Celis Semi and Infineon Enter into Agreement

Electronic News, Oct 2, 2000 by Rachel d'Oronzio Sarvey

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG has acquired a minority stake in nonvolatile memory maker Celis Semiconductor Corp., the Colorado Springs, Colo.- based company announced recently. The deal includes patent cross-licensing and gives Infineon access to Celis' intellectual property (IP) portfolio that emphasizes nonvolatile memory design and mixed signal design for wireless applications such as smart cards. The patent cross-licensing works both ways so that Cells gains access to Infineon patents for Celis Semiconductor products that contain nonvolatile memory. The companies said they will also cooperate on semiconductor product design, development and marketing. Privately held Celis is a young company founded in 1996 that designs flash, EEP-ROM and FeRAM memories and said it is now focusing on smart card and RFID mixed signal devices and products.

Wilhelm Beinvogl, Infineon Memory Products Group's senior vice president of R&D, said the move gave the German company access to talented engineers. "The cooperation with Infineon helps position Cells to realize our long-term goals and objectives as a fabless semiconductor company," said Gary Derbenwick, Celis founder, president and chief executive officer, in a statement.