Cirrus Logic Profile
Cirrus Logic, Inc. (Cirrus Logic) is a leader in low-power, high-precision mixed-signal processing solutions that create innovative user experiences for the world’s top mobile and consumer applications.
The company has offices in various other locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Strategy
Cirrus Logic targets growing markets where the company can leverage its expertise in low-power, high-precision mixed-signal processing to solve complex problems that span the analog to digital divide. The company is committed to its three-pronged strategy for growing its business: first, maintaining its leadership position in smartphone audio; second, increasing high-performance mixed-signal (HPMS) content in smartphones; and third, leveraging its strength in audio and HPMS to expand into additional applications and markets with new and existing components. The company’s approach has been to develop custom and general market components that embody its latest innovations, which it uses to engage key players in a particular market or application.
Cirrus Logic focuses on building strong engineering relationships with the company’s customers’ product teams and works to develop highly differentiated components that address their technical and price requirements across product tiers. Many of the company’s products include programmable aspects and are consists of its best-in-class hardware which incorporates software algorithms from some combination of its own intellectual property (IP), its third-party partners' and customers’ IP.
Markets and Products
The company's product line categories are audio and HPMS. While the company continues to see new opportunities for growth with audio products in both smartphones and applications beyond smartphones, the largest opportunity to drive product diversification and fuel exciting avenues of growth in the coming years is with its HPMS product line.
The following provides a detailed discussion regarding the company audio and HPMS product lines.
Audio Products: Boosted amplifiers, codecs, smart codecs, analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters and standalone digital signal processors.
HPMS Products: Camera controllers, haptics and sensing solutions, battery and power ICs.
Audio Products
Cirrus Logic is a leading supplier of low-power, low-latency, high-precision audio components that are used in a variety of applications, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, AR/VR headsets, home theater systems, automotive entertainment systems and professional audio systems. The company has an extensive portfolio of products: codecs, which are components that integrate analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs) into a single integrated circuit (IC); smart codecs, which are codecs with integrated digital signal processing; boosted amplifiers; and standalone digital signal processors (DSPs). Additionally, the company’s SoundClear technology consists of a broad portfolio of tools, software and algorithms that help to differentiate its customers’ products by improving the user experience with features, such as louder, high-fidelity sound, high-quality audio playback, voice capture, and hearing augmentation.
High-Performance Mixed-Signal (HPMS) Products
Drawing on the company’s extensive mixed-signal design and low-power processing expertise, Cirrus Logic has expanded beyond its traditional audio domain into new categories where it provides a range of HPMS products, including camera controllers, haptic and sensing solutions, and battery and power ICs. These products are primarily used in smartphones to help deliver a more immersive and compelling user experience while also improving battery health and performance. This product line also includes legacy industrial and energy applications, such as digital utility meters, power supplies, energy control, energy measurement and energy exploration.
Customers, Marketing, and Sales
The company offers products worldwide through both direct and indirect sales channels. The company’s major customers are among the world’s leading electronics manufacturers. The company targets both large existing and emerging customers that obtain value from its expertise in advanced analog and mixed-signal design processing, systems-level integrated circuit engineering and embedded software development. The company derives its revenues from both domestic and international sales. The company’s domestic sales force includes direct sales offices located primarily in California and Texas. International sales offices and staff are located in Japan, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The company supplements its direct sales force with external sales representatives and distributors. The company has technical support centers in China, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. The company’s worldwide sales force provides geographically specific support to its customers and specialized selling of product lines with unique customer bases. For fiscal year 2023 (year ended March 25, 2023), the company had one end customer, Apple, Inc., who purchased through multiple contract manufacturers and represented approximately 83 percent of its total sales, respectively.
Manufacturing
The company uses a variety of foundries in the production of wafers, primarily supplied by GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (GlobalFoundries) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC). In 2022, the company entered a Capacity Reservation and Wafer Supply Commitment Agreement with GlobalFoundries to reserve capacity and set wafer pricing for products purchased pursuant to the agreement through calendar year 2026.
The company’s primary assembly and test houses include Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., Amkor Technology, Inc., STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd., SFA Semicon Co., Ltd., and Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd.
Patents, Licenses and Trademarks
The company relies on patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws to protect its intellectual property, products, and technology. As of March 25, 2023, the company held approximately 4,300 pending and issued patents worldwide, which include approximately 1,430 granted U.S. patents, 430 U.S. pending patent applications and various international patents and applications. The company’s U.S. patents expire in calendar years 2023 through 2042. The company has maintained U.S. federal trademark registrations for CIRRUS LOGIC, CIRRUS, Cirrus Logic logo designs, and SoundClear, among others.
Segments
The company operates and tracks its results in one reportable segment, but reports revenue performance in two product lines: Audio and HPMS.
Research and Development Expenses
For the year ended March 25, 2023, the company’s research and development expenses included $458.4 million.
Competition
The company’s primary competitors include, but are not limited to, AKM Semiconductor Inc., Analog Devices Inc., Goodix Technology, Infineon Technologies, Monolithic Power Systems, Inc., Realtek Semiconductor Corporation, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Shanghai Awinic Technology Co., Ltd., Skyworks Solutions Inc., Southchip Semiconductor Technology (China), ST Microelectronics N.V., Synaptics Incorporated and Texas Instruments, Inc.
Governmental Regulations
The company’s business is subject to various rules and regulations and executive orders relating to export controls and trade sanctions. Certain of the company’s products are subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which are administered by the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In addition, the EAR imposes broad controls on entities listed on sanctioned persons lists, including the BIS Entity List.
History
Cirrus Logic, Inc. was founded in 1984. The company was incorporated in California in 1984 and was reincorporated in the state of Delaware in 1999.
