December 2012
VIEW FROM THE TOP

Mikael Gustafsson
Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, NXP Semiconductors

Q: The importance of sustaining and developing technology has reached a point where states and cities are more actively building relationships with universities and recruiting high-tech companies. Good examples are New York State’s “East Coast Silicon Valley” and several cities in Ohio. However, there continues to be a shortage of engineering graduates, especially those focusing on RF and microwave technology. What would your company do (or is doing) to help promote careers in microwave engineering?

A: NXP proactively engages with leading universities to cultivate promising engineers, sponsoring PhD and Masters degree candidates, and recruiting interns to help ensure that we’re promoting engineering innovation at the earliest stages. We also employ part-time university professors, which in addition to strengthening our own engineering team, gives us greater visibility into the academic landscape and enables us to identify opportunities for cooperative engagement with university faculty and students. Our partnerships with Delft University of Technology and the Eindhoven University of Technology in our home country of the Netherlands exemplify our approach to fostering strong ties with academia.

We’ve also established a strong presence in communities around the world where the local pipelines of engineering talent are particularly robust, which helps ensure that we’re tapping into the richest ecosystems of innovation at both the university and professional levels. NXP’s presence in New England mirrors the efforts we’ve made overseas in places like Toulouse and Shanghai to establish roots where the engineering talent is strongest.

We’re encouraged by the continuous influx of resumes that we receive from budding engineers in the US and around the world, and we’re committed to giving promising engineering graduates the opportunity to excel as members of the global NXP engineering team.

Q: For those of you serving the military market, what do you expect 2013 will bring in terms of opportunities in this sector?

A: Despite some uncertainties regarding projected spend by the US military in 2013, we’re optimistic about this market. Accelerating development of sophisticated electronic warfare technologies continues to spur growth in the aerospace and defense markets, and NXP is well positioned for success in these domains.

Our GaN offerings have been particularly well received by the military market, as they’re enabling system designers to achieve broadband performance with extremely high efficiency in a smaller footprint than what’s possible with conventional technologies. We expect to see accelerating uptake of our optimized GaN offerings, which will fuel the development of next generation wide-band radios, high efficiency radar systems, and communications systems jammers. NXP’s continued innovation centric to these applications is helping to invigorate military-related research and development, which should help contribute to healthy military spend into 2013.

Q: If your company serves the commercial markets, are you encouraged by any particular emerging application or technology?

A: The continued roll-out of LTE/4G wireless basestation infrastructure and the rapid proliferation of mobile devices represent a huge opportunity for NXP in the US and around the world. Our low noise amplifier portfolio is particularly well suited to meet emerging mobile connectivity requirements, striking an ideal balance of reliability and affordability for system designers seeking to optimize signal integrity, power consumption and footprint.

With this continued growth in wireless infrastructure and mobile devices, we also anticipate continued growth in GPS technology and location-based services, as well as Wi-Fi access points. The volume of data that traverses our wireless infrastructure is growing exponentially, and our ability to harness and monetize it depends largely on continued industry innovation in connectivity technology. NXP will play a leading role in this effort.

Q: Last year, we asked what impact the global economic crisis was having on the markets you serve and on how you run your business. What is your current perspective?

A: We continue to see the lingering impact of the economic crisis, primarily in Europe and the US, and particularly in the industrial markets. Despite these headwinds, we remain committed to our long term business strategy, and this strategy is paying off as we continue to grow the company and take market share from our competitors. We’ve seen opportunities in the crisis, and we’re capitalizing on them.

As the economic recovery continues, we expect to see new investments in areas like LTE/4G wireless basestation infrastructure and satellite communications technology, and the continued proliferation of mobile devices plays to our favor as well. NXP will continue to innovate for these markets and others, capitalizing on our engineering strengths and business acumen to ensure that we’re well positioned for success regardless of market fluctuations.

Q: What countries or regions do you believe will provide the greatest growth potential for the wireless industry in 2013?

A: The huge demand for ‘always on’ connectivity and voice/data consumption in the US and in Europe distinguishes these regions as high growth opportunities for the mobile device marketplace. In terms of wireless basestation infrastructure, we see the greatest near-term opportunity in China as it rolls out its 4G TD-LTE mobile framework, which will set the stage for accelerating growth in the Chinese mobile device market.

We expect that the US market will continue to set the pace for global wireless innovation in 2013, and NXP will contribute to this innovation via continued investment in our US-based operations and design centers. We’ve also observed some tier-one NXP customers shifting their design work from overseas to the US, which further suggests that the US will remain a leading RF innovation hub in 2013 and beyond. With this design activity migrating to the US, we expect to see a host of exciting wireless products and technologies emerging from the US market in the coming years. ♦