EnOcean Partners with ROHM, EnergyMicro Reveals Growth & More Funding and Excelitas Announces Acquisition of Kaiser Systems during Electronica
EnOcean and ROHM Co., Ltd. detailed a strategic partnership that will see the companies working together to establish EnOcean's energy harvesting wireless technology in the Japanese market and strengthen the presence of EnOcean in the Asian region. Also during Electronica, Energy Micro revealed that the company grew nearly 100% quarter-on-quarter this year, bucking industry trends, and is on target to close the year with MCU revenues 600% higher than in 2011. And Excelitas Technologies announced the acquisition of privately-held Kaiser Systems, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of custom, high voltage (HV) power systems for medical, industrial, and safety and security applications.
Following the partnership with EnOcean and as a promoter of the EnOcean Alliance, ROHM will support further development of energy harvesting wireless technology as an international communication standard as well as strengthen marketing and sales of EnOcean modules on the Japanese market. In addition, ROHM's long-standing experience in wireless communication as well as low-power ICs and modules gives the perfect basis to further help develop EnOcean's technology in the future, to address the needs of Japanese customers.
"EnOcean's batteryless wireless and maintenance-free technology opens up new opportunities not only for building and home automation systems but also for the growing sensor network market in transportation, logistics and health care," says Hidemi Takasu, Managing Director, Research and Development Headquarters of ROHM Co., Ltd. "ROHM will work closely with EnOcean and proceed in developing and enhancing batteryless wireless sensor networks by providing our sensor technology and low-power consumption technology."
"I'm very excited about the partnership of ROHM and EnOcean. This important strategic step will not only drive the success of EnOcean's batteryless wireless technology on the Japanese market. It will also increase the perception of energy harvesting wireless technology throughout the Asian region," said Laurent Giai-Miniet, CEO of EnOcean. "I'm very proud EnOcean now has such a strong worldwide acting Japanese partner. The partnership with ROHM is a pillar of EnOcean's business development to become a powerful global player on the international stage in several industries such as telecommunications, IT, consumer electronics or automotive."
To support continued sales growth and to extend worldwide availability and technical support for its products, EnergyMicro announced distribution deals with Premier Farnell (which trades as Farnell element 14, Newark element 14 and Farnell Newark), and GLYN, a global expert in microcontroller distribution and support.
Energy Micro will launch three new energy-efficient product series in 2013, expanding the existing EFM32 Gecko ARM Cortex-M series of ultra low power microcontrollers by 50%. New products will include Cortex-M0+ and Cortex-M4F microcontroller series and ultra low power, multi-standard radio transceivers with integrated Cortex-M3 cores. In October 2012, the company secured an additional $12 million funding from a combination of new and existing investors to accelerate development of energy friendly MCUs and RF technology.
Geir Forre, the company's CEO, comments, "We have a global customer base and enjoy spectacular success in Asia with solid growth in Europe and the Americas too. Growing demand for the most energy-efficient implementation of ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers has attracted two leading distributors to sign agreements with us in recognition of our clear product strategy and differentiation. EFM32 Gecko microcontrollers continue to lead the industry as the most energy-friendly devices for a host of applications including industrial and home automation, payment systems, enabling the internet of things, and in devices powered using energy harvesting technologies."
The acquisition of Kaiser Systems adds a variety of high voltage power systems to Excelitas' existing high-reliability power systems portfolio which includes ac-dc rectifiers, dc-dc converters, uninterruptible power systems, and EMI filters for a wide range of OEM applications. Kaiser's HV power systems include capacitor-charging and flashlamp power supplies, electron beam and ion beam power supplies, HV dc and pulsed power supplies, X-ray generators, and integrated X-ray sources (under the brand name Omniblock™).
"The addition of Kaiser Systems expands Excelitas' presence in medical, industrial, and safety and security markets and broadens our portfolio of high-performance, high-reliability power products," said David Nislick, CEO, Excelitas Technologies.
"We are pleased to welcome the Kaiser team to Excelitas and the Advanced Electronic Systems business," said Doug Benner, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Electronic Systems, Excelitas Technologies. "Kaiser Systems has deep technical expertise in high voltage engineering, which complements and augments Excelitas' existing custom power solutions capabilities and we look forward to their contributions to accelerating our power systems growth," Benner added.
