August 18, 2025
In every industry, automation via machine learning or AI, or both, is the trend of the decade, so far. When paired with robotics, sensing, switching, and controls, the power of industrial automation to revolutionize manufacturing, warehousing, supply chain, mining, O&G, and almost any other industrial vertical is already showing.
Application Use Case: Industry 4.0 is Automated
Known as Industry 4.0, the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution heralds a growing number of smart factories and facilities that are defined and powered by smart semiconductor solutions and automations, but it’s about so much more than that.
Industry 4.0 is also encouraging better integration of customers and business partners by unifying the entire value-added chain and bringing together the stakeholders from supplier and producer all the way to the customer.
Data, wireless connectivity, security, storage, and power management are the key enablement technologies for the Industrial Automation revolution.
Industry 4.0 is brimming with potential, especially for industrial automation, but it’s also creating new challenges. The demand for power-efficient and industrial-grade components with guaranteed long-term availability is a limiting factor for many implementations. Customers need to know that their embedded technology partner can offer the kind of resiliency they require and the support they think they’ll need. This must, and does, influence which solutions best suit industrial applications. For example, a microcontroller that doesn’t support an extended temperature range or minimum shock resistance is likely unsuitable for industrial automation uses altogether.
As Industry 4.0 begins to help companies find gains in resource efficiency, product individualization, and adaptability, it’s important to remember that the nuts-and-bolts enablement technologies make it all possible. All along the value-added chain, data is being exchanged along wired and wireless connectivity paths. This process needs to take place securely, of course, but by leveraging intelligent processing of the data, industrial customers can also push their facilities into smarter positions.
The Products: Infineon Industrial Solutions
The success of Industry 4.0 and industrial automation implementations hinges on powerful, secure, and smart components like those from Infineon. Customers say they count on Infineon’s proven expertise to support them in the development process with solutions for industrial automation applications.
The company says it endeavors to cover all the critical bases of industrial automation enablement technologies in its portfolio, including data management, memory, connectivity, security, and power controls.
When developing solutions, Infineon uses its long experience and expertise to take challenges head-on. The company specializes in high-quality industrial-grade semiconductors, with a range of proven reference designs. These can make a new automation design as simple, efficient, and reliable as possible.
In the power management category, Infineon is one of the leading manufacturers of Isolation integrating devices with its ISOFACE line of dual- and quad-channel digital isolators. These are based on Infineon’s coreless transformer (CT) technology and provide robust high-voltage isolation for a broad range of applications, including isolated gate signal transfer in high-density power designs and isolated communication, such as in a UART voltage level shifter or CAN BUS isolation. The company’s also proud of its wide portfolio of smart switches for integrated and discrete solutions for I/O modules.
Data is one of the most valuable assets in any company, including in manufacturing and industrial automation. This means that data security, as the key to protecting customer operations, must keep up with that value. Infineon offers its OPTIGA embedded security family as dedicated hardware to protect against attacks, counterfeiting, and manipulation. The company also leverages its portfolio of NOR Flash and SRAM memory products to complement the data management and security tools for industrial automation applications
The company’s wireless communication solutions for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity are well-understood in its long history and are provided mostly through its AIROC line, which offers advanced features and development tools, optimized power efficiency, and high performance.
Finally, looking at the increasing need for functional safety in automation, system providers may benefit from the AURIX Microcontroller family from Infineon. This family is the result of years of experience in the field of automotive functional safety.
Infineon is a specialist in offering exactly what’s needed to make an industrial project work efficiently and powerfully. The company’s products are built for high level integration into any industrial system, and for saving valuable space for all the other functions that will be needed.
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Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers, he would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars. In previous lives, he’s been a short order cook, telemarketer, medical supply technician, mover of the bodies at a funeral home, pirate, poet, partial alliterist, parent, partner and pretender to various thrones. Most of his exploits are either exaggerated or blatantly false.