Applications

TI has always been known for innovation. During the span of his career, which started in 1958, legendary TI engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit, handheld calculator and thermal paper. The integrated circuit, or semiconductor, is the basic building block of computers and all other modern electronic devices.

For decades, our products have been used in many pioneering applications:

Integrated circuits

Combining many transistors into a single circuit, like a computer motherboard, integrated circuits delivered price and performance breakthroughs that gave rise to the incredible growth of the electronics industry.

Thermal paper

By producing a printed image without the need for ink, thermal paper is commonly used for ATM, gasoline pump and credit card receipts, and similar applications.

Single-chip voice synthesizers

TI's Speak and Spell used the first single-chip voice synthesizer to help children learn to read, spell and work with numbers.

Digital signal processing (DSP) and Digital Light Processing™ technology

TI introduced the first single-chip digital signal processor (DSP), which speeds up computer processing. We also developed our Emmy® Award-winning DLP Cinema® technology and the first single-chip cell phone. Inventions like the single-chip cell phone opened the door to cheaper phones containing a multitude of multimedia features, such as the ability to take pictures and video images.

Inverters

Enhanced inverter designs aided by TI technology allow solar and wind inverter manufacturers to eliminate transformers – reducing costs, increasing efficiency and adding communications and diagnostic capabilities to their systems. These improvements show promise for making solar and wind energy systems more viable for remote and rural installations.

Utilities

Public utilities are beginning to adopt electronic-based meter reading to reduce costs and offer consumers new services and energy-saving options.

Power management

TI's power management technologies enable:

• LED lights to operate almost anywhere, from tiny backlights on cell phone keypads to high-definition Jumbotron scoreboards at football stadiums.
• Portable devices like cell phones and media players to use tiny single solar cells to maintain a battery charge.
• Portable products like blood-pressure monitors, blood-oxygen meters, security sensors and consumer products to run for years without replacement batteries.

TI endeavors to continue finding creative and forward-thinking ways to enhance our products' performance while reducing their environmental impact.

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Cooperative efforts

We drive innovation and support industry energy-efficiency guidelines by collaborating with associations and leading high-tech companies that are often our customers. We also have relationships with leading electrical engineering research universities worldwide. Together, we evaluate product performance and capacity to meet certain power requirements.

Examples of our partnerships include:

• Serving as a member of several industry consortia, including The Green Grid, American Electronics Association, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Actively participating in working groups, standards committees and other initiatives that aim to advance energy efficiency within the industry and related business sectors.
• Collaborating with renowned research universities to tap the interdisciplinary expertise required to develop the products of the future.

We also help promote our energy innovation story by sponsoring industry events, like the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. This competition brings college students around the world to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

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