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onsemi announced that it has terminated its efforts to acquire Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. (“Allegro”) and withdrawn its all-cash proposal to acquire Allegro for $35.10 per share.
While onsemi continues to believe that a combination of these companies would have brought two highly complementary businesses together, benefiting their respective customers and delivering immediate value to Allegro shareholders, onsemi has determined there is no actionable path forward.
onsemi will focus on other existing opportunities to enhance stockholder value. In connection with today’s announcement, onsemi intends to continue to allocate capital towards the Company’s existing share repurchase program.
“onsemi is committed to taking a disciplined approach to capital allocation and maximizing long-term stockholder value,” said Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO, onsemi. “While we continue to believe that a combination with onsemi would be beneficial to all stakeholders of both companies, after careful consideration, we have decided to withdraw our acquisition proposal given the reluctance of Allegro’s Board of Directors to fully engage and explore our proposal. We continue to respect both the leadership team at Allegro as well as its talented base of employees.”
El-Khoury continued, “onsemi is well-positioned, both strategically and financially, and we remain sharply focused on executing on our core growth initiatives while pursuing our value-enhancing capital allocation approach. With market-leading technology, a robust innovation pipeline, and a clear strategic roadmap, we continue to see significant long-term opportunities in our core markets of automotive, industrial, and AI data centers.”
Original – onsemi
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Infineon Technologies AG has introduced the world’s first gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors with integrated Schottky diode for industrial use. The product family of medium-voltage CoolGaN™ Transistors G5 with integrated Schottky diode increases the performance of power systems by reducing undesired deadtime losses, thereby further increasing overall system efficiency. Additionally, the integrated solution simplifies the power stage design and reduces BOM cost.
In hard-switching applications, GaN-based topologies may incur higher power losses due to the larger effective body diode voltage (V SD) of GaN devices. This gets worse with long controller dead-times, resulting in lower efficiency than targeted. Until now, power design engineers often require an external Schottky diode in parallel with the GaN transistor or try to reduce dead-times via their controllers. All of which is extra effort, time and cost. The new CoolGaN Transistor G5 from Infineon significantly reduces these challenges by offering a GaN transistor with an integrated Schottky diode appropriate for use in server and telecom IBCs, DC-DC converters, synchronous rectifiers for USB-C battery chargers, high-power PSUs, and motor drives.
“As gallium nitride technology becomes increasingly widespread in power designs, Infineon recognizes the need for continuous improvement and enhancement to meet the evolving demands of customers”, says Antoine Jalabert, Vice President of Infineon’s Medium-Voltage GaN Product Line, “The CoolGaN Transistor G5 with Schottky diode exemplifies Infineon’s dedication to an accelerated innovation-to-customer approach to further push the boundaries of what is possible with wide-bandgap semiconductor materials.“
GaN transistor reverse conduction voltage (V RC) is dependent on the threshold voltage (V TH) and the OFF-state gate bias (V GS) due to the lack of body diode. Moreover, the V TH of a GaN transistor is typically higher than the turn-on voltage of a silicon diode leading to a disadvantage during the reverse conduction operation, also known as third quadrant. Hence, with this new CoolGaN Transistor, reverse conduction losses are lower, compatibility with a wider range of high-side gate drivers, and with deadtime relaxed, there is broader controller compatibility resulting in simpler design.
The first of several GaN transistors with integrated Schottky diode is the 100 V 1.5 mΩ transistor in 3 x 5 mm PQFN package.
Original – Infineon Technologies
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Applied Materials, Inc. announced it has purchased 9% of the outstanding shares of the common stock of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi), a leading manufacturer of assembly equipment for the semiconductor industry.
Applied and Besi have been successfully collaborating since 2020, and recently extended their agreement, to co-develop the industry’s first fully integrated equipment solution for die-based hybrid bonding. Hybrid bonding is becoming a critical technology for advanced packaging of semiconductors as designers and manufacturers race to develop more energy-efficient chips. Hybrid bonding connects chips using direct copper-to-copper bonds, which increases density and shortens the lengths of interconnect wiring between chiplets, resulting in improved overall performance, power consumption and cost.
“We view this as a strategic, long-term investment that demonstrates Applied Materials’ commitment to co-developing the industry’s most capable hybrid bonding solution, a technology that is becoming increasingly important to the advanced logic and memory chips at the foundation of AI,” said Terry Lee, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Heterogeneous Integration and Packaging at Applied Materials. “We look forward to furthering our collaboration with Besi and delivering innovative technology to our customers.”
Applied Materials and Besi have co-developed an integrated hybrid bonding system, which has the full capabilities chipmakers need to take the technology to very high-volume manufacturing over the next several years. The system brings together Applied’s expertise in front-end wafer and chip processing with high levels of bonding accuracy and speed from Besi’s leading die placement, interconnect and assembly solutions.
The investment was made through market-based transactions and is not subject to regulatory approvals. Applied does not intend to seek board representation at Besi, nor does it have plans to purchase additional shares of Besi common stock.
Original – Applied Materials
