Epcos acquires NXP's RF MEMS business

MUNICH, Germany — Passive component vendor Epcos AG (Munich, Germany) has announced to take over the RF MEMS activities from NXP Semiconductors. Through the move, the company hopes to get access to a triple-million euro market volume.

RF MEMS help to drive down power consumption of mobile handsets by up to 25 percent, Epcos said in a press release. The company claims to be world market leader in RF filters and plans to expand its product portfolio by the takeover. With RF MEMS, the company hopes to address new applications and thus increase its share of the value created in mobile handset production.

"The acquisition of NXP's RF MEMS activities strengthens our competency in the RF technology market and speeds up our transformation from a discrete component manufacturer to a systems vendor", Epcos CEO Gerhard Pegam explained. "The access to this market is a precondition to benefit from the mobile radio market growth dynamics."

Epcos said it is already cooperating with several large mobile handset manufacturers in this technology segment. Besides mobile handsets, RF MEMS can also be used in WLAN systems.

Financial terms of the transaction were not communicated.