Among the numerous semiconductor companies, ADI is a unique company with high-performance analog technology as its core business and continuously upgrading itself in a series of acquisitions.
After the successful acquisition of Linear, a leading supplier of power semiconductor solutions, and the acquisition of HITTITE and other mergers and acquisitions in the past years, today's ADI is not only the single largest enterprise in high-performance ADCs and amplifiers. After integrating Linear’s technology, ADI's traditional power supply products have already had a certain strength in the market, and its market share has reached the second in the world.
Benefit by Linear's powerful high-performance power technology and ADI's market and product integration capabilities, the growth potential of the ADI’s sub-brand Power By Linear in the future market is promising to the industry, which is ADI's emphasis on the acquisition of Linear " 1+1>2" integration effect. In particular, several of Linear's key technologies in the industry, such as the μModule power supply that can meet the space constraints while providing high efficiency, reliability and low EMI solutions, the third-generation Silent Switcher technology with ultra-low EMI, and non-inductive switching power supply products, etc. .
As the top two companies of high-performance analog technology occupying the front end of the semiconductor value chain, their merger rewritten the layout of the global high-performance simulation industry, and the power sector is undoubtedly the biggest change. In addition, since Linear products are also widely involved in data converters, amplifiers, interfaces, RF, and microwave products, the merger of the two companies has formed a strong blessing for ADI's high-performance analog technology in the entire field. Since then, ADI’s high performance simulation technology is unrivalled.
As a leader in traditional automotive electronics technology, ADI maintains unique advantages in key components of the automotive radar signal chain, including transceivers, frequency converters, frequency synthesizers, high-performance ADCs, etc., in automotive parking assistance systems and forward collision warning systems. There are a large number of applications in areas such as lane change assistance systems and blind spot detection systems. However, as a top priority for self-driving cars, laser radars are indispensable. Lidar is currently recognized as the key technology for driverless cars. However, this technology is actually owned by only a few companies. Although ADI has 24GHz and 77GHz radar technologies, Lidar may undoubtedly be a constraint to its future development. In 2016, ADI announced the acquisition of US solid state laser beam steering technology from Vescent Photonics. The acquisition of beam steering technology has consolidated its important position in the field of automotive safety system technology and is conducive to the development of next-generation ADAS and autopilot applications. According to published data, Vescent's non-mechanical laser beam steering technology is novel, which can further enhance the performance of integrated laser radar systems, overcoming many major defects in the current large mechanical products in terms of reliability, size, and cost.
Not long ago, ADI started a merger and acquisition again, acquiring Symeo, a radar technology provider. The company's technology was originally developed by Siemens AG. Its series of technologies provide system and algorithm expertise, as well as real-time position detection and distance measurement. RF and sensor technology, combined with ADI's extensive array of RF and microwave products and technologies, can truly enable system integrators and OEMs to provide high-precision radar solutions for harsh industrial environments, with ADI The company's expanding market solution portfolio in this area complements each other. The company's radar technology has previously been mainly used in the industrial field, and it is expected that the company will expand its applications in the automotive and wider areas in the future.
According to data, ADI had become a global leader in the RF microwave industry by successfully acquiring Hittite. After the acquisition, ADI became the industry’s only company which could provide total solution for communications, test and measurement instrumentation, industry, and aerospace and defense markets.
As the world's leading designer and manufacturer of microwave RF MMIC/RFIC solutions, ADI has acquired a large number of supporters worldwide before the acquisition of Hittite, mainly manufacturing monolithic microwave integrated circuit chips and modules from DC to 110 GHz for RF and microwave applications. In particular, microwave MMIC switches, microwave MMIC attenuators and MMIC mixer products have strong global competitiveness and high market share. They are widely used in cellular mobile communications equipment, broadband wireless products, CATV/LNB and test instruments.
In recent years, ADI has further strengthened the ecological construction based on its full-spectrum RF microwave technology in the RF field, and laid out software radio technology. The product arrays and resources under the RadioVerse brand are constantly expanding. With the popularization of the Internet of Things reference, and a wave of RF microwave application boom brought by 5G, any layout and dynamics of ADI in this field may affect the competitive landscape of global communications semiconductors.
On the other hand, ADI attaches great importance to the Internet of Things industry. In recent years, we have continuously strengthened industrial cooperation and industry mergers and acquisitions. In the past year alone, ADI had signed cooperation agreements with China Mobile IoT, ARM, Nokia, and other companies to acquire more key technology companies.
In October 2016, Analog Devices announced the acquisition of Innovasic, Inc., the acquisition of this leading supplier of deterministic Ethernet semiconductors and software solutions, enabling ADI to master a suite of multi-protocol industrial Ethernet solutions for industrial applications. The ADI intelligent automation solution portfolio of automation and industrial IoT adds key supporting technologies, will strengthen the development of deterministic Ethernet technology solutions, and provide industrial customers with a longer life cycle semiconductor product portfolio to achieve more effective and more Efficiently address the communication needs of the Internet of Things, especially in the most demanding industrial automation environments.
In the two months prior to the acquisition of Innovasic, ADI just acquired the network security solution business of Sypris Electronics LLC. This acquisition has greatly enhanced ADI's strength in the field of secure high-performance analog solutions. As a prestigious company, especially in the network security solution business in the field of security systems, software products and technology leading enterprises, through this acquisition, ADI has strengthened secure radio communication solutions in the aerospace and defense field, Expanded the hardware system product portfolio and software-based encryption technology, and added network security software and services business to provide more comprehensive high-performance analog solutions for multiple markets, including Internet of Things, industrial and automotive applications.
The upsurge of M&A in the semiconductor industry seems to have slowed down recently, but actually the rumors of various mergers and acquisitions are still spreading in the market. Any company needs to deal with the changes of the times. For ADI, a player who has passed half a century, will not be surprised to see any future movements. Mergers and acquisitions through the economic scale effect and technology integration to achieve the improvement of efficiency and technological innovation, provide the conditions for the improvement of corporate competitiveness and the overall progress of the electronics industry. The above cases have not been listed in ADI's acquisitions in recent years, and there will be new actions in the future. Strengthening mergers and acquisitions is one of the important strategies for modern companies to maintain and enhance their core competitiveness. ADI's mergers and acquisitions are believed not to have ended, and the simulation giant's future trends are worth continuing attention in the industry.
