Infineon Technologies today announced the acquisition of Merus Audio. The Copenhagen-based start-up was founded in 2010 by Hans Hasselby-Andersen and Mikkel Hoyerby. Merus Audio creates energy-efficient integrated audio amplifier solutions. They maximize audio performance and battery playback time for smart home and battery-powered speakers while minimizing heat and design space. After the integration of Merus Audio, Infineon will be able to offer its customers a comprehensive and leading-edge Class-D Audio amplifier portfolio addressing the most demanding applications. The technology complements Infineon’s existing PowIRAudio™ product line for power levels below ~70 Watt.
“The move strengthens our ability to offer customers fully integrated system solutions for smart speakers”, said Andreas Urschitz, Division President of Power Management & Multimarket at Infineon. “Merus Audio’s innovative audio amplifier technology very well complements Infineon’s existing sensor and audio processing expertise.”
The fast growing segment of battery-powered smart speakers will benefit especially from the patented technology, which combines extended playback time and smaller designs with improved audio performance. Importance of quality of sound increases for smart speaker users, as listening to music becomes more popular with these devices. Being based on the so called cascading converter technology, the Merus Audio solution allows to reduce the total harmonic distortion and noise. According to a report by SAR Insight, by 2022 the smart speaker market is expected to grow annually 55 percent revenue-wise (CAGR 2017-22).*
In line with Infineon’s strategic approach “From Product to System”, Merus Audio technology adds another piece to Infineon’s expertise in Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). Today, Infineon’s capabilities enable for instance more accurate speech recognition building upon Infineon’s sensor fusion expertise and using radar and silicon microphone technology.
The start-up will be fully integrated into Infineon’s existing audio business and becomes part of the Power Management & Multimarket Division. Both companies agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.
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