US$ 528.5 million (2014) |
| Total equity | US$ 758.06 million (2014) |
|
Number of employees
|
1,107 (2014)[1] |
| Website | www |
Silicon Laboratories, Inc. (Silicon Labs) is a worldwide fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States, that develops silicon, software and tools for the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet infrastructure, industrial automation, consumer and automotive markets. Its products include microcontrollers (MCUs), wireless SoCs, timing devices, low-power sensors, and broadcast solutions. The company’s software stack solutions include firmware libraries, protocol-based software, and the Simplicity Studio development platform.
Silicon Labs was founded in 1996 and pioneered RF and CMOS integration, developing the first CMOS RF synthesizer for mobile phones. Since the company’s inception, Silicon Labs has focused on connectivity solutions, starting with PC modems and most recently as a leading provider of solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) with an emphasis on connectivity, performance, energy savings, and design simplicity.
Silicon Labs has shipped more than 6 billion devices [3] worldwide and has more than 1400 patents[4] issued and pending. Based in Austin, Texas, Silicon Labs has approximately 1,100 employees worldwide and sales, research and development offices located throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Silicon Labs’ customers include Samsung, Huawei, LG, Cisco, Alcatel, Harman Becker, and Technicolor.
Contents
Company history
| Year | Description |
|---|---|
| 1996 | Company founded by three alumni from Crystal Semiconductor—Nav Sooch, Dave Welland and Jeff Scott |
| 2000 | Silicon labs becomes a publicly traded company |
| 2001 | Debuted timing devices with the introduction of a family of clock generators designed for high-speed communication systems |
| 2003 | Acquired Cygnal Integrated Products, Austin-based innovator of analog-intensive, 8-bit MCUs |
| 2003 | Entered the mixed-signal MCU market with analog-intensive, high-speed 8-bit MCUs |
| 2004 | First crystal oscillator family leveraging DSPLL technology to simplify complex manufacturing steps |
| 2005 | Acquired Silicon Magike, Austin-based developer of high-voltage, high-performance, mixed-signal ICs, including Power over Ethernet (PoE) |
| 2005 | Introduced single-chip FM receiver with a small footprint and high performance, reducing component count and board space |
| 2006 | Acquired Silembia, Rennes, France-based company offering semiconductor intellectual property for digital demodulation and channel decoding |
| 2007 | NXP Semiconductors acquired Silicon Labs’ cellular communications business, freeing Silicon Labs to focus on its core mixed-signal products and technologies |
| 2008 | Acquired Integration Associates, Silicon Valley-based provider of mixed-signal wireless, audio, and power management ICs |
| 2009 | Introduced the single-chip hybrid TV tuner that eliminated many discrete components |
| 2010 | Acquired Silicon Clocks, California-based provider of timing solutions |
| 2010 | Acquired ChipSensors, Limerick, Ireland-based provider of sensor solutions |
| 2011 | Acquired SpectraLinear, Silicon Valley-based supplier of clock ICs designed for high-volume consumer, enterprise, communications and embedded applications |
| 2012 | Entered the ARM-based 32-bit MCU market with the Precision32™ line of mixed-signal MCUs with USB and non-USB options. Expanded wireless solutions with the acquisition of Ember Corporation, a leading provider of ZigBee system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices and software |
| 2013 | Acquired Oslo-based Energy Micro, provider of the EFM32 Gecko MCU family of low-energy devices |
| 2014 | Purchased full product portfolio of Touchstone Semiconductor, Inc. including a portfolio of low-power, high-performance analog IC devices |
| 2015 | Acquired Finland-based Bluegiga, a provider of Bluetooth Low Energy solutions for a wide variety of applications |
| 2015 | Acquired United Kingdom-based Telegesis, a provider of Zigbee modules |
Leadership
- Tyson Tuttle, Chief Executive Officer
- Bill Bock, President
- John Hollister, Chief Financial Officer
- Brandon Tolany, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
- Michele Grieshaber, Chief Marketing Officer
- Alessandro Piovaccari, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer
- James Stansberry, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Internet of Things Products
- Mark Thompson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Infrastructure
- Sandeep Kumar, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations
- Lyn Herr, Vice President of Human Resources
Products
Silicon Labs provides solutions and software for use in a variety of electronic products in a range of applications including portable devices, AM/FM radios and other consumer electronics, networking equipment, test and measurement equipment, industrial monitoring and control, home automation and customer premises equipment. These products integrate complex mixed-signal functions that are frequently performed by numerous discrete components in competing products into a single chip or chipset.
Silicon Labs’ portfolio is organized around four primary businesses:
- Internet of Things - which includes 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), environmental sensors such as relative humidity and temperature sensors, and human interface solutions such as capacitive touch controllers and proximity/ambient light sensors
- Infrastructure - which includes timing ICs (clock generators and oscillators), digital isolators, wireless ICs (2.4 GHz ZigBee SoCs and sub-GHz transmitters, receivers and transceivers)
- Broadcast - which includes single-chip AM/FM radios for consumer radio, automotive infotainment and professional audio applications and silicon TV tuners and demodulators for flat-screen TVs and set-top boxes
- Access - which includes analog modems for set-top boxes, point of sale terminals and multi-function printers, SLICs for VoIP gateways, and PoE devices for networking gear
Silicon Labs groups products into several product families.
| Product Family | Description |
|---|---|
| MCUs | Microcontrollers include 8-bit MCUs and 32-bit wireless MCUs based on the ARM architecture Cortex-M0/M3/M4 cores. This product family also includes peripheral devices such as EZRadio transceivers. |
| Wireless | Silicon Labs offers wireless and RF IC solutions. Products include ISM band receiver ICs, wireless MCUs, FM and multi-band radio ICs, Ember ZigBee and Thread 802.15.4 wireless networking solutions, and Wireless M-Bus. |
| Sensors | Sensor products include optical, proximity, ambient light, relative humidity/temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen level options that leverage mixed-signal capabilities. |
| Isolation & Power | Products include multi-channel isolators and isolated drivers] that simplify design, minimize noise, and reduce system cost. |
| Timing | Silicon Labs’ timing devices leverage DSPLL and MultiSynth technologies. The Timing family also encompasses PCIe and LVCMOS clock generators, clock buffers, jitter attenuating clocks, crystal and crystal-less oscillators and CDR/PHYs. |
| Broadcast Audio | Silicon Labs’ AM and FM receivers deliver the entire tuner from antenna input to audio output in a single chip. |
| Broadcast Video | Silicon Labs offers hybrid TV tuners with analog TV demodulator in a single CMOS IC that uses (iDTV) digital low-IF architecture. |
| Analog | Silicon Labs’s analog products include op-amps, low-power analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), comparators, power management ICs, timers, and voltage detectors and references. |
| Interface | Silicon Labs leverages mixed-signal design to provide a family of interface devices that enable designers to differentiate their products and speed time-to-market]. |
| Modems & DAA | ISOmodem embedded modems leverage silicon direct access arrangement (DAA) technology and a digital signal function printers processor to deliver a globally compliant, very small analog modem for embedded applications. |
| Software Stacks & Development Tools | Silicon Labs provides software packages, development kits, evaluation boards, and reference designs to assist developers in completing design projects. |
| Voice | Offerings include short-haul applications suitable for the customer premises as well as long-haul applications suitable for the traditional telephone access systems company central office. |
Industry Associations
Silicon Labs is involved in the development of both the ZigBee and Thread wireless protocol standards for Internet of Things devices. Silicon Labs was a founding member of both the ZigBee Board[5] and the Thread Group,[6] and is an associate member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group[7] along with being part of the Wi-Fi Alliance.[8]
