Renesas Electronics Acquires Panthronics as Automotive Intelligence Accelerates Competition in NFC Market

Author: Qingzhen Wu Senior Researcher

Renesas announced the acquisition of Panthronics AG, a fabless semiconductor company focused on high performance wireless products. by acquiring Panthronics, Renesas is fully integrating its NFC technology with Renesas' product lineup and security features. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2023 and is subject to the required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Renesas recently announced the acquisition of Panthronics AG ("Panthronics"), a fabless semiconductor company focused on high-performance wireless products, in an all-cash transaction through a wholly-owned subsidiary, pursuant to a shareholder agreement between Renesas and Panthronics. The acquisition will expand Renesas' connectivity portfolio to include high-demand near field communication (NFC) applications in financial technology, Internet of Things, asset tracking, wireless charging, and automotive applications.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Graz, Austria, Panthronics currently employs more than 60 people, and the company's NFC products are used in point-of-sale terminals, wireless charging for wearable devices, and the Internet of Things.

Renesas has been working with Panthronics since 2018, and to date, the two companies have launched four joint designs for NFC system solutions, including solutions for mPoS terminals, wireless charging and electric vehicle wall chargers, and have also developed an NFC connectivity board fully integrated into the Renesas Quick Connect Studio ecosystem, allowing users to easily MCU development boards to add functionality, and also includes systems for PoS, IoT, wireless charging and mobility still under development. Renesas also plans to apply the benefits of Panthronics' technology to Renesas Electronics' automotive solutions, such as digital key management.

At the International Integrated Circuit Exhibition and Conference (IIC) held by AspenCore last November, Renesas Electronics (Renesas) China President Lai Changqing said as a guest speaker that global wireless connectivity has penetrated every aspect of people's lives and Renesas covers almost all product solutions for wireless connectivity, from different connection distances and coverage distances to different data rates, and this There are Renesas' proprietary technology and third-party cooperation to promote products, such as NFC products.

With this acquisition, Renesas is incorporating Panthronics' NFC technology into its own proprietary technology, allowing Panthronics' NFC technology to be fully integrated with Renesas' product lineup and security features.

In a statement from Renesas, Hidetoshi Shibata, President and CEO of Renesas Electronics, said: "Renesas Electronics has always placed a strong emphasis on connectivity technologies that expand and differentiate the solution areas we can offer. We see that Panthronics' NFC connectivity technology will meet the needs of our customers in growing areas covering FinTech, IoT and automotive."

The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2023 and is subject to the required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

NFC, or Near Field Communication, is also known as "Near Field Communication". It is a short-range high-frequency wireless communication technology that allows contactless point-to-point data transmission between electronic devices, NFC features include: wireless communication within 10cm proximity, RF frequency 13.56MHz, data transmission speed up to 424kb/s. Compared with RFID, infrared, Bluetooth, WiFi and other wireless communication technologies, NFC's outstanding advantages are High security, and can directly read and exchange data without the need for pairing, and low energy consumption, lower cost, so the development of attention.

According to The Insight Partners, the global NFC chip market size is expected to grow from $8.71 billion in 2021 to $17.82 billion in 2028, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.8%.

Headquartered companies actively broaden NFC connectivity product portfolio

With the acceptance of NFC function by mass consumers, the application of NFC technology in smartphones can be said to be penetrating at a high speed. Almost all cell phones worldwide are equipped with NFC chips, including overseas cell phone brands such as Samsung, Apple, Nokia, Sony and LG, and domestic cell phone brands such as OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Meizu. This also makes the application of NFC ubiquitous in life, such as applications in the field of tagging, payment, security, smart home, including of course mobile payment, public transportation card, access control identification, etc., can achieve contact payment, close to pass and other functions, but also in two are configured with NFC chip smart phones, by touching each other to achieve peer-to-peer data transmission.

NFC also has a wide range of applications in the automotive market, the most well-known of which may be smart door locks and keyless entry. Smartphones with embedded NFC chips can let cars open doors through NFC sensing, and can identify cars and communicate with them even though the phone is out of battery. In addition to car door locks, it is also possible to connect the phone to the car's entertainment center, identify and prevent counterfeit car parts, and other functions.

In addition, NFC can identify and obtain information about the battery environment of an electric vehicle, including temperature, humidity and pressure. Battery management in electric vehicles is critical to maintaining battery life and maximizing storage power and range. Nodes equipped with NFC chips and other sensors in the car can record the collected battery environmental information data in EEPROM and transmit the data wirelessly to a secure NFC reader in the coverage area, which can be viewed properly by smartphones.

The above-mentioned NFC function in the car, including NXP and most companies have entered the game. Global NFC chip market to NXP, STMicroelectronics, Inside Secure three companies dominate the global market. Among them, NXP has the highest market share, especially in the field of smartphone NFC chips, its market share has an absolute leadership position. In addition, overseas NFC chip manufacturers are Infineon, Broadcom, Sony and so on.

According to the list of the top 10 global automotive chip manufacturers in 2021, NXP ranked second with $5.493 billion in automotive semiconductor sales, followed by Infineon with an 8% market share; Renesas ranked third with $4.21 billion in revenue, occupying a 6.1% market share.

The automotive business is NXP's largest segment and the fastest growing segment year-over-year. In late 2015, NXP jumped to become the world's largest automotive semiconductor manufacturer after acquiring Freescale, a semiconductor company primarily for the automotive sector, for $11.8 billion. The acquisition of Marvell's combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip business for $1.76 billion (in cash) in 2019 strengthens NXP's solutions in wireless connectivity products.

ST is strengthening its NFC technology with the acquisition of all the NFC and RFID Reader assets of Austrian Microelectronics' (now known as AMS OSRAM) in 2016. In October last year, ST introduced a new generation of automotive NFC reader ICs targeting applications such as the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Key, with improved features to improve interaction performance and simplify product certification.

In February 2022, Infineon Technologies completed the acquisition of the NFC patent portfolio of France Brevets and Verimatrix. The NFC patent portfolio contains nearly 300 patents issued by several countries, all related to Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, including technologies embedded in integrated circuits (ICs) such as Active Load Modulation (ALM), as well as technologies that enhance the ease of use of NFC. and technologies that enhance the ease of use of NFC and thus bring convenience to users. Infineon is currently the sole owner of this patent portfolio. Infineon is the sole owner of the patent portfolio, which is fully integrated into Infineon's patent portfolio. This means that Infineon has further strengthened its market leadership in the field of IoT security and connectivity.

Among domestic manufacturers, in April 2022, Huitian Technology's first NFC (Near Field Communication) chip officially passed the industry's most authoritative NFC Forum certification, kicking off Huitian Technology's entry into the NFC application market. Huitian Technology will promote the popularity of NFC technology in mobile payment, access control, public transportation, digital identity, digital car keys and other widely used fields.

Fudan Microelectronics FMSC single chip passive NFC solution is also used in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games volunteer "digital badge", using NFC technology to achieve a "passive" design, eliminating the built-in battery, with a 3.7-inch electronic ink screen.

With the development of NFC technology, especially in the automotive electronics market is an important application, the head of several automotive electronics majors in the early days of active entry and through the acquisition of the form to broaden the share of the NFC technology market. Renesas has more than 50% of revenue is from the automotive industry, although the market share of 6.1% to occupy the third, but the top NXP, TI chase, the top ten automotive semiconductor manufacturers total market share occupies 46%, with the growth of new energy vehicle sales, these large manufacturers in the expansion of automotive electronics market space is still very broad, and Renesas through the acquisition of Panthronics to obtain NFC technology, will also become an important player in this market.