IPHI Company Profile

We are a fabless provider of high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications and datacenter markets. Our analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions provide high signal integrity at leading-edge data speeds while reducing system power consumption. Our semiconductor solutions are designed to address bandwidth bottlenecks in networks, maximize throughput and minimize latency in computing environments and enable the rollout of next generation communications and datacenter infrastructures. Our solutions provide a vital high-speed interface between analog signals and digital information in high-performance systems such as telecommunications transport systems, enterprise networking equipment and datacenters. We provide 25G to 600G high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for the communications market.

We leverage our proprietary high-speed analog and mixed signal processing expertise and our deep understanding of system architectures to address data bottlenecks in current and emerging communications, enterprise network, computing and storage architectures. We develop these solutions as a result of our competitive strengths, including our system-level simulation capabilities, analog design expertise, strong relationships with industry leaders, extensive broad process technology experience and high-speed package modeling and design expertise. We use our core technology and strength in high-speed analog design to enable our customers to deploy next generation communications systems that operate with high performance at high-speed. We believe we are at the forefront of developing semiconductor solutions that deliver up to multi-Terabit speeds throughout the network infrastructure, including core, metro and the datacenter.

We have ongoing, informal collaborative discussions with industry and technology leaders such as Ciena Corporation (Ciena), Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei), Juniper Networks, Inc. (Juniper), Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) and Nokia Corporation (Nokia), to design architectures and products that solve bandwidth bottlenecks in existing and next generation communications systems. Although we generally do not have any formal collaboration agreements with these entities, we often engage in informal discussions with these entities with respect to anticipated technological challenges, next generation customer requirements and industry conventions and standards. We help define industry conventions and standards within the markets we target by collaborating with technology leaders, original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, systems manufacturers and standards bodies. Our products are designed into systems sold by OEMs, including Ciena, Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, Microsoft and Nokia. We believe we are one of a limited number of suppliers to these OEMs for the type of products we sell, and in some cases we may be the sole supplier for certain applications. We sell both directly to these OEMs and to other intermediary systems or module manufacturers that, in turn, sell to these OEMs.

System-Level Simulation Capabilities. We design our high-speed analog semiconductor solutions to be critical components in complex systems. In order to understand and solve system problems, we work closely with systems vendors to develop proprietary component, channel and system simulation models. We use these proprietary simulation and validation tools to accurately predict system performance prior to fabricating the semiconductor or alternatively, to identify and optimize critical semiconductor parameters to satisfy customer system requirements. We use these simulation and validation capabilities to reduce our customers’ time to market and engineering investments, thus enabling us to establish differentiated design relationships with our customers.

Analog Design Expertise. We believe that we are a leader in developing broadband analog semiconductors operating at high frequencies of up to 100 GHz. High-speed analog circuit design is extremely challenging because, as frequencies increase, semiconductors are increasingly sensitive to temperature, power supply noise, process variation and interaction with neighboring circuit elements. Development of components that work robustly at high frequencies requires an understanding of analog circuit design, including electromagnetic theory and practical experience in implementation and testing. Our analog design expertise has enabled us to design and commercially ship several first in the world technologies including the first 100G linear transimpedance amplifier, or TIA, and the first 400G linear modulator driver that is now being widely deployed in volume globally in long haul and metro networking infrastructures. We launched the world’s first 50/100/200/400G PAM4 interconnect ICs for cloud interconnects. The chipset solution included multiple variants of the PAM4 PHY IC based on a highly adaptable and scalable InphiNityCore™ digital signal processing (DSP) engine and the OmniConnect™ transmitter for copper and optics media along with a companion linear TIA for Nx50G PAM4 interfaces.

Strong Relationships with Industry Leaders. We develop many of our high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for applications and systems that are driven by industry leaders in the communications, datacenter and computing markets. Through our established relationships with industry leaders, we have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to address their technological challenges. As a result, we are designed into several of their current systems and believe we are well-positioned to develop high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for their emerging architectures. We have ongoing, informal collaborative discussions with communication, networking companies, and datacenter companies such as Cisco, Ciena, Huawei, Juniper, Nokia, and Microsoft, among others to address their next generation 100G and beyond 100G efforts. Specifically, we engage in informal discussions with these entities with respect to anticipated technological challenges, next generation customer requirements and industry conventions and standards. As a result of our development efforts with industry leaders, we help define industry conventions and standards within the markets we target by collaborating with technology leaders, OEMs and systems manufacturers, as well as standards bodies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, or IEEE, and the Optical Internetworking Forum, or OIF, to establish industry standards.

Broad Process Technology. We employ process technology experts, device technologists and circuit designers who have extensive experience in many process technologies including CMOS, SiGe and III-V technologies such as gallium arsenide, or GaAs, or indium phosphide, or InP. We have developed specific internal models and design kits for each process to support a uniform design methodology across all of our semiconductor solutions. For example, our products using 16 nanometer CMOS technology require development of accurate models for sub-circuits such as integrated phase lock loop, or PLLs, varactors and inductors. In addition, for III-V materials-based processes, in-house model development is a necessity and we believe also provides a substantial competitive advantage because these processes have complex material and device interactions. Combined with our fabless manufacturing strategy, our design expertise, proprietary model libraries and uniform design methodology allow us to use the best possible materials and substrates to design and develop our semiconductor solutions. We believe that our ability to design high-speed analog semiconductors in a wide range of materials and process technologies allows us to provide superior performance, power, cost and reliability for a specific set of market requirements.

High-Speed Package Modeling and Design. We have developed deep expertise in high-speed package modeling and design, since introducing the first high-speed 50 GHz MUX and DEMUX product in 2001. At high frequencies, the interaction between an analog device, its package and the external environment can significantly affect product performance. Accurately modeling and developing advanced packaging allows semiconductor solutions to address this challenge. Due to the advanced nature of this work, there is a limited supply of engineers with experience in high-speed package modeling and design, and therefore, this required expertise can be difficult to acquire for companies that have not invested in developing such a skill set. We have developed an infrastructure to simulate electrical, mechanical and thermal properties of devices and packages that we integrate within our semiconductor design process and implement at our third-party packaging providers. Modeling is an inherently iterative process, and since our model libraries are used extensively by our circuit designers, the accuracy and value of these models increases over time. Our current packaging and modeling techniques enable us to deliver semiconductors that are energy efficient, offer high-speed processing and enable advanced signal integrity, all in a small footprint.