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Sustainable product design
Energy applications | Medical applications | Communications applications | Other applications | Partnering in innovation
When we design technology, we ask our customers what they are trying to provide for their clients: Performance? Size? Reliability? Efficiency? Then we set out to solve these problems.
We develop energy-efficient products that reduce power consumption and boost product longevity. Doing this competitively, sustainably and profitably across a broad spectrum of markets is a formidable challenge. In many cases, TI's broader focus benefits customers who might not otherwise have the resources or scope to recognize and incorporate these opportunities to benefit their end users.
 Technology springs from imagination, and TI wants to create an environment where people can both imagine a better world and help build it. In 2008, we proudly unveiled Kilby Labs, a new research center dedicated to inventing technologies several generations ahead of today's business. The labs are a way to generate new ideas, open new markets and create opportunities that lead to growth.
This year, TI's continued our strategic focus on developing products that better harness energy and advance medical and communications technology. Why?
- Nearly 65 percent of all energy is lost in the conversion and distribution process. We can conserve energy by creating technology that optimizes power use and eliminates waste – reducing the world's demand for energy. With this innovation, our customers can build products that improve reliability and power performance, making the world greener, healthier, smarter, safer and more fun.
- With 60 million people in the U.S. alone suffering from chronic illnesses and global health care spending at $5 trillion annually, numerous opportunities exist for growth and innovation in the $2.65 billion medical semiconductor industry. Not only does the application of advanced semiconductor technologies to medical tools benefit our company, but it can cut costs, improve diagnosis accuracy, shorten surgical and recovery times, and increase the reach of modern medical technology to undeveloped nations – improving the quality of life for the planet's people.
- Global energy demand is estimated to double by 2050, which calls for a more efficient and reliable power infrastructure. Smart grids can do just that, reducing costs and saving energy by delivering electricity from utility suppliers to customers using digital technology such as sensors and two-way communication. TI communications technology is helping our customers and the world's electric utility companies optimize energy supply and demand, whether it's connecting a home solar panel installation to an electricity meter or performing load demand control of home appliances through ZigBee wireless radios.
Energy applications
Wind. Solar. Vibration. Body heat. TI is working on ways to harness these often untapped energy sources to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and boost the use of alternative, smarter sources. Our ultimate goal is to reduce energy consumption while increasing energy output, making technology more powerful, yet more efficient. Here are some ways we are doing this:
Smart grid
While the nation's electricity grid pushes power to homes, buildings and schools, utilities today cannot always identify how that energy is being used and where power outages exist. Homeowners also lack details about their electricity use, hindering their ability to adjust use and reduce costs. Studies show that households cut energy use by 15 percent when they can monitor their use in real time. TI's technology is helping create advanced smart meters that can report this kind of information.
Vibration sensors
Why not fasten a special group of sensors to a bridge, powered by the vibration of the cars above, to monitor potential structural problems? TI is helping automate this technology to make our roads safer. Our CC430 battery-free sensors run off solar power, human body heat or vibrations.
Power management
Power management chips and digital power technologies improve the reliability of power supplies, letting our customers design systems that lose less energy from the power source to the product or device. These savings result in reduced cooling requirements, extended life spans, improved reliability through failure prediction, and more precise performance.
Electronics energy conservation
Some 5 percent of the electricity used by U.S. homes goes to objects that absorb and lose energy in standby mode. That estimate jumps to 12 percent in Japan. We help reduce this type of energy waste, as some of our products consume as little as 500 nanoamps of current in standby mode – less than a watch battery
Electric motor efficiency
 Roughly two-thirds of the world's electricity is used to power motors. TI chips decrease motor energy consumption up to 60 percent by enabling variable-speed drives. Aside from the tremendous energy savings, these motor drives extend product life and improve reliability.
Solar energy
TI introduced a new chip technology in 2008 called Piccolo™, which enables digital power conversion in solar-powered systems. Piccolo is built in a way that packs this intelligence into a really small size and at a reasonable price, making solar more viable for mainstream installation.
LED lighting
Piccolo chips also help bring LED technology to street lighting applications, where they can bring up to 50 percent higher energy efficiency when compared to traditional high-pressure sodium lamps. If the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. adopted this technology, they could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million metric tons (the equivalent of taking 212,000 vehicles off the road) and save $90 million a year.
Medical applications
TI is leveraging technology used in energy, entertainment and computer applications into applications for the medical field. We believe that medical electronics innovation can redefine health care, taking us beyond chemistry, human analysis and traditional hospital visits.
This is made possible through equipment such as ultrasound machines, glucometers, digital stethoscopes, retinal implants, home monitoring equipment, smart pills and implantable devices. Many of these products include TI's microcontrollers, low-power RF technology and power-management chips.
For example, a portable glucometer, which measures the amount of sugar in a person's blood, once needed two AA batteries that lasted about three months. TI's component innovations are enabling glucometer companies to optimize their systems so that one single coin-cell battery powers the device for life.
Other recent applications for TI components include:
3-D medical imaging
Surgeons now have the capability to use three-dimensional technology to showcase the body in such a way that medical teams can see where a tumor is located, what areas to operate on, and what areas to avoid. We anticipate that this tool will revolutionize both the quality and accuracy of medical procedures.
Vein viewer
TI's DLP® technology can literally project the roadmap of veins that lie beneath the skin using near-infrared light, expediting blood draws on the elderly, children, cancer patients and others – and reducing the trauma of multiple needle pricks.
Wireless communication
TI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are putting a wireless interface on a microcontroller with such low power consumption that it could be used in a medical device implanted under the skin, providing a continuous wireless readout of a person's blood sugar, blood pressure or temperature.
Another solution combines ultra-low power technology with the ability to send information wirelessly through a low-power TI radio frequency transceiver, all on one tiny chip. As a result, intelligent hospital tracking systems using this TI component can communicate patient or medical equipment information to a central location, as well as personal area networking between watches, pedometers, chest-strap heart rate monitors, and PC-based health and fitness analysis programs.
Communications applications
Our leading technology in high-quality mobile and wireless communications is making telecommuting and teleconferencing a viable alternative to automobile-based transportation, reducing emissions. Additional communications technologies include:
Cell phone and laptop efficiency
More than half of the world's cell phones and three-fourths of all laptop computers use TI technology that helps save power and extend battery life. We invented the first single-chip cell phone, opening the door to cheaper phones containing a multitude of multimedia features, such as the ability to take pictures and videos.
Data centers and desktop computer efficiency
Advances in TI chip technology decrease power consumption in data centers, desktop computers and monitors.
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.
Other applications
TI's low-power, energy-efficient technologies are being put to use in other industries as well. A sampling of our offerings includes:
Automotive
Cars are more fuel-efficient, cleaner and safer thanks to chip-controlled technology from TI. Applications include:
- Electric power steering systems that eliminate traditional hoses and pumps, thereby improving overall fuel economy by an average of 5 percent.
- Integrated starter alternators that start the vehicle noiselessly, but most importantly, cut fuel consumption and lower emissions by 30 percent.
- Tire-pressure gauges that warn of impending blowouts.
Education
TI's innovative technology also reaches into classrooms and is revolutionizing the way mathematics and science are taught and learned. Technologies like the TI-Navigator™ classroom learning system, in tandem with TI's graphing calculators, enable teachers to gauge students' understanding of math concepts in the classroom in real time.
Automatic identification
 Once known primarily as a supply chain logistical tool for retailers, government agencies and shippers, TI's radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology is making its way into a variety of applications in places like gyms, curbside recycling bins, airport luggage tags and credit cards.
For example, TI-RFid™ identification devices improve efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions for Wal-Mart by helping the company maintain accurate inventories. This cuts unnecessary truck deliveries as well as the number of trips customers make to the store for items that would have otherwise been out of stock during their initial visit.
Partnering in innovation
We drive innovation by collaborating with universities, associations and leading high-tech companies that are often our own customers. Together, we evaluate product performance and capacity to meet certain power requirements.
Examples of some 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.
In 2008, TI funded $15 million in medical research with prestigious medical schools at Georgia Tech, University of Southern California (USC), University of Washington, University of Houston, Indian Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University. One of the reasons we invest in universities and startups is so they can take our tools to accelerate their own innovations.
With USC scientists and a startup called Second Sight Inc., for example, we collaborated to develop a retinal implant that converts camera images into neural impulses. In time, patients learn to construe dark and light patterns as objects, giving them some ability to navigate by sight, if not actually to see.
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