EM Microelectronic, based in Marin, La Tène near

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

in Switzerland, is a developer and

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

manufacturer specialized in the design and production of ultra low power, low voltage integrated circuits for battery-operated and field-powered applications in consumer, automotive and industrial areas. It is a subsidiary of

The Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie, ASUAG and Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère, SSIH ...

History

EM began as a division of Ebauches Electroniques SA and was founded in 1975. In August 2022, they partnered up with Exeger, a manufacturer of

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

Subsidiaries

EM Microelectronic has a design center at its headquarters in Marin, in the French speaking part of Switzerland near the city of

. EM has subsidiaries and additional design centers: * EM Microelectronic - US Inc., located in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...

, U.S., is a subsidiary of EM Microelectronic. * ASICentrum s.r.o. is a design center located in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It is involved in the design of digital, analog and mixed-signal ICs.

Technology

EM Microelectronic specialises in the design and production of ultra low power, low voltage integrated circuits for battery-operated and field-powered applications in consumer, automotive and industrial products. It has in-house semiconductor fabrication facilities and also uses external

foundries A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

Products

EM Microelectronic's products include

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

circuits,

smart cards A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...

ICs, ultra-low power

microcontrollers A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

energy harvesting Energy harvesting (EH) – also known as power harvesting, energy scavenging, or ambient power – is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, Osmotic power, salinity gradients, ...

, power management, LCD drivers and displays,

optical sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

s and

sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

interface ICs. EM manufactures not only standard circuits and ASICs, but also systems and modules for applications such as access control, radio frequency identification, mobile phones, mass-market consumer appliances, alarm and security systems, utility and heating meters, sensor signal processing, controlling, car immobilization, electronic automotive subsystems and many more. Their microcontrollers use CoolRISC instruction set, instructions are 22 bits wide and operate on 8-bit data.

BLE and 2.4 GHz wireless

EM Microelectronic designs and develops

Bluetooth Low Energy Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE, colloquially BLE, formerly marketed as Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) aimed at novel applications ...

products such as the EM9304, aimed at smallest footprint and lowest power consumption applications. When the 32 bit EM9304 launched in 2016 it was the smallest Bluetooth 4.2

SoC SOC, SoC, Soc, may refer to: Science and technology * Information security operations center, in an organization, a centralized unit that deals with computer security issues * Selectable output control * Separation of concerns, a program design pr ...

available. EM is an associate member of the

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

SIG and is contributing through several working group to improve global specification and expertise in ultra-low power design for Bluetooth low energy wireless technology. EM Micro has also a proprietary link family of products with 1Mbits, 2 Mbit/s and Long range solutions.

RFID

EM started its RFID activity in the 1980s, and its portfolio includes passive, semi-active and active RFID products, in frequency ranges including LF, HF and UHF. The popularity of EM Microelectronic's range of ~125 kHz RFID devices has led to product from other manufacturers being advertised as "EM4100 compatible" although this may simply mean that the active device embedded in the RFID tag/card is an EM Microelectronic product. EM Microelectronic developed UHF RFID ICs in the early 1990s and launched the first mass retail deployment in 2003, with Marks & Spencer. By 2008, EM had shipped 250 million UHF ICs to into the Marks & Spencer project. In 2015, EM Microelectronic released em, echo, a range of chips combining UHF and HF RFID communication, or RAIN RFID and NFC, a combination it calls “RAINFC”. This concept allows using the same RFID tag for the logistics and the consumer interaction with a product. In 2020, EM launched the second generation of this family, em, echo-V, awarded “Best New Product” by RFID Journal

References

{{Reflist

External links

EM Microelectronic-Marin corporate website
(retrieved 20 January 2013)] Semiconductor companies of Switzerland Companies based in Neuchâtel