Intersil is an American

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

company headquartered in

Milpitas, California Milpitas ( Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José Mar� ...

. As of February 24, 2017, Intersil is a subsidiary of

Renesas is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access memo ...

. The previous Intersil was formed in August 1999 through the acquisition of the semiconductor business of Harris Corporation. Intersil is a

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power st ...

IC business, with specialized capability in power management and precision analog technology for applications in industrial, infrastructure, mobile, automotive and aerospace.

Company history

The original Intersil, Inc. was founded in 1967 by the Swiss physicist

Jean Hoerni Jean Amédée Hoerni (September 26, 1924 – January 12, 1997) was a Swiss-American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the "traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably fab ...

to develop digital watch

Integrated Circuits An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tin ...

(ICs). The European subsidiary Eurosil was originally partially funded by SSIH, a Swiss watch company. Later-on, Intersil had a development contract with the Japanese company Daini Seikosha and became supplier of low-voltage

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSF ...

watch ICs for

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...

. When

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

s emerged to the market in the 1970s, Intersil participated with its

12-bit Possibly the best-known 12-bit CPU is the PDP-8 and its relatives, such as the Intersil 6100 microprocessor produced in various forms from August 1963 to mid-1990. Many analog to digital converters (ADCs) have a 12-bit resolution. Some PIC mic ...

IM6100, which was the first microprocessor produced in CMOS technology and emulated the

PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneer ...

instruction set. In 1988, Intersil was taken over by

Harris Semiconductor Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and space ...

, which had offered the IM6100 as

second source In the electronics industry, a second source is a company that is licensed to manufacture and sell components originally designed by another company (the first source). It is common for engineers and purchasers to avoid components that are only av ...

. Harris combined these activities with the semiconductor divisions of Radiation Incorporated,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

and

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

they had taken over before. In 1999 Harris spun off its entire semiconductor division and Intersil Corporation was created with the largest IPO in American semiconductor industry history. The second Intersil Corporation is a different company from the original Intersil, Inc. Next to digital circuits like microprocessors and memories like the 1k-bit CMOS RAM IM6508 and CMOS EPROMS IM6604/IM6654 Intersil designed famous analogue ICs like the ICL8038 waveform generator. A creation of Intersil (as Harris Semiconductor) is the PRISM line of

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

hardware: that group of products was sold to

GlobespanVirata Virata Corporation is an inactive acquired company that was a major contributor to the "Cambridge Phenomenon" or Silicon Fen high-tech cluster in the United Kingdom. Case studies and research papers have been created to illustrate the role of s ...

in 2003, and maintained by

Conexant Conexant Systems, Inc. was an American-based software developer and fabless semiconductor company that developed technology for voice and audio processing, imaging and modems. The company began as a division of Rockwell International, before b ...

. Intersil is the manufacturer of the RCA (CDP)1802

(also known as RCA COSMAC), a

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

traditionally used in space applications. In the 2000s, Intersil established market leadership in Vcore power management for PCs, switching and buck boost regulators for industrial and consumer power systems, and radiation hardened analog and power ICs for military and commercial applications. The company, under CEO Dave Bell, then began the expansion of a catalog analog business. The company also completed a series of acquisitions, two of which are still part of the portfolio, Zilker Labs digital power devices and Techwell automotive and security and surveillance products. In 2012, with revenue in decline, the company's board of directors removed Dave Bell and began a search for a new CEO. In March 2013, the board appointed Necip Sayiner, the architect of

Silicon Labs Silicon Laboratories, Inc. (Silicon Labs) is a fabless global technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors, other silicon devices and software, which it sells to electronics design engineers and manufacturers in Internet of Th ...

' turnaround, as CEO. Sayiner concentrated the company's efforts on power management and select target markets. The company was able to return to profitability in 2013 and in early 2014 re-launched as a power management company, with products to improve power efficiency, extend battery life and reduce size. Japanese semiconductor company

acquired Intersil on February 24, 2017.

Products

Intersil develops and markets

and analog technology for applications in the industrial, infrastructure, mobile, automotive and aerospace markets. The company supplies power integrated circuits including battery management, computing power, display power, regulators and controllers and power modules; as well as analog components such as amplifiers and buffers, proximity and light sensors, data converters, timing products, optoelectronics and interface products.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Milpitas, California Technology companies established in 1999 Semiconductor companies of the United States Palm Bay, Florida Superfund sites in California 2017 mergers and acquisitions 2000 initial public offerings American subsidiaries of foreign companies 1999 establishments in California

Company history

Products

See also

References

External links