About Silicon Laboratories

Silicon Laboratories Inc. operates as a fabless semiconductor company. The company is a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. The company’s integrated hardware and software platform, intuitive development tools, industry-leading ecosystem, and robust support help customers build advanced industrial, commercial, home, and life applications. The company makes it easy for developers to solve complex wireless challenges throughout the product lifecycle and get to market quickly with innovative solutions that transform industries, grow economies, and improve lives. The company’s leading platform, purpose-built for the Internet of Things (‘IoT’), helps customers quickly create secure, intelligent, connected devices. The company’s semiconductor devices leverage standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (‘CMOS’), a widely available process technology. The company’s software expertise allows the company to develop products for markets where intelligent data capture, high-performance processing, and communication are increasingly important product differentiators. The company also focuses design and engineering efforts on technologies that simplify and accelerate customer adoption of security features engineered into the company’s silicon chips. The company’s expertise in analog-intensive, mixed-signal integrated chip (‘IC’) design in CMOS, as well as in software development allows the company to create new and innovative products that are highly integrated and secure, simplifying its customers’ designs and improving their time-to-market. Products The company provides analog-intensive, mixed-signal solutions for use in a variety of electronic products in a broad range of applications for the IoT. The company has built a leading wireless development platform and product portfolio for the IoT based on Bluetooth, sub-GHz proprietary technologies, Wi - SUN, Thread, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave. The company’s products integrate complex mixed-signal functions that are frequently performed by numerous discrete components in competing products into a single chip, chipset or system-on-chip (‘SoC’). The company has continued to diversify its product portfolio and introduce new products and solutions through both organic investment and acquisitions. The following summarizes the products that the company has introduced to customers: Wireless Microcontrollers and Sensor Products The company’s EFM32, EFM8, 8051, wireless MCUs and wireless SoCs are based on numerous wireless protocols, including Bluetooth, sub-GHz proprietary technologies, Thread, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Z-Wave technologies. The company’s family of products are ideally suited to ultra-low power IoT embedded systems that include energy friendly 8-bit mixed-signal microcontrollers, ultra-low power 32-bit microcontrollers and wireless MCU connectivity solutions using the ARM Cortex-M0+/M3/M4 and newer M33 cores. Single and multi-protocol SoC devices and modules provide flexible, highly integrated solutions designed to meet demanding requirements of IoT applications. The introduction of the company’s Series 2 portfolio provides a greater focus on updatable device security which is becoming vital to the evolution and success of IoT. The company brings enhanced capability to the industry, protecting user data, system keys and manufacturer brands from malicious threats both hands-on and internet-based. The company’s broad portfolio addresses a variety of target markets. The company’s sensor products include optical sensors (proximity, ambient light gestures and heart rate monitoring), as well as relative humidity (‘RH’) / temperature sensors and Hall effect magnetic sensors. These devices leverage the company’s mixed-signal capability to provide high accuracy, process technology to improve performance and lower power consumption than competing parts. The company’s products are supported by Simplicity Studio, which provides one-click access to design tools, documentation, software and support resources. In-house protocol stacks and Micrium real-time operating system (‘RTOS’) help simplify software development for IoT developers by coordinating and prioritizing multiprotocol connectivity, SoC peripherals, and other system-level activities. The company groups its products as Industrial & Commercial or Home & Life based on the target markets they address. These markets and their corresponding applications are described below: Industrial & Commercial Industrial IoT The company’s industrial IoT solutions simplify human-machine interfaces and access controls; add wireless connectivity to commercial luminaires, sensors and controls; implement HVAC sensor and actuator networks in commercial buildings; provide increased convenience to electrical providers and consumers through submetering: improve maintenance routines using IoT predictive maintenance; and drive greater energy efficiency and safety with smart circuit breakers. Applications include industrial automation and control, smart buildings, access control, HVAC control, industrial wearables, and industrial power tools. Smart Cities Cities are now using digitization and wireless technology to increase service capacity while decreasing carbon emissions. By leveraging smart city solutions, cities monitor municipal assets in real-time and residents actively track their energy consumption. The company’s smart city solutions enable cities to operate smarter, produce and distribute energy more efficiently, and prioritize renewable energy. Applications include smart metering, smart street lighting, renewable energy, electric vehicle supply equipment, and smart agriculture. Commercial IoT Commercial IoT, such as smart retail solutions, can increase retailer efficiency, reduce labor costs and provide consumer insights by merging digital online e-commerce and physical stores into an omnichannel experience. The company’s smart retail solutions, such as electronic shelf labels, increase productivity and profitability via centralized and dynamic price management without the labor-intensive manual price updates. The company’s smart lighting solutions use wireless access points to enable indoor location services, which track assets and consumer behavior and speed up click-and-collect ordering. Applications include asset tracking, smart lighting, electronic shelf labels, theft protection, and enterprise access points. Home & Life Smart Home Smart home devices provide functional, energy-efficient living spaces with secure, reliable, and robust wireless smart home solutions. Sensors collect real-time data continuously to automate lighting, heating, and appliances, minimizing energy consumption while maximizing convenience. The company’s smart home solutions provide the functionality consumers demand while delivering features that accelerate adoption - privacy, simplicity, and performance. Applications include home automation/security systems, smart speaker, smart lighting, HVAC control, smart cameras, smart appliances, smart home sensing, smart locks, and window/blinds controls. Connected Health Smart medical devices, such as continuous glucose monitors, pulse oximeters, ECG monitors, and fitness wearables, make healthcare more accessible and are improving lives around the world. Regulatory requirements, product miniaturization needs, battery life, and security make development of these connected medical devices challenging for device manufacturers. The company’s low-power, high-performance wireless SoCs and modules simplify this process and accelerate time-to-market to develop secure, reliable, smart medical devices. Applications include diabetes management, consumer health & fitness (wearables), elderly care, patient monitoring, and activity tracking. Customers, Sales and Marketing The company markets its products through its direct sales force and through a network of independent sales representatives and distributors. The company considers its customer to be the end customer purchasing either directly from a distributor, a contract manufacturer or the company. Although the company sells the products to, and are paid by distributors and contract manufacturers, the company refers to such end customer as its customer. Two of the company’s distributors who sell to its customers, Arrow Electronics and Edom Technology, represented 34% and 15% of the company’s revenues during the year ended December 30, 2023 (fiscal 2023), respectively. The company maintains numerous sales offices in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The percentage of the company’s revenues derived from outside of the United States was 88% in fiscal 2023. The company’s direct sales force is consisted of many sales professionals who possess varied levels of responsibility and experience, including directors, country managers, regional sales managers, district sales managers, strategic account managers, field sales engineers, and sales representatives. The company also utilizes independent sales representatives and distributors to generate sales of its products. The company has relationships with many independent sales representatives and distributors worldwide whom the company has selected based on their understanding of the mixed-signal marketplace and their ability to provide effective field sales applications support for the company’s products. Manufacturing The company partners primarily with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (‘TSMC’) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (‘SMIC’) to manufacture the majority of the company’s semiconductor wafers. Research and Development The company’s research and development expenses were $337.7 million for the year ended December 30, 2023. Competition The company compete with Broadcom, Espressif, Infineon, MediaTek, Microchip, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Qualcomm, Renesas, STMicroelectronics, Synaptics, Telink, Texas Instruments and others. Intellectual Property As of December 30, 2023, the company had 1,496 issued or pending United States and foreign patents. The company has filed for registration, or are in the process of filing for registration, the visual images of certain ICs with the U.S. Copyright Office. The company has registered the ‘Silicon Labs’ logo and a variety of other product and product family names as trademarks in the United States and selected foreign jurisdictions. Governmental Regulations The company is subject to international, federal, state and local regulations that are customary to businesses in the semiconductor industry. Such regulations include: The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (‘RoHS’), which restricts the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment; General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), which provides guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union; The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (‘FCPA’), which prohibits companies and their individual officers from influencing foreign officials with any personal payments or rewards; and Conflict minerals reporting, which imposes disclosure requirements regarding the use of ‘conflict’ minerals mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries in products. History Silicon Laboratories Inc. was founded in 1996. The company was incorporated in 1996.