POWI Company Profile

We design, develop and market analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) and other electronic components and circuitry used in high-voltage power conversion. Our products are used in power converters that convert electricity from a high-voltage source (typically 48 volts or higher) to the type of power required for a specified downstream use. In most cases, this conversion entails, among other functions, converting alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) or vice versa, reducing or increasing the voltage, and regulating the output voltage and/or current according to the customer’s specifications.
A large percentage of our products are ICs used in AC-DC power supplies, which convert the high-voltage AC from a wall outlet to the low-voltage DC required by most electronic devices. Power supplies incorporating our products are used with all manner of electronic products including mobile phones, computing and networking equipment, appliances, electronic utility meters, power tools, industrial controls, and lighting applications that utilize light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and “smart-home,” or “internet of things” applications such as networked thermostats, power strips and other building-automation and security devices.

We also offer high-voltage gate drivers - either standalone ICs or circuit boards containing ICs, electrical isolation components and other circuitry - used to operate high-voltage switches such as insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). These combinations of switches and drivers are used for power conversion in high-power applications (i.e., power levels ranging from a few kilowatts up to one gigawatt) such as industrial motors, solar- and wind-power systems, electric vehicles and high-voltage

DC transmission systems.
Our products bring a number of important benefits to the power-conversion market compared with less advanced alternatives, including reduced component count and design complexity, smaller size, higher reliability and reduced time-to-market. Our products also improve the energy efficiency of power converters, helping our customers meet the increasingly stringent efficiency standards that have been adopted around the world for many electronic products, and improving the efficacy of renewable-energy systems, electric vehicles and other high-power applications.
While the size of our addressable market fluctuates with changes in macroeconomic and industry conditions, the market has generally exhibited a modest growth rate over time as growth in the unit volume of power converters has been offset to a large degree by reductions in the average selling price of components in this market. Therefore, the growth of our business depends largely on increasing our penetration of the markets, that we serve and on further expanding our addressable market. Our growth strategy includes the following elements:

Increase our penetration of the markets we serve. We currently address AC-DC power-supply applications with power outputs up to approximately 500 watts, and gate-driver applications of ten kilowatts and higher. Through our R&D efforts, we seek to introduce more advanced products for this market that offer higher levels of integration and performance compared to earlier products. We also continue to expand our sales and application-engineering staff and our network of distributors, as well as our offerings of technical documentation and design-support tools and services to help customers use our products. These tools and services include our PI Expert™ design software, which we offer free of charge, and our transformer-sample service.
Our market-penetration strategy also includes capitalizing on the importance of energy efficiency in the power conversion market. For example, our EcoSmart™ technology drastically reduces the amount of energy consumed by electronic products when they are not in use, helping our customers comply with regulations that seek to curb this so-called “standby” energy consumption. Also, our gate-driver products are critical components in energy-efficient DC motor drives, high-voltage DC transmission systems, renewable-energy installations and electric transportation applications.

Increase the size of our addressable market. Prior to 2010 our addressable market consisted of AC-DC applications with up to about 50 watts of output, a served available market (“SAM”) opportunity of approximately $1.5 billion. Since that time we have expanded our SAM to approximately $3 billion through a variety of means. These include the introduction of products that enable us to address higher-power AC-DC applications (such as our Hiper™ product families, which address applications up to about 500 watts) and our entry into the gate-driver markets through the acquisition of CT-Concept Technologie AG in 2012. In 2016 we introduced the SCALE-iDriverTM family of gate-driver ICs, which enables us to address applications between approximately 10 kilowatts and 100 kilowatts, whereas previously our gate-driver products were primarily for applications above 100 kilowatts.

Also contributing to our SAM expansion has been the emergence of new applications within the power ranges that our products can address. For example, applications such as LED lighting, “smart” utility meters, battery-powered lawn equipment and bicycles, and USB power ports (installed alongside traditional AC wall outlets) can incorporate our products; the increased use of electronic intelligence and controls in consumer appliances has also enhanced our SAM. Finally, we have enhanced our SAM by increasing the level of integration of our products, which in turn increases their value. For example, our InnoSwitch™ ICs integrate circuitry from the secondary, or low-voltage, side of AC-DC power supplies, whereas earlier product families integrated circuitry only on the primary, or high-voltage side.

We intend to continue expanding our SAM in the years ahead through all of the means described above.