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ST, Ams Sense 3D Trend
Junko Yoshida
12/13/2017 00:01 AM EST
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ST, Ams Sense 3D Trend
Ams CEO talks to EE Times
Junko Yoshida
12/13/2017 00:01 AM EST
MADISON, Wis. — The comeback of STMicroelectronics (Geneva) has been widely reported in recent months. Testimony to the company’s revival lies in an upbeat set of recent financials and product portfolios. ST's first nine months revenue this year grew to $5,880 million from $5,113 million in the same period a year ago.
Ams (Premstaetten, Austria), a vendor of analog, mixed signal and sensor products, is also doing well. In fact, the company, although much smaller than ST in size, is closer to spectacular. In the first nine months this year, Ams’ revenue jumped by 42.5 percent to 593 million euros compared to the same period of 2016. Ams CEO insists this is not just a short-term spike. He is forecasting a compound annual revenue growth rate of “more than 40 percent” through 2019.
![[IMG]](https://m.eet.com/media/1301349/Amsfinancialresults.png)
Ams latest financial results (Source: Ams)
In iPhone X, Apple adopted leading-edge NIR imagers from STMicroelectronics, while deploying dot illuminators from Ams. Undoubtedly, both companies are profiting from these big design wins. More to the point, to frame the success of these two European companies as just a lucky break induced by the iPhone X factor would be an understatement.
Consider three big changes quietly brewing in Europe.
First, European microelectronics companies are finding their voice again. They have brought much-needed focus to their business with a big emphasis on such growth areas as “sensing” and “automotive.” That’s a big part of it.
Second, European chip vendors are applying a much finer level of analysis to strategy. Neither ST nor Ams is focusing broadly on the general sensor market. Each has identified “3D sensing” as the biggest growth segment of the sensor market, for which they are boldly taking on the complex technology challenges.
Third, Europe has never given up its passion for technology development. Neither ST nor Ams has totally abandoned manufacturing. Their in-house manufacturing capabilities are paying off now.
In his recent report, Pierre Cambou, imaging activity leader at Yole Développement, made the strongest case for ST.
Looking back, he said ST’s imaging division should have disappeared when Nokia lost its way [in the then newly emerging smartphone battle, and sold its handset business to Microsoft.] But it did not. He asked why.
Cambou credits the engineering teams’ resilience and creativity at ST. In his opinion, “the craziness of investing in Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) technology became the first step in maintaining life support to [ST’s] endangered [imaging] business.” He said, “Passion for science and technology is not always logical, nor overly business-efficient, but it creates a positive environment for trying new things and going beyond traditional barriers, where no competitor even exists.”
Cambou added, “STMicroelectronics has shown that innovation is not just a game for startups; large companies can also make the right moves.”
3D Sensing: ‘Mega trend’
The story of Ams is much different. In a recent one-on-one interview with EE Times, Ams CEO Alexander Everke discussed his company’s aggressive, but tightly targeted strategy, which has led to Ams’ successful entry into high-end segments of a certain sensor market such as light sensing.
![[IMG]](https://m.eet.com/media/1301348/AlexanderEverke_original.png)
Alexander Everke, CEO at Ams (photo: Ams)
Unlike valuation-driven M&A activities in recent years, particularly prevalent among Silicon Valley-based chip companies, Everke stressed, “Ams is focused on acquiring technologies, not the revenue.
After Everke took the Ams helm January 2016, he acquired a string of companies with specific sensor technologies. They include: Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd (CCMOSS), a technology leader in micro hotplate structures for gas sensing and infrared applications; MAZet, a color and spectral sensing systems specialist; Incus Laboratories, an IP provider of digital active noise cancelation in headphones and earphones; high end optical packaging leader Heptagon; and Princeton Optronics, a provider of Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs).
Everke laid out the “four pillars” of sensing technologies targeted by Ams: Optical, Imaging, Environmental and Audio. The company isn’t interested in traditional sensor markets such as motion sensing. “Those technology innovations are slowing down and they are getting commoditized,” he told EE Times.
Everke is enthusiastic about Ams’ 3D adventure. He called 3D sensing “one of the mega trends of our industry that will drive the market over the next 10 years.” In smartphones, industry 4.0, automotive and emerging medical applications, the imaging world is rapidly transitioning from capturing 2D information to 3D, said the Ams CEO.
ST, actively engaged in technologies for augmented reality and virtually reality, is also highly aware of the growing demand for 3D sensing. It also sees adding 3D sensing to UI as the key to improving interactivity.
Yole’s Cambou agreed. “Augmented reality has been the buzzword for the last two years, but part of market momentum still lies in the notion of interaction.” He explained that adding sensors to a smartphone expands its user’s capabilities. “With the development of new computing capabilities and ‘artificial intelligence,’ electronic devices’ perception is going further. The devices are not just recording inputs and outputs but — some would say autonomously — managing an ‘interaction’ with the world,” he said.
Leadership in optical sensor
Today, Ams is an undisputed world leader in optical sensors. It commands a broad portfolio in the optical sensing field, thanks to a host of acquisitions over the last 24 months. Its optical product portfolio includes ambient light, IR proximity, RGB and all associated combo sensors, according to Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS Markit.
Light Sensor Market Share by Revenue in 2016 (Source: IHS Markit)
Ams has gotten where it is today partly because of a dominant supplier position in the leading smartphone markets — especially Apple and Samsung. Bouchaud told EE Times, “In particular, Ams is the only supplier of IR proximity sensors designed into iPhones until the iPhone 6 generation. Ams is also the sole supplier of the VCSEL assembly under the dot projector in the iPhone X as part of the True Depth system. Further, Ams is also the main supplier for the RGB/proximity sensors into Samsung’s flagship smartphones.”
IHS Markit estimates that Apple and Samsung accounted for 65 percent of the combined light sensor business of Ams and Heptagon in 2016.
So, who’s number two? That would be ST. Bouchaud observed that ST became the second largest light sensor maker in 2016 when it started to ship ToF sensors in the iPhone 7. ST displaced Heptagon’s IR proximity sensor slot, he added.
Ams is frank about its strategy to pursue the high-end market where the company can command higher prices. Consider digital ALS (ambient light sensors). Bouchaud noted, “Ams is shipping it to Apple at significant higher prices than the market average.” Ams has been able to do this, because “the performance and the quality of its ALS is valued” by customers, he added.
Ams is focused on a complete optical sensing solution
Click here for larger image
(Source: Ams)
The acquisitions of MAZeT and Heptagon is also helping Ams pursue its high-end market strategy. Ams has been able to develop, for example, a spectrometer based on MAZeT technologies. With Heptagon, Ams is adding ToF sensors. “Both the ToF and on-chip spectrometer are selling for significantly higher prices than other light sensors,” Bouchaud observed.
Ams’ Heptagon acquisition is considered pivotal for the company’s future growth. Heptagon assets are helping to turn Ams into “a very interesting wafer level optical packing company,” Bouchaud noted. This gives Ams “a real advantage” when it builds complex assemblies such as the True Depth system in the iPhone, or future systems on chip spectrometer with both emitter and the detector within the same component, he explained.
Next page: Combo sensors, sensor fusion
more.......
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New
This statement resonated with me....
- Unlike valuation-driven M&A activities in recent years, particularly prevalent among Silicon Valley-based chip companies, Everke stressed, “Ams is focused on acquiring technologies, not the revenue.
- I use them as a mental model of how well it can work. Such great execution on their part and the rest takes care of itself.
- I was looking backward with that QUIK CES listing, and how waaay back then they had that slide on compute intense stuff that burns batteries in MCUs..... they had voice on it always, along with other stuff ( 10 axis location etc), they were spot on to look
- at the equation like that.
- that slide IS STILL there as the deck changes
- They were spot on weren't they? With limited resoures they did NOT go down a dead end st. They made the right choice and that allows what we are about to see at CES '18, MWC, that voice over BLE reference design...gonna allow the pipeline to expand a LOT>
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