Business Focus - STMicroelectronics

GREEN TRANSFORMATION AND SUSTAINABILITY. WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF TECH COMPANIES?

BY FRANCESCO MUGGERI, VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND APPLICATIONS, POWER DISCRETE AND ANALOG PRODUCTS, ASIA PACIFIC, STMICROELECTRONICS LTD.

Increasing population, indoor climate control, factory automation, and transportation have led to the fastrising energy demand. It is expected by 2030, the world’s demand for electricity will grow by more than 30% from 2021. It leads to strong concerns over carbon emission. As one of the worldleading semiconductor companies, STMicroelectronics (ST) can help, from a technology perspective, to decrease carbon emissions by shifting the current fossil energy to the new energy sources, such as solar and wind, more efficient energy conversion and smart usage of energy to reduce wastage.

Up to now, this environmental issue has been mainly driven by economic leading nations. In fact, China, Europe and the US together are accounted for more than 50% of the global carbon emission. They have a clear path and a clear direction to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and for China by 2060.

Major corporations have a clear responsibility and obligation to support the sustainability of our planet. At ST, sustainability has been in our DNA for more than 25 years. We are one of the first companies to commit to the United Nations Global Compact in 2000. We are proudly committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2027. To achieve this ambitious target, we have built a comprehensive program looking at all aspects of our business and operations such as the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions as well as the increasing usage of renewable energies in our facilities. countries, corporations and individuals level. But how to make this happen? We can first look into the three main areas of the energy supply chain: energy production, energy transmission and storage.

Nowadays, solar and wind are the most popular renewable energy sources and the improvement of technology enables efficiency and smart usage of electronic equipment. As a technology leader for semiconductors, ST has an important role in supply solutions and innovations from this perspective. We enable our customers by supplying semiconductor chips to build advanced solutions ranging from solar panels, power conversion inverters, meters, electric vehicle charging piles etc.

While on the transmission and energy storage stages, the semiconductor ICs can have a great contribution to saving energy. For transportation such as electric trains, electric trucks and electric vehicles, with the improvement in the battery charging and storage and extended milages on the road with lower power consumption.

Attempting to solve the issue of energy waste, we can take it from two different angles.

One is to increase efficiency. Another is to minimize the waste by introducing more intelligent usage, for example, artificial intelligence can help in the intensity of light in your dining room or factory floor accordingly to the detection of human presence.

Now let me give you more details on how ST’s semiconductor technologies affect your daily life from the environment and social applications that you may not be aware of.

As mentioned above on electric mobility, semiconductors enable large-scale vehicle electrification with a reduction in carbon emission, as well as the supporting infrastructure that makes it possible, these contribute to the shift from traditional vehicles to smarter, greener mobility solutions.

ST provides power solutions for renewable energy or smart grids. ST contributes to the transition to greener energy sources with high-efficiency and lowpower consumption components. These allow for low-loss energy conversion in solar panels, wind turbines and smart grids using wide bandgap semiconductor technologies. We also provide smart grid solutions, such as smart meters enabling energy utilities to manage their supply and demand, and allowing consumers to view their energy consumption in real-time.

In the smart building, farming and industry, ST’s products are used in a wide range of applications, supporting the evolution of industries to make factories and workplaces more intelligent, safer and more efficient. We provide devices to monitor, optimize, and clean gas emissions from any kind of motor engine, measure air pollution in cities, and purify the air. We also offer a large product portfolio for energy monitoring and control in homes, buildings, and industrial facilities. The ability of our products and technologies to be more connected with their environment has been particularly instrumental in the agriculture industry.

Other than the environmental applications, let me introduce more on human welfare applications by semiconductor solutions that can provide social benefits by helping people lead safer and healthier lives.

Semiconductor solutions support the medical/ healthcare arena in developing innovative healthcare technologies, such as ultrasound imaging systems, and pacemakers. Embedded in electronic equipment, sensors, microcontrollers, power and analogue components, connectivity solutions and specialized ICs have been instrumental in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling the design of virus testing kits, rapid testers, breathing ventilators, and social distancing applications.

Imagine we have the safety design systems and products that reduce accidents on the road, in our homes, cities, factories and workplaces. Just to name a few such as the development of LED lighting, pedestrian detection, driver somnolence detection, fire alarm, smoke detector, smart lock and access, surveillance, smart thermostats etc., these all technology advancements can help to make us safer.

Online transactions and payments become our daily routine, security solutions enable secure payment and authentication in a wide range of IoT devices, to protect privacy and assets by ensuring their confidentiality and integrity. ST has a product portfolio that includes a series of secure devices which, when embedded in connected systems such as alarms and smart door locks, protect against domestic robberies and car theft.

ST delivers intelligent and energy-efficient products and solutions that power electronics at the heart of everyday life. Per my introduction earlier, our chips and systems are found in billions of products. ST’s decades of experience in sustainability will be able to help our customers embark on their transition to carbon-zero, meeting external regulatory requirements in areas like ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) and ST will join hand with our customers to achieve the ambitious sustainability objectives going forward.

COMPANY PROFILE

At ST, we are 48,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An independent device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of the Internet of Things and 5G technology. ST is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2027. Further information can be found at www.st.com.