Leveraging a legacy of automotive analog leadership, Freescale delivers industrial solutions designed for safety, reliability and performance

AUSTIN, Texas — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 8, 2013 — Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) today announced a major expansion of its analog portfolio for the industrial market, building on its expertise in automotive analog solutions to bring more than 20 products featuring outstanding performance, reliability and functional safety to the growing global industrial automation market.

Driven by the transition from mechanical technologies to electronic automation, the industrial space is experiencing growth across numerous product categories. According to industry analyst firm IHS, the market for analog semiconductors targeting industrial applications is expected to grow during the next several years, expanding from $6.8 billion in 2012 to $9.2 billion by 2017, and exceeding the growth rate for the analog market as a whole.

With the addition of industrial analog solutions to its portfolio of microcontrollers (MCUs) and sensors for industrial applications, Freescale offers robust, reliable and differentiated solutions to the fast-growing industrial market. This comprehensive approach can help simplify systems design and accelerate time to market.

“Freescale’s analog solutions bridge real-world physics with the connected intelligence of the virtual world,” said James Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Analog and Sensors business. “With safety and reliability expertise honed by our long history in the automotive market, together with Freescale’s complementary and broad portfolio of MCUs and sensors, Freescale’s industrial analog products enable comprehensive systems solutions designed to help our customers compete and win in the marketplace.”

Serving key industrial markets

Freescale’s expanded industrial analog portfolio targets applications including factory automation systems, industrial networking power management equipment, portable medical products, smart home and building control, as well as energy storage systems.

Freescale’s analog offerings for these markets include:

• System basis chips (SBCs) featuring an outstanding combination of integrated functional safety, power management efficiency and connectivity;
• Battery management sensor (BMS) solutions featuring precision signal measurement and ultra-low-power capabilities for mission-critical applications;
• Power drivers delivering exceptional thermal efficiency for high-current drive applications in brushed and brushless DC motors, as well as precision solenoid drive profiles in demanding dynamic load environments; and
• Power switches for dense, high-current I/O switching applications requiring space efficiency, rich diagnostics and comprehensive fault management capabilities.

Robust and reliable performance

Many Freescale analog products meet critical industrial market requirements, including operation across extended temperature ranges and incorporation of manufacturing processes that yield defect rates better than 50 parts per million during 10 years of continuous operation. In addition, 95 percent of Freescale’s analog products for industrial are included in Freescale’s product longevity program, which provides assurance of supply for a minimum of 10 or 15 years from the time of launch. For terms and conditions, and to see a list of participating Freescale products, visit www.freescale.com/productlongevity.

Industrial functional safety

Functional safety is critical to maintaining high operational availability and helping to ensure predictable system behavior in response to unexpected system faults. Building on a 35-year legacy of exceeding the stringent safety requirements of the automotive industry, products in Freescale’s expanded analog portfolio are well-equipped to meet the equally rigorous safety requirements of the industrial space. Many products feature advanced functional redundancies, system health monitoring, and system fault controls that play critical roles in system safety.

Through Freescale’s industrial quality standards, the company has qualified more than 20 analog products for industrial applications, including a selection of highly efficient SBCs and power drivers that are additionally SafeAssure solutions. The Freescale SafeAssure functional safety program is designed to help system manufacturers more easily achieve system compliance with functional safety standards for automotive and industrial markets including: International Standards Organization (ISO) 26262 and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508. The program highlights Freescale solutions – hardware and software – that are optimally designed to support functional safety implementations and come with a rich set of enablement collateral. For more information, visit www.freescale.com/SafeAssure .