Today’s guest:

Su Hua, President of Infineon Technologies in China

Among exhibitors of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), there are many high-tech companies whose products are inseparable from the lives of ordinary people. Infineon Technologies (China) Co Ltd is one such company.

The semiconductors produced by Infineon can be found in anything from high-speed trains to smart door locks for home security. “Part of your life, part of tomorrow” is the theme specially designed by Infineon for its participation in the CIIE. During the exhibition, the company hopes to share its latest achievements in the field of semiconductor with their partners, and look forward to new opportunities in the era of the internet of things.

Q: What prompted Infineon to attend the CIIE?

A: Infineon is one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, headquartered in Germany. It has been a leader in the global semiconductor industry since its separation from Siemens in 1999, and it has a large market share in the semiconductor industry in Europe.

Infineon officially entered the Chinese market in 1995 by establishing its first Chinese branch in Wuxi in October. At present, Infineon has six legal entities, four sales offices, three factories and three R&D centers with a total number of 2,200 employees in China. The number of patents it has obtained and is applying for has reached 3,300, and the company has established more than 20 joint laboratories.

Ever since entering the Chinese market, Infineon has adhered to the development strategy of becoming a reliable partner of the government and local enterprises.

The company’s first strategic direction is to boost China’s advanced manufacturing. Infineon is a founding member and a practitioner of the Germany’s Industry 4.0 strategy with rich practical experience in the field of intelligent manufacturing. We have signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tongfu Microelectronics Co Ltd and set up the XJTU-Infineon Joint Laboratory for Intelligent Manufacturing Management with Xi’an Jiaotong University. In addition, we have signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Wuxi Hi-tech Zone to set up an innovation center within Infineon Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co Ltd.

Our second direction is to help build a local business ecosystem in China. By 2017, Infineon had already held events on automotive electronics for six consecutive years. Meanwhile, the company’s industrial power control unit has successfully organized the first event for home appliances companies in Guangzhou. The purpose of these events is not to promote our products or technologies, but to work with local partners in the industry to explore the possible cooperation. In the future, Infineon will also promote similar cooperation with its power management and diversified marketing units.

The third direction is to help our local clients go global. Take our first local partner Keboda for example. Founded in 2003, the auto parts manufacturer didn’t have the capability to develop its own technology in the early years. In 2014, we helped Keboda to establish a joint laboratory with Tongji University to develop automotive lighting control technology solutions, which successfully helped Keboda enter the European and American markets and acquire the third-generation LED lighting development project from Volkswagen. Now, Keboda has more than 2,000 employees, makes an annual sale of 2 billion yuan, and becomes the partner of many globally renowned automobile brands.

All of the work we have done to boost China’s advanced manufacturing has been entirely voluntary. We do not charge for this kind of cooperation, as we don’t seek profits from it. In the future, we will continue to establish innovation centers with our partners and with government departments. If we can receive government funding, we think the work will proceed faster.

We cherish the opportunities brought by CIIE. It is a large stage of China’s opening up to the world, and will help us reach more potential clients. Today, the semiconductor sector in China is facing unprecedented challenges as well as opportunities. As a century-old global company, we are willing to grow together with China.

Q: Could you introduce some high-tech products that Infineon will bring to this Expo?

A: Infineon’s products are mainly involved in three major sectors: automotive electronics, power semiconductors, and security chips. In the field of automotive electronics, we rank second in the world. In the field of power semiconductors, because all electric appliances need power management systems, almost all of these appliances have installed our products inside. At present, about 50 percent of Infineon’s revenue comes from power semiconductors, in which Infineon has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years in terms of sales volume. Our security chips have been applied in some bank cards and electronic passports. With a wider application of the Internet of Things, we expect a large demand for security chips in the near future.

The global semiconductor sales have risen from 300 billion US dollars two years ago to today’s more than 400 billion US dollars, and China’s consumption for semiconductor accounts for more than 50 percent of all, exceeding even that of the country’s oil imports. What we will bring to the CIIE are solutions that showcase semiconductor’s application in different scenarios, including intelligent automobiles, intelligent home appliances and intelligent cities.

Q: Can you give us a detailed introduction to Infineon’s “Intelligent +” application scenarios?

A: The semiconductor chips used by traditional cars are worth 300-350 US dollars. Future new energy vehicles, especially self-driving cars with advanced driver assistance systems, will be equipped with semiconductor chips worth 1,000 US dollars or more. Our automotive electronics unit is committed to promoting the development of driverless and semi-automatic driving technologies. We provide end-to-end solutions which can capture and process the complex and critical safety data surrounding the vehicles based on an advanced radar system. In addition, Infineon’s safety chips can protect users’ data in future cars, which will be more and more connected to the internet.

We are going to show intelligent products such as intelligent locks, intelligent appliances and intelligent lights. Taking home robots as an example, we have some very advanced technologies that enable robots to listen to voice commands from far away, allowing users to enjoy the convenience of intelligent devices as soon as they enter the door.

The application scenarios of intelligent cities include air quality monitoring, shopping guides, the search for parking. There is some inconvenience in some current smart parking lots: one might see a green light at a specific parking space, but only to find the space occupied when he drives near. The reason is that the semiconductor sensors are not sensitive enough. Infineon has been working on improving the sensitivity of semiconductor to deal with similar problems.

Q: What opportunities do you think the 5G communication technology will bring?

A: The next stage of mobile networks is related to 5G technology. This new technology provides wider bandwidth and extremely fast speed, offering potential applications for a fully interconnected world. For example, in intelligent cities, 5G technology can provide drivers with warnings about traffic jams and accidents as well as suggestions for free parking spaces.

Communication is made feasible among vehicles as well as between vehicles and infrastructure—vehicles will be able to carry out highly complex driving operations just like human drivers based on fast and reliable data transmission. The Germany’s Industry 4.0 strategy is another example of the important applications of 5G technology as it relies heavily on efficient communications for its supply chains network, large-scale sensor monitoring of production systems, and interactive robots.

China is currently leading the world in some areas of 5G technology. At the expo, we look forward to more in-depth exchanges with Chinese partners in these areas.