OUR COMPANY
OUR IDEAS
3
2
1
good reasons for
choosing ELMOS
steps ahead
OUR IDEAS
goal:
Our semiconductor chips make your life easier and safer. Inside your car, for instance, they mea-sure and control the air-conditioning system or ignite the airbags in case of emergency. Our chips help you conserve the environment by optimizing the engine’s fuel consumption. With our ideas we are always two steps ahead: We give you more functions requiring less space.
Our ideas are developed by our employees and put into action together with our customers. All our employees work hand in hand with high commitment in this effort. Its outcome is daily innovation which makes us achieve the most important thing: a chip that just works better and provides the ideal solution to our customers’ problems.
Our formula for success is based on three pillars: own CMOS technology, own chip design, and own production. All of it is combined under one roof, with outstanding application know-how and short distances. This is how our products come into being, made to be there for you every day – be it in your car, your washing machine, or your lawn sprinkler.
OUR PRODUCTS
1,500,000,000
1
OUR PRODUCTS
customer specific
chips delivered
successful projects
integration strategy
for Microsystems
500
Our semiconductor chips set the standards for improved communication and functionality of the more than thousand circuits inside today’s vehicles. In doing this, we always offer the one product to the customer that is just the right answer to his problems. Be it a chip tailored to his specific requirements, a standard product ready for use in a short amount of time, or a complete microsystem as a symbiosis of sensor, read-out electronics and special package.
Our more than 500 successful products bear witness to a job well done. Ever since 1984 it has been our profession to come up with complex semiconductors which facilitate intelligent and cost-efficient solutions based on their robustness and diversity of functions.
Our microsystems combine our skills. This makes it possible for us to design highly efficient microsystems. Our subsidiaries are specialized in handling sensorics and chip packages. With their contribution we can produce new products combining everything in a few millimeters’ space: a microsystem with many functions, e.g. the analysis of pressure and acceleration in a tire pressure monitoring system.
APPLICATIONS FOR THE SAFETY SEGMENT
Our goal is to make driving a car safer. Passive safety systems such as the airbag save lives every day. And active systems, designed to help prevent an accident from happening, are used at an increasing rate. A lot of these systems could be realized only by use of sensorics and the net-working of different applications, such as the ABS sensor and the gyro sensor for ESP (Electronic Stability Program).
Customers produce their safety-relevant systems using our products. Systems like ESP and airbags are indispensable today when it comes to vehicle safety. Our product portfolio for this segment of applications contains more components: from seat-belt tensioner circuits, pre-crash systems and accelerator and pressure sensors up to the optical lane departure warning system. All safety applications are distinguished by their high quality.
Our combination of sensorics, read-out electronics and package from one source makes us stand out on the global market and is essential particularly to safety applications – as pictured here in a microsystem for an airbag system’s control unit. The reduction of interfaces by combined development and production within the company group always comes up with the optimum and cost-efficient solution for our customers, whether with standard circuits or customer specific semiconductor chips.
APPLICATIONS FOR THE BODY SEGMENT
Our expertise in the field of automotive body applications is exemplary. With the electric turn signal, this area marked the beginning of the triumph of automotive electronics. Today body applications account for the largest portion of car electronics. Just think of the networking of the various components among each other. Networks such as LIN, CAN or the FlexRay bus can be found in all kinds of vehicles from compact to luxury class – they connect applications like driver assistance systems, climate control and entertainment devices and guarantee the data streams’ unobstructed communication.
Customers trust in our chips for their products. Our chips for body electronics allow for the inter-play of the separate applications and thus make driving much easier: The rain sensor automati- cally turns on the wipers if it rains, the tunnel and light sensor switches the lights on if it gets dark. The parking assist system (pictured on the right) sends acoustic signals if the parking ma-neuver becomes critical, and head-up display and voice command improve the driver’s view.
Our singularity in the field of body electronics is affirmed over and over again by distinctive products. For instance by the use of our HALIOS® technology, which facilitates intuitive operation by special optical sensors – the keyword here is HMI (Human Machine Interface). Thereby the annoying search for the courtesy light switch becomes obsolete – the light is simply switched on by a movement of the hand and the light beam can be directed to the desired spot contact-free by hand motion.
PRODUKTE FÜR AUTOMOBIL-ELEKTRONIK
PRODUCTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
Our vision of traveling with the highest comfort is approached each day step by step. Coziness and a sense of well-being mean relaxed travel which is safe travel as well – despite increased traffic density. Because stress-free driving directly reduces the accident risk. And it is just a pleasant experience when relaxation after a long workday begins with getting into the car.
Customers use our integrated circuits in their systems for comfort applications and do everything to let the driver concentrate on the traffic: For cruise control, automatic air conditioning (pictured on the right), the tinting rear view mirror and self-cleaning headlight, the car seat’s auto-matic adjusting and heating, up to the electric window regulator, our chips are essential compo-nents. This way we make an important contribution to active safety.
Our sensorics used in comfort applications provides for the precise monitoring of relevant envi-ronmental effects such as temperature or air humidity. This makes it possible to direct the air-conditioned air stream directly to where it is most enjoyable: In the summer our sun position sensors identify the exact spot where the sun glares into the vehicle the most. And in the winter, when windows are steamed up, auxiliary heating systems have warm instead of cold air stream there immediately.
APPLICATIONS FOR THE COMFORT SEGMENT
APPLICATIONS FOR THE POWERTRAIN SEGMENT
Our efforts in the powertrain segment focus on consumption and emission-reducing yet per-formance-enhancing electronics. We are satisfied only when we manage to bring together these supposed opposites. Alternative vehicle powertrains are one example, such as the hybrid gas-electric engine. Using our special SOI (Silicon On Insulator) technology, electronics can be realized at different voltage levels.
Customers know our sensitive read-out and driver electronics used in their systems must with-stand against an extremely rough environment. Take the generator control (pictured on the right), which represents a mechatronic system by the integration of electronics into the machine. Throttle valve control, mass airflow sensor, knock sensor, resonance flap control, and electric water pump must also work under most adverse surrounding conditions. Yet our robust chips brave these high temperatures, mechanical shocks and humidity without any difficulty.
Our chips for powertrain applications are distinguished by highly precise analog input amplifiers, power amplifiers and integrated microprocessors. Everything up-to-date electronics requires to make car driving as environmentally acceptable and efficient as possible. This is better for our customers, better for the environment.
PRODUKTE FÜR AUTOMOBIL-ELEKTRONIK
PRODUCTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
Our semiconductor technology makes working with industrial applications safer. Because you can rely on systems that depend on our chips. Take the handling of automated industrial robot arms as an example. Our chips are designed to control the arm with the utmost precision so that it assumes exactly the desired position and fulfills its function.
Customers can give free rein to their engineers’ ideas for industrial applications using our chips: tilt angle sensors for servo drives, SPS control, fan control, smoke detectors, motor driver electronics, or series connection units for fluorescent tubes. We offer the customer a vast area of application for a great many innovations.
Our robust CMOS technology provides optimum opportunities for use in the rough field of indus-trial electronics. Of course our many years of experience with the high quality standards applied by the automobile industry help. When it comes to industry-compatible voltage supply or the intelligent use of pressure sensorics, our chips are quite at home.
Our chips see you through the day: In the morning you step on the scales, make yourself a coffee, and iron a blouse or shirt in haste before you drive to work in your car. While you are away from home, our chips see to it that your heating maintains the desired temperature and the lawn is watered, controlled by an automatic system. And in the evening you relax with your electrical train set. You will find our chips have been silently at work in your home all the time.
Customers integrate our chips into their consumer goods and thus into many everyday objects: the control units of washing machine, electric iron, bathroom scales, infrared motion detector, doorbell, heating (pictured on the right), the intercom, camera exposure meter, vacuum cleaner electronics, servo drives for air conditioning systems, automatic garbage can openers, up to contact-free dimmer switches for the bedroom.
Our expertise gained in the fields of automotive electronics and industrial and consumer goods complement each other splendidly. Why that is? One example: If our chip still works perfectly at over 150°C close to a car engine, we can transfer this robustness to a chip for the automatic disconnection inside an electric iron where high temperatures are at work, too. Even at first glance it becomes obvious that this combination just makes sense.
PRODUKTE FÜR KONSUMGÜTER-ANWENDUNGEN
PRODUCTS FOR CONSUMER GOODS APPLICATIONS
OUR PRODUCTION
... relies on advanced
technologies.
120,000,000
5,000
1
OUR PRODUCTION
complete air
exchange every
twenty seconds
chips per year
square meters
production space
Our employees produce over 120 million chips a year. We have more than 150 products in produc-tion at the same time. In controlling our facilities, we rely on the complete automatic monitoring of all products during their various production stages. We know: Our products give peak perfor-mances only on account of an optimum production.
Our production is run in a clean room. Because even particles of the smallest size could reduce our products’ quality. A single human hair is about a hundred times thicker than an electric connec-tion on a semiconductor chip. A dust-free room is therefore an indispensable requirement for our high-grade products. With clean room and cutting-edge machines, we create optimal conditions for top quality products.
Our production takes up 5,000 square meters’ space at various locations. These are adjusted to our requirements in the best possible way. As are our technologies and our chip designs. By the tight interaction of all divisions, in particular research and development, chip design and produc-tion, our products are provided with smart functions and high quality.
OUR QUALITY LEVEL
... provides faultless
products.
10,000,000
175°C
0
OUR QUALITY LEVEL
testing steps
per week
robustness
Wafer Test
Our policy for all our products is this: find sources of error at an early stage. Thus we can avoid defects before they have a chance to even develop. In addition we check all of our products in more than ten million testing steps a week. We have been following the international quality standards successfully for more than ten years. Our quality management system is currently certified according to ISO TS 16949:2002.
Our strength is the robustness of our chips. They work even under extreme conditions, such as surrounding temperatures down to minus 40°C or up to 175°C. This is crucial for chips placed close to the engine, e.g. inside a car’s generator or throttle valve, to still measure and control perfectly.
Our zero defect strategy means perfect driving pleasure and the smooth operation of your house-hold appliances. And for our customers, it means perfect interaction with their applications and systems. The result is a benefit to all.
OUR LOCATIONS
… are close to the
customer.
4
4
1
OUR LOCATIONS
production locations
continents
ELMOS Group
Our production is run at four locations. The headquarters is located in Dortmund. This is where we produce our semiconductor circuits on the raw material, the silicon wafers, and where we put our circuits to the acid test. In addition we operate a state-of-the-art 8-inch wafer production line in Duisburg. Our sensor specialists are based in California, our package specialists in the Netherlands.
Our international make-up gives us many advantages. We are present with our sales offices on four continents. Apart from the Dortmund head office, some of the European branch offices are in Stuttgart, Munich, and Paris. In America our customers are serviced from Detroit and Califor-nia. We are happy to respond to the concerns and questions of our Asian customers from our offices in Tokyo and Seoul. Because we know: Short distances make communication easier.
Our way of acting as a group makes us strong. We bring together the know-how of all our employees worldwide. The ELMOS Group distinguishes itself by its flexibility, dependability, and closeness to the customer. We place the high demand on ourselves to provide just the perfect contact person for each and every one of our customers’ concerns regarding read-out electronics, sensorics, or package technology.
Tokyo Seoul Pretoria Milpitas Detroit Dortmund Nijmegen Frankfurt/Oder Stuttgart Karlsruhe Munich Paris St. Petersburg
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
… we live up to it
every day.
1,000+
25%
1
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
Employees
energy saving
self-image
Our responsibility is based on mutual respect and decency in treating each other. All of our more than 1,000 employees rightly feel a part of the company and each one of them knows about his or her share in the company’s success. Our policy of open doors on all levels is realized uncondi-tionally – every day.
Our self-image involves the integration of all employees regardless of their age, place of origin, sex, disabilities or religion. And we focus on young people as well. Roughly ten percent of our employees are in training. We give young people the opportunity to prove themselves and to reach our common goal: making a chip that is just better.
Our environment is important to us. An annually published report informs about all environmen-tal issues. For instance, that we reduce our power consumption by operating our own block-type thermal power station, or that we keep reducing the amount of water consumption per chip produced. We are certified with the quality standard DIN 14001 each year for the caring attention we pay to our environment.
OUR HISTORY
Three visionaries who share a nose for innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and creative power meet in 1984 and float a business, the `Elektronik in MOS Technologie´ (ELMOS). In the first few years they managed to win important contracts with industrial customers such as Leica and Rowenta, many of whom still belong to the customer base after more than twenty years.
In 1987 the decisive market niche was found for the success to come: semiconductors for the automotive market. The foundations for progress had been formed. The company has grown ever since. New customers were gained every year.
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Business formation in Dortmund
Participation of BMW (until 1999)
First structural extension in Dortmund
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20 01
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20 07
20 08
Conversion of production
from 4 to 6-inch wafers Initial public offering
Acquisition of
ELMOS Advanced Packaging (formerly eurasem) Acquisition of
Silicon Microstructures Inc. (SMI) Production cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits in Duisburg
Start of 8-inch wafer production in Duisburg
A first structural extension was made necessary as soon as 1989, and the construction of a 4-inch wafer line was initiated. Between 1996 and 1998 the facilities were conversed from 4 to 6-inch wafers. This conversion increased the production capacity significantly. The initial public offering was the center of attention in the year 1999.
In 2001 two companies were acquired and the core competence was thus expanded by chip packages and sensor systems on silicon basis. Since 2006 we also produce on 8-inch wafers in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute. The course remains set for growth.
