At embedded world 2026 on the DigiKey booth, Paige Hookway speaks with Patrick Moore, Vice President, Global Sales & Apps and Ken Southworth, Director of Applications at Silanna Semiconductor about its approach to expanding design flexibility in analogue data conversion and laser-driving technology, the company’s newly released Plural ADC platform, and its FirePower laser driver family.
Headquartered in San Diego, Silanna operates as a fabless analog semiconductor company, working closely with fabrication partners in Taiwan and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers. Moore explained that the company focuses on data converters and laser driver systems aimed at high-performance sensing and signal processing applications.
Moore introduced the company’s reasoning behind the Plural ADC release.
He said: “We looked at the market over the last several years. And what we found was in the ADC space from 10 to 16 bits, the market’s dominated by a single player. One person owns 85% of the market and then the number two owns another 10 and that means customers are essentially trapped with those two suppliers only and no options.”
The company developed the Plural ADC architecture as an alternative approach to conventional converter manufacturing.
Traditional analogue-to-digital converters are typically produced as dedicated chips designed for a specific wafer configuration. Moore explained that Silanna instead created a configurable platform.
He said: “Our chips are a platform, a configurable data converter where one wafer can be turned into many, many different chips.”
Southworth expanded on how that configuration process took place: “We basically configure them all at the back end at test and we have four different platforms at each resolution, 10, 12, 14, and 16 bits. And then on the back end, it’s programmed before it heads out to the customers.”
The Plural ADC platform targeted applications requiring resolutions between 10 and 16 bits, with sampling rates ranging from five to 250 mega samples. The company designed the converters to meet common performance requirements for high-speed signal processing.
Alongside the ADC platform, Silanna also discussed its Firepower laser driver family, designed to simplify LiDAR and range-finding system designs.
Southworth explained that conventional laser drivers often relied on multiple discrete components mounted across a circuit board: “The traditional method is discreet many different little parts on a board that can be difficult to route.”
The FirePower design consolidated those functions into a single chip solution.
Southworth said: “What we provide is a consolidated one single chip solution very small 1x 3 1/2 mm that has the ability of combining the functionality of three different parts.”
According to the company, the integrated design improved energy efficiency compared with traditional implementations.
“Our circuit’s about 80% efficient where a traditional discrete device is about 30% efficient.”
The FirePower family currently included the SL2001 and SL2002 devices. The SL2001 targeted automotive and industrial LiDAR applications, while the SL2002 addressed consumer range-finding systems.
Moore said: “The 2001 was initially released for the LAR applications whether it’s automotive or industrial LAR… And then our 2002 is a subset of that 2001 for more consumer based range finding applications.”
Through the Plural ADC platform and the Firepower laser driver family, Silanna outlined its approach to providing configurable semiconductor solutions aimed at sensing and signal processing applications.
Find out more in the interview below.
