Syntiant and Infineon Offer Always-on Ultra-Low-Power Local Voice Control

Syntiant, a California-based AI chip company focused on moving machine learning from the cloud to edge devices, announced a partnership with Infineon Technologies, to service the rising demand for voice user interface (VUI) in electronic devices. Optimized for battery-powered devices from true wireless earbuds to mobile phones to smart speakers, Syntiant’s partnership with Infineon enables more efficient voice control and custom command detection to numerous product configurations.

Infineon Technologies announced the acquisition of Merus Audio. The Copenhagen-based start-up, founded in 2010 by Hans Hasselby-Andersen and Mikkel Hoyerby, has developed a new generation of energy-efficient integrated Class D amplifier solutions. Merus Audio amplifiers maximize audio performance and battery playback time for smart home and battery-powered speakers while minimizing heat and design space. Following the company's presentation at CES 2018, Merus generated significant interest in the audio and CE industry in general.

XMOS' VocalFusion 4-Mic Dev Kit for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) for far-field applications integrates Infineon’s high SNR MEMS microphones to ensure highest performance and reliability, creating the first Amazon AVS development kit with a linear mic array for far-field applications. The 4-Mic Development Kit features crystal clear voice capturing even in noisy environments. This enables commands to be accurately captured from across the room for processing by the Alexa cloud-based speech recognition system.

XMOS Ltd, a leading vendor in voice capture solutions for the OEM consumer electronics market, has successfully complete a $15M Series-E funding round. The round was led by Infineon Technologies with additional funding from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. Following previous platform cooperations, Infineon Technologies AG acquired a minority stake in the company, strengthening the strategic partnership.