An emerging force in discretes, logic and MOSFETs

Nexperia CEO Frans Scheper, formerly EVP and GM of NXP’s Standard Products Business Unit, commented: “We will focus on four areas of technology development – miniaturisation, where we are leading in ultra-small, thermally enhanced packages; power efficiency, where we are the benchmark in low power consumption devices; ESD/EMI protection, where we offer best protection solutions for every interface; and AECQ-100/101, where we offer solutions for automotive discretes, logic and MOSFETs.

“We produce all our products with an automotive quality mind-set,” Scheper added. “The majority of our products are automotive AECQ101 qualified – not only the product itself, but also the processes behind it. So in our manufacturing flow we are regularly audited by key customers like Continental and Porsche. We have this strong focus on the automotive market because if you do well there, then it greatly increases your chances of doing well in other markets.”

Other important markets for Nexperia include portable devices, industrial, communications infrastructure, consumer and computing. A significant portion of the company’s revenue is delivered through distribution channels.

Scheper continued: “Our history ensures that Nexperia is already regarded as a strong industry leader in discretes, logic and MOSFETs, which consistently delivers highly reliable and innovative products to our global customers. Under the new ownership and with a renewed sense of vigour, we will invest in product development and best-in-class manufacturing practises and facilities to ensure that Nexperia becomes the byword for efficiency and quality. Together with our engaged and motivated employees this will enable us on a daily basis to exceed the needs and expectations of our customers.

“We want to become a one-stop-shop for discretes, logic and MOSFETs. These have been a clear focus for the company anyway, but we will invest in R&D and capital expenditures to become even stronger in these markets. We will also have product portfolio extensions in the markets that we know – i.e. in the areas of medium power, low voltage, ESD protection. We want to become the strongest standard products company that the world has ever known.”

Scheper continued: “As part of the deal of the separation of Standard Products from NXP into Nexperia, we take with us five dedicated manufacturing sites, so from as far as our customer base is concerned, they’ll be no transitional hiccoughs whatsoever, because we will continue to source from the same front end sites. We have two of these - one in Manchester and one in Hamburg. And then we have three back end sites in Malaysia, the Philippines and China, which again have been vertically integrated into Standard Products. So we take all of this with us into Nexperia, so there’s no disruption to customers because the manufacturing and logistical flows are remaining the same despite this separation.”

Commenting on the position of the company Scheper enthused: “We ship around 85 billion products a year – that’s effectively seven Nexperia products for every person on the planet. We are omnipresent. And everyone is touched by Nexperia without knowing it. Dyson for example has a number of our products, as does DJI, the world’s largest seller of drones, where every motor will have three or four MOSFETs from Nexperia.

“The message is that there are not a lot of companies that have this sort of manufacturing capability. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of the established western players and some of the emerging Chinese ones wanting to work with us because, why would you rely on a company with only 10-20% of the installed base? We will be making a lot of noise over the next few years, and we want to grow and become a stronger name in the semiconductor industry.”

Whereas some mergers and acquisitions have led to product consolidation, Scheper was keen to emphasise that this will not be the case with Nexperia. He added: “As well as investing in new products, there is also absolute continuation of all the old and existing lines - with no obsolescence. This is clearly a big difference from the current pattern of consolidation in the industry. There has been no overlapping of the portfolio and therefore, we have no synergy targets or end of life ambitions.

“I’ve visited many of our customers all over the world, and this was a concern. However, we were a product division of a bigger company that’s been cut out to become a separate entity, and we’ve taken all those great products, that made us a leader in so many markets, with us. And we want to extend them – we have longevity programmes with many of our products and we have no intention of putting end of life targets on them – and that is satisfying a lot of our customers.”