Infineon has introduced a new power management integrated circuit (PMIC) for traction inverters in electric and hybrid vehicles, integrating motor-position sensor excitation and safety monitoring functions.

Infineon said on Sept. 9 that it launched the OPTIREG TLE9744QK PMIC for high-voltage traction inverters.

A traction inverter converts direct-current (DC) electricity from a battery into alternating-current (AC) electricity that drives a motor. The system includes a microcontroller (MCU) that controls the system, gate drivers that switch power semiconductors on and off, and various sensors. The PMIC generates and supplies the power required by these components.

Infineon added resolver excitation functionality to the new product. A resolver is a sensor that determines the position of a motor rotor. Precise motor control requires continuous monitoring of the rotor’s position.

A reference signal is required to operate the resolver. Conventional systems use separate circuitry to generate the signal and monitor its status. The TLE9744QK generates the required signal directly within the chip, reducing the need for external resolver drivers and monitoring circuitry.

Safety circuitry for monitoring inverter faults is also integrated into the chip. Integrated Safety Logic (ISL) continuously monitors motor phase currents, inverter DC-link voltage, and the status of the MCU and gate drivers.

If the main MCU malfunctions, the ISL operates through a separate safety path to transition the inverter into a safe state. The chip also has a redundant supply input to keep the safety function operating even if the primary power supply fails.

The new product was developed in accordance with the ISO 26262 automotive functional safety standard. It meets requirements up to Automotive Safety Integrity Level D (ASIL-D).

Infineon said integrating functions previously handled by multiple components for power supply, resolver excitation and safety monitoring into a single chip can reduce printed circuit board (PCB) area by as much as 70%.

The TLE9744QK is currently available. Infineon provides samples, evaluation boards, reference designs, software and development tools.

Microchip Technology has teamed up with automotive supplier Marelli to demonstrate technology that directly transmits video and graphics generated by a vehicle's central computer to in-vehicle displays.

Microchip said Sept. 8 that it demonstrated a display connectivity solution with Marelli using ASA Motion Link (ASA-ML), a high-speed automotive video transmission standard.

Modern vehicles are increasingly moving toward architectures in which a single high-performance central computer handles multiple functions. The transition to software-defined vehicles (SDVs) is also taking place on top of this structural shift.

In the demonstration, Microchip handled the transmitting side. Video and graphics generated by the central computer were transmitted over a cable using its VS7000 chipset. Marelli handled the receiving display side, optimizing the deserializer configuration that converts incoming data back into video for display.

ASA-ML is an automotive video communications standard developed by the Automotive SerDes Alliance (ASA). SerDes technology enables large amounts of data, such as video, to be transmitted rapidly over a single cable.

Microchip said a key feature of the technology is its use of an open standard rather than a proprietary specification from a particular semiconductor supplier. An open standard allows automakers to choose components from multiple suppliers that support the same specification.

The solution implemented by Microchip and Marelli supports data transmission speeds of up to 16 Gbps. It also provides authentication and encryption during communications. The company said the solution is designed to transmit data reliably in automotive environments with high levels of electromagnetic interference.

"This collaboration shows that open standards can accelerate innovation while enabling products from multiple companies to work together," said Kelei Shen, president of Marelli's Electronics business.

"Innovation moves faster when companies are not locked into a single vendor's technology," said Kevin So, vice president of Microchip's communications business. "Open standards make that possible."

The automotive SerDes market has long been dominated by Texas Instruments' FPD-Link and Analog Devices' (ADI) GMSL. Both are proprietary technologies developed by the respective companies. Microchip's comments about proprietary technology appear aimed at these established competitors.

ADI formed a separate association in 2025 as part of plans to turn GMSL into an open standard, setting the stage for competition centered on open standards.

Microchip Technology and Micron are demonstrating a PCIe 6.0-based storage system at FMS 2026, the annual memory and storage industry conference being held in Santa Clara, California, from Aug. 4 to Aug. 6.

The demonstration combines Microchip's Switchtec PCIe 6.0 switch with Micron's 9650 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD).

PCIe switches distribute PCIe connectivity from a central processing unit (CPU) to multiple devices, including SSDs and graphics processing units (GPUs), enabling high-bandwidth communication across data center systems.

According to Microchip, the demonstration connects the entire data path—from the host processor to the SSD—using PCIe 6.0 technology to illustrate the real-world performance benefits of the new standard.

PCIe 6.0 supports transfer rates of 64 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) per lane, doubling the bandwidth available under PCIe 5.0.

Microchip's sixth-generation Switchtec PCIe switch is manufactured using a 3-nanometer process technology.

The device includes multicast functionality, allowing data to be distributed simultaneously to multiple endpoints, as well as secure boot capabilities based on post-quantum cryptography.

The switch also supports disaggregated infrastructure architectures, enabling storage resources to be pooled and dynamically allocated across servers as needed.

"Improving data center performance cannot be achieved through any single component alone," said Brian McCarson, Vice President of the Data Center Solutions Business Unit at Microchip.

"By combining the strengths of switching and storage technologies, we aim to demonstrate a scalable architecture for next-generation AI platforms," he added.

The PCIe 6.0 ecosystem is beginning to move into commercial deployment following AMD's recent launch of Venice, the first server CPU to support the new interface standard.

At FMS 2026, several companies are showcasing PCIe 6.0 products, including Samsung Electronics and Kioxia with PCIe 6.0 SSDs, as well as South Korean fabless semiconductor company FADU, which is presenting a PCIe 6.0 SSD controller.

Dutch semiconductor company NXP Semiconductors will supply ultra-wideband (UWB) chips to BMW for use in next-generation vehicle access and occupant detection systems.

NXP announced on Aug. 4 that its Trimension NCJ29D6 automotive UWB chipset will be integrated into selected 2026 BMW Group vehicle models.

BMW plans to use the technology to support its Digital Key Plus feature, which allows drivers to use smartphones and smartwatches as vehicle keys. The system will also enable occupant detection functions capable of identifying people or pets left inside a vehicle.

UWB is a wireless communication technology that can measure distances between devices with accuracy down to a few centimeters. In the automotive sector, it has primarily been used for digital keys and secure vehicle access control.

NXP said the NCJ29D6 is the first automotive UWB chip to integrate radar functionality.

By transmitting radio signals inside the vehicle and analyzing reflected waves, the chip can detect subtle movements such as human breathing, allowing the system to determine whether occupants remain inside the cabin.

According to NXP, the integrated architecture enables automakers to add multiple UWB-based features using the same hardware platform.

"Automakers can add UWB-based functions such as kick-motion recognition, intrusion detection and automated charging on the same hardware platform," said Markus Staeblein, Senior Vice President of Secure Car Access at NXP.

AMD expects its data center business to more than double in 2027 as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to accelerate, according to comments made during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call.

"We expect data center revenue in 2027 to more than double year over year," AMD Chair and Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su said on Aug. 4.

AMD's data center segment consists of its server CPU business and its GPU-based AI accelerator business.

Su said server CPU revenue is expected to increase more than 80% in the second half of 2026 compared with the same period last year. She added that server CPU sales are projected to grow by more than 70% again in 2027.

During the question-and-answer session, Su also said AMD's data center AI business is expected to continue growing well above 100%, with AI accelerators expanding faster than server CPUs and driving overall segment growth.

AMD has recently secured a series of major AI data center customers. Following agreements with OpenAI and Meta last month, the company also signed a strategic partnership with Anthropic.

Under the agreement, Anthropic plans to deploy AMD's next-generation AI rack system, Helios, at a scale of up to 2 gigawatts. The first 1-gigawatt deployment is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2027. Microsoft has also committed to deploying Helios within its Azure cloud platform.

Su said initial demand for Helios has exceeded expectations.

"Demand for Helios is stronger than we originally anticipated," she said. "We plan to begin shipments in the third quarter and expand deliveries through the fourth quarter and into next year."

The company also reiterated that supply constraints remain a challenge for its server CPU business.

"The server CPU supply chain remains tight. It has been tight throughout the first half of the year," Su said. "A significant portion of demand was not included in our forecasts."

She had previously acknowledged supply shortages during AMD's first-quarter earnings call in May.

AMD said it is increasing capacity across its supply chain, including wafers, advanced packaging and substrates. The company expects supply conditions to improve in 2027.

AMD now estimates the server CPU market will reach approximately $220 billion by 2030, implying annual growth of more than 50%.

The forecast marks a significant increase from previous projections. During its Analyst Day event in November 2025, AMD estimated annual growth of 18% for the server CPU market. In its first-quarter earnings call in May, the company raised its 2030 market estimate to $120 billion, implying annual growth of 35%.

AMD cited rising demand driven by the adoption of agentic AI as a key reason for the latest upward revision. While smaller than the company's projected $1.4 trillion AI accelerator market, AMD said the server CPU segment is expected to grow faster, at more than 45% annually.

The company has also begun production of its next-generation sixth-generation EPYC processor, codenamed Venice, which is manufactured using a 2-nanometer process technology.

According to Su, demand for Venice is the strongest of any EPYC generation to date.

AMD reported second-quarter revenue of $11.54 billion, up 50% year over year and a company record.

Data center revenue surged 107% to $6.7 billion, increasing its share of total revenue from 42% a year ago to 58%.

For the third quarter, AMD forecast revenue of approximately $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million. The outlook represents 41% year-over-year growth and exceeds the consensus analyst estimate of $12.52 billion.

"We are still in the early stages of a multi-year AI adoption cycle," Su said.

Despite the strong results, AMD shares fell more than 8% in after-hours trading after rising 7% during regular trading hours. While the company's revenue outlook exceeded Wall Street expectations, some investors viewed its AI growth projections as falling short of elevated market expectations.

NXP Semiconductors has introduced a new automotive radio and audio processor that significantly enhances artificial intelligence (AI)-based audio processing, targeting next-generation software-defined vehicles.

The company announced on July 21 that it has launched the SAF9800, an automotive radio and audio processor that integrates analog radio reception and AI/ML-enabled audio processing into a single chip.

The SAF9800 combines AM/FM radio reception with an integrated audio digital signal processor (DSP).

Its DSP supports AI-based sound separation, enabling the system to distinguish voice commands, emergency vehicle sirens and abnormal vehicle noises from surrounding background noise. The processor also provides real-time noise reduction and adaptive audio processing capabilities.

NXP said the chip integrates a neural network-enabled DSP and dedicated hardware accelerators, delivering more than 10 times the audio processing performance of the previous generation.

The processor also incorporates EVAM-lite, NXP's latest AM radio denoising technology. Electric vehicles often experience degraded AM radio reception because electromagnetic interference generated by electric motors and inverters affects AM frequencies. According to NXP, EVAM-lite helps mitigate this interference. The technology comes as US lawmakers continue to consider legislation requiring AM radio in new vehicles because of its role in delivering emergency alerts.

NXP said automakers using the SAF9800 will be able to configure and update radio and audio functions through software, responding to the shift toward software-defined vehicles (SDV).

The SAF9800 began supplying customers starting in May 2026.

"The automotive industry is transitioning from hardware-centric infotainment systems to integrated software-defined architectures," said John van den Braak, senior vice president of Infotainment Audio Systems at NXP. "With a flexible single-chip solution, we aim to simplify vehicle development while enabling automakers to scale their platforms."

Infineon Technologies has introduced the RIC70115, a radiation-hardened gate driver designed to control gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors in space applications, the company announced on July 15.

A gate driver is a control IC that switches power semiconductors on and off. The RIC70115 supports both silicon and GaN power devices and is engineered to withstand radiation-induced performance degradation and malfunction, making it suitable for satellites and other space systems, according to the company.

Prolonged exposure to radiation in space can gradually degrade semiconductor performance, while high-energy particles may trigger transient circuit failures.

Infineon said the RIC70115 is qualified to withstand a total ionizing dose (TID) of up to 100 krad(Si) and has been verified to tolerate single-event effects up to a linear energy transfer (LET) level of 81.9 MeV·cm²/mg.

The company said these specifications provide sufficient radiation tolerance for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites as well as more demanding space environments.

The RIC70115 incorporates a Miller clamp function that prevents unintended turn-on of power semiconductors caused by voltage transients. It also includes integrated noise reduction circuitry to minimize electromagnetic interference.

An integrated low-dropout (LDO) regulator generates a 4.8V gate drive supply from either a 5V or 12V input, reducing the number of required external components.

The device operates across a temperature range of -55°C to 125°C and complies with MIL-PRF-38535, the US military specification for high-reliability microelectronics used in defense and space applications.

"Adoption of GaN power solutions is accelerating rapidly," said Mike Mills, senior vice president of Infineon's High Reliability (HiRel) business. "The RIC70115 is designed to support the transition to GaN-based power systems for space applications."

The RIC70115 and its evaluation board, RIC70115EVAL1, are now commercially available.

Rapidus is bringing agentic artificial intelligence into its foundry platform as it seeks to attract customers for its upcoming 2-nanometer manufacturing process.

The Japanese foundry announced on July 16 that it is partnering with US electronic design automation (EDA) software provider Cadence Design Systems to advance AI-assisted chip design.

Under the collaboration, Cadence's InnoStack AI Super Agent will be integrated into RAADS (Rapidus AI-Agentic Design Solution), the company's chip design platform.

The partnership is believed to mark the first time a foundry has directly integrated an EDA vendor's agentic AI technology into its customer-facing design platform. Industry observers view the move as part of Rapidus' strategy to strengthen its competitiveness and attract customers as a late entrant to the global foundry market.

Unlike conventional AI tools that optimize individual design tasks, agentic AI can independently determine which design tools to use, execute them and decide the next steps without requiring engineers to issue commands for each stage. The technology is designed to orchestrate the entire chip design workflow rather than optimize isolated tasks.

Cadence's InnoStack automates the execution of conventional EDA tools used during the back-end stages of chip design, including placement and routing, timing analysis and power optimization. Instead of engineers repeatedly adjusting design parameters manually, the AI explores design alternatives and identifies optimized solutions.

Rapidus said the collaboration is expected to reduce the time required from initial chip design through final pre-manufacturing verification by as much as 50%.

Rapidus is backed by major Japanese companies including Toyota Motor, Sony Group, SoftBank, Kioxia, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), with substantial financial support from the Japanese government. The company is developing a 2nm process based on technology from IBM and aims to begin mass production in 2027.

"Advanced system-on-chip (SoC) design requires AI agents that coordinate the entire design flow, not AI that simply optimizes individual tasks," said Anirudh Devgan, president and chief executive officer of Cadence. "Our technology will help customers improve productivity and bring advanced chips to market more quickly."

Atsuyoshi Koike, representative director and chief executive officer of Rapidus, said combining RAADS with InnoStack will enable customers to design increasingly complex SoCs more efficiently.

"We expect the integration to significantly reduce design time while maximizing the value of Rapidus' advanced process technologies," Koike said.

Knowles, the US company best known as a supplier of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones for Apple's iPhone, is expanding its business into aerospace, defense, industrial and medical applications as it completes its transition away from consumer electronics.

On July 17, the company announced that it is expanding its portfolio of high-performance pulse power capacitors. Pulse power technology stores electrical energy and releases it in a highly controlled burst over an extremely short period. Capacitors are key components that store electricity and discharge it precisely when needed.

The company's pulse power capacitors are designed for applications including defense radar and electronic warfare systems, CO2 lasers used in semiconductor manufacturing, drilling equipment for energy exploration and medical defibrillators. These systems require highly reliable capacitors capable of delivering precise amounts of energy repeatedly at exactly the right moment.

"Consistency is everything in pulse power," said Jeff Niew, president and chief executive officer of Knowles. "Once a system leaves the laboratory and enters real-world applications, components must do more than work once—they must deliver stable, repeatable performance under demanding operating conditions."

Founded in 1946, Knowles built its reputation as a supplier of miniature microphones and receivers for hearing aids before becoming a leading manufacturer of MEMS microphones for smartphones during the 2000s. The company was spun off from US industrial manufacturer Dover Corporation in 2014 and subsequently listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Knowles began reshaping its business in 2023. In September of that year, it announced a strategic transformation into an industrial technology company and acquired US film capacitor manufacturer Cornell Dubilier for $263 million, expanding its portfolio beyond ceramic capacitors into high-power film capacitors for industrial applications. The newly introduced pulse power capacitor lineup is based on technologies acquired through that transaction.

In 2024, Knowles sold its consumer MEMS microphone business, which supplied components for smartphones and wireless earbuds, to US AI semiconductor company Syntiant for $150 million. The company said the divestiture reflected its strategy to reduce exposure to consumer electronics and concentrate on high-reliability components for defense, medical and industrial markets.

The restructuring has begun to improve financial performance. Knowles reported first-quarter revenue of $153.1 million, up 15.8% from a year earlier. Its Precision Devices segment, which includes capacitor and radio-frequency (RF) components, recorded new orders exceeding revenue by 19% during the quarter, marking the sixth consecutive quarter in which orders outpaced sales. The company subsequently raised its full-year financial guidance.

Today, Knowles operates two core businesses: medical acoustic components, including products for hearing aids, and precision capacitor and RF components.