Infineon takes stake in Colorado startup, cross licenses patents

Infineon takes stake in Colorado startup, cross licenses patents
By Semiconductor Business News
September 25, 2000 (8:19 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000925S0007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Celis Semiconductor Corp. here today announced Infineon Technologies AG has taken a minority stake in the four-year-old developer of nonvolatile memories and mixed-signal devices as part of a transaction that includes a cross-licensing pact between the two companies.

Under the agreement, Munich-based Infineon gains access to Celis' intellectual property for nonvolatile memory and mixed-signal designs used in wireless applications, such as smart cards, according to the Colorado Springs company. Privately-held Celis said it will have access to Infineon's patents for its products containing nonvolatile memory. Financial terms of the agreement and stock purchase by Infineon were not released.

"These cooperations provide Infineon additional access to talented engineers and innovation," said Wilhelm Beinvogl, senior vice president of R&D in the Memory Products Group of Infineon. "We expect the relationship with Celis to complement and enhance Infineon semiconductor memory efforts."

Celis said it is currently focusing most of its efforts on design of advanced nonvolatile memories--such as flash, EEPROM, and ferroelectric RAM--and mixed-signal devices for smart cards as well as radio-frequency identification (RFID) products. "The cooperation with Infineon helps position Celis to realize our long term goals and objectives as a fabless semiconductor company," said Gary Derbenwick, president and chief executive officer of Celis.