Infineon to Fuel JD Group IoT Effort

Article By : Nitin Dahad, EE Times

Chinese e-commerce company JD Group to feature Infineon semiconductors in cloud services and smart devices

LONDON — Infineon Technologies will provide IoT chips to Chinese e-commerce company JD Group under a strategic partnership announced by the firms this week.

An Infineon spokesperson told EE Times that JD will include Infineon’s chips in its IoT products — for example, in cloud services, smart devices (such as smart speakers, smart TVs), and server solutions. Time-of-flight technology, radar sensors and microphones from Infineon will be used to help create a connected ecosystem. The aim of the partnership is to speed up applications in scenarios such as smart homes and assist in the continuous improvement of JD’s cloud service platform. As an underlying technology provider, Infineon will provide technical support for various aspects such as the creation of IoT devices, data connectivity, storage, and analysis.

“Partnering with leading global semiconductor companies such as Infineon is of great strategic importance to JD,” said Xianglong Su, general manager of intelligent manufacturing department, electronics, and entertainment group at JD. “Whether it is the electronic component solution platform or the overall IoT ecosystem that we are committed to building, breakthroughs depend on the innovation and support of the underlying technology, ultimately translating to a more intelligent, more convenient, and more secure user experience.”

Adam White, senior vice president global sales of the power management and multimarket division at Infineon Technologies (left), and Xianglong Su on signing the strategic partnership for developing smart IoT ecosystems for the Chinese online retailer.

JD.com is a channel through which global brands reach Chinese consumers online, and it claims to be China’s largest online retailer. In addition to e-commerce, it has been building technology platforms for logistics, cloud computing, and smart technology. Earlier this month, it introduced its unmanned store technology for the first time overseas in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Its unmanned stores, first launched in Beijing in October 2017, leverage technologies such as RFID, facial recognition, and image recognition to track retail activity. Cameras placed throughout the space recognize customers’ movement and generate heatmaps of the activity to monitor traffic flow, product selection, and customer preferences to help optimize inventory, product displays, and all facets of store management. It also now uses advanced computer vision technology to track a range of shopping behaviors. It operates 20 unmanned stores across China.

— Nitin Dahad is a European correspondent for EE Times.