SILICON LABORATORIES INC. 10-K

Item 1. Business Overview Silicon Laboratories Inc. is a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. Our integrated hardware and software platform, intuitive development tools, industry leading ecosystem and robust support enable customers in building advanced industrial, commercial, home and life applications. We make it easy for developers to solve complex wireless challenges throughout the product lifecycle and get to market quickly with innovative solutions that transform industries, grow economies and improve lives.  We are pioneers in wireless innovation and have spent the last two decades simplifying the complexity of radio frequency (“RF”) from silicon to cloud. Our leading IoT platform helps customers quickly create secure, intelligent connected devices that solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. Our team and technology assist customers to build connected devices that measurably solve development challenges, including energy efficiency, economic growth, better health, infrastructure innovation, sustainable cities and responsible production. Our semiconductor devices leverage standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), a low cost, widely available process technology. Use of CMOS technology enables smaller, more cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions. Our software expertise allows us to develop products for markets where intelligent data capture, high-performance processing and communication are increasingly important product differentiators. We also focus design and engineering efforts on technologies that simplify and accelerate adoption by customers of security features engineered into our silicon chips. Our expertise in analog-intensive, mixed-signal IC design in CMOS and software development allows us to develop new and innovative products that are highly integrated and secure, simplifying our customers’ designs and improving their time-to-market. Industry Background Intelligence is being added to electronic systems to enable internet connectivity, power efficiency, monitoring of health, safety and consumption of precious resources and an improved user experience. This in turn is increasing the demand for bandwidth, requiring more infrastructure to support higher performance networks. The nearly ubiquitous availability of internet access and the increasing intelligence of electronic devices and mobility are enabling what is called the Internet of Things, a term that describes the exponential increase in IP-enabled devices connected to the internet. These trends require more and more interaction between the analog world we live in and the digital world of computing, which is driving the need for analog-intensive, mixed-signal circuits in a wide range of electronic products. Traditional mixed-signal designs relied upon solutions built with numerous, complex discrete analog and digital components. While these traditional designs provide the required functionality, they are often inefficient and inadequate for use in markets where size, cost, power consumption, performance and security are increasingly important product differentiators. To improve their competitive position, electronics manufacturers must reduce the cost and complexity of their systems and enable new features or functionality to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Simultaneously, these manufacturers face accelerating time-to-market demands and must rapidly adapt to evolving industry standards and new technologies. Because analog-intensive, mixed-signal design expertise is difficult to find, these manufacturers increasingly are turning to third parties, like us, to provide advanced mixed-signal solutions. Mixed-signal design requires specific expertise and relies on creative, experienced engineers to deliver solutions that optimize speed, power and performance, despite the noisy digital environment, and within the constraints of standard manufacturing processes. The development of this design expertise typically requires years of practical analog design experience under the guidance of a senior engineer, and engineers with the required level of skill and expertise are in short supply. Many IC solution providers lack sufficient analog expertise to develop compelling mixed-signal products. As a result, manufacturers of electronic devices value providers that can supply them with mixed-signal solutions offering greater functionality, smaller size and lower power requirements at a reduced cost and shorter time-to-market. 2 Table of Contents Products We provide analog-intensive, mixed-signal solutions for use in a variety of electronic products in a broad range of applications for the IoT including connected home and security, industrial automation and control, smart metering, smart lighting, commercial building automation, consumer electronics, asset tracking and medical instrumentation. We have built a leading wireless development platform and product portfolio for the IoT based on Zigbee®, sub-GHz proprietary technologies, Bluetooth®, Z-Wave®, Thread, and Wi-Fi®. We have developed a fully integrated, certified Wi-SUN® solution simplifying Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) deployment for smart cities. We have continued to diversify our product portfolio and introduce new products and solutions through both organic investment and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy. Our products integrate complex mixed-signal functions that are frequently performed by numerous discrete components in competing products into a single chip, chipset or system-on-chip (SoC). By doing so, we create products that, when compared to many competing products, offer the following benefits: ● Require less printed circuit board (PCB) space; ● Reduce the use of external components lowering the system cost and simplifying design; ● Offer superior performance improving our customers’ end products; ● Provide increased reliability and manufacturability, improving customer yields; and/or ● Reduce system power requirements enabling smaller form factors and/or longer battery life. 3 Table of Contents Revenues during fiscal 2021, 2020 and 2019 were generated predominately by sales of our mixed-signal products. The following table summarizes the diverse product areas and applications for the various products that we have introduced to customers: Product Areas and Description Applications ​ ​ ​ Wireless Microcontrollers and Sensor Products ​ ​ Our EFM32™, EFM8™, 8051, wireless MCUs and wireless SoCs are based on numerous wireless protocols, including Zigbee, sub-GHz proprietary, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Thread and Wi-Fi technologies. Our family of products are ideally suited to ultra-low power IoT embedded systems that include energy friendly 8-bit mixed-signal microcontrollers, ultra-low power 32-bit microcontroller and wireless MCU connectivity solutions using the ARM® Cortex-M0+/M3/M4 and newer M33 cores. Single and multi-protocol SoC devices and modules provide flexible, highly integrated solutions designed to meet demanding requirements of IoT applications. The introduction of our Series 2 portfolio provides a greater focus on updatable device security which is becoming vital to the evolution and success of IoT. We bring enhanced capability to the industry protecting user data, system keys and manufacturer brands from malicious threats both hands-on and internet-based. Our broad portfolio addresses a variety of target markets, including smart home, commercial (building automation and retail) and industrial (smart energy, factory automation, smart cities). Our sensor products include optical sensors (proximity, ambient light gestures and heart rate monitoring), as well as relative humidity (RH) / temperature sensors and Hall effect magnetic sensors. These devices leverage our mixed-signal capability to provide high accuracy, process technology to improve performance and lower power consumption than competing parts. Our products are supported by Simplicity Studio™, which provides one-click access to design tools, documentation, software and support resources. In-house protocol stacks and Micrium® real-time operating system (RTOS) help simplify software development for IoT developers by coordinating and prioritizing multiprotocol connectivity, SoC peripherals and other system-level activities. ​ ​ - Home automation /security systems - Industrial automation and control - Smart metering - Smart lighting - Commercial building automation - Patient monitoring - Connected medical products - Smart appliances - Smart speaker - Access control - HVAC control - Cameras - Asset tracking - Medical instrumentation - Consumer health & fitness (wearables) - Smart home sensing - Toys and consumer electronics - Monitors and lavatory controls ​ ​ Divestiture On April 22, 2021, we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to which Skyworks Solutions, Inc. agreed to acquire certain assets, rights, and properties, and assume certain liabilities, comprising our infrastructure and automotive business for $2.75 billion in cash. The transaction closed on July 26, 2021. See Note 3, Discontinued Operations , to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. Customers, Sales and Marketing We market our products through our direct sales force and through a network of independent sales representatives and distributors. Direct and distribution customers buy on an individual purchase order basis, rather than pursuant to long-term agreements. 4 Table of Contents We consider our customer to be the end customer purchasing either directly from a distributor, a contract manufacturer or us. During fiscal 2021, our ten largest end customers accounted for 21% of our revenues. We had no customer that represented more than 10% of our revenues during this period. An end customer purchasing through a contract manufacturer typically instructs such contract manufacturer to obtain our products and incorporate such products with other components for sale by such contract manufacturer to the end customer. Although we sell the products to, and are paid by distributors and contract manufacturers, we refer to such end customer as our customer. Three of our distributors who sell to our customers, Arrow Electronics, Edom Technology and Sekorm, each represented 28%, 18% and 12% of our revenues during fiscal 2021, respectively. We maintain numerous sales offices in Asia, the Americas and Europe. Revenue is attributed to a geographic area based on the shipped-to location. The percentage of our revenues derived from outside of the United States was 86% in fiscal 2021. Our direct sales force is comprised of many sales professionals who possess varied levels of responsibility and experience, including directors, country managers, regional sales managers, district sales managers, strategic account managers, field sales engineers and sales representatives. We also utilize independent sales representatives and distributors to generate sales of our products. We have relationships with many independent sales representatives and distributors worldwide whom we have selected based on their understanding of the mixed-signal marketplace and their ability to provide effective field sales applications support for our products. Our marketing efforts are targeted at both identified industry leaders and emerging market participants. Direct marketing activities are supplemented by a focused marketing communications effort that seeks to raise awareness of our company and products. Our public relations efforts are focused on leading trade and business publications. Our external website is used to deliver corporate and product information. We also pursue targeted advertising in key trade publications and we have a cooperative marketing program that allows our distributors and representatives to promote our products to their local markets in conjunction with their own advertising activities. Finally, we maintain a presence at strategic trade shows and industry events. These activities, in combination with direct sales activities, help drive demand for our products. Due to the complex and innovative nature of our products, we employ experienced applications engineers who work closely with customers and distributors to support the design-win process, and can significantly accelerate the customer’s time to market. A design win occurs when a customer has designed our ICs into its product architecture and ordered product from us. A considerable amount of effort to help a customer incorporate our ICs into its products is typically required prior to any sale. In many cases, our innovative ICs require significantly different implementations than existing approaches and, therefore, successful implementations may require extensive communication with potential customers. The amount of time required to achieve a design win can vary substantially depending on a customer’s development cycle, which can be relatively short (such as three months) or very long (such as two years) based on a wide variety of customer factors. Not all design wins ultimately result in revenue, or may result in less revenue than expected. However, once a completed design architecture has been implemented and produced in high volumes, our customers are reluctant to significantly alter their designs due to this extensive design-win process. We believe this process, coupled with our intellectual property protection, promotes relatively longer product life cycles for our products and high barriers to entry for competitive products, even if such competing products are offered at lower prices. Our close collaboration with our customers provides us with knowledge of derivative product ideas or completely new product line offerings that may not otherwise arise in other new product discussions. Research and Development Through our research and development efforts, we leverage experienced analog and mixed-signal engineering talent and expertise to create new ICs that integrate functions typically performed less efficiently by multiple discrete components. This integration generally results in lower costs, smaller die sizes, lower power demands and enhanced price/performance characteristics. We attempt to reuse successful techniques for integration in new applications where similar benefits can be realized. We believe that we have attracted many of the best engineers in our industry. We believe that reliable and precise analog and mixed-signal ICs can only be developed by teams of engineers who have significant analog experience and are familiar with the intricacies of designing these ICs for commercial volume production. The development of test methodologies is just one example of a critical activity requiring experience and know-how to enable the rapid release of a new product for commercial success. We have accumulated a vast set of trade secrets that allow us to pursue innovative approaches to mixed-signal problems that are difficult for competitors to duplicate. We highly value our engineering talent and strive to maintain a very high bar when bringing new recruits to the company. Research and development expenses were $273.2 million, $235.2 million and $205.7 million in fiscal 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. 5 Table of Contents Technology Our product development process facilitates the design of highly-innovative, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Our engineers’ deep knowledge of existing and emerging standards and performance requirements helps us to assess the technical feasibility of a particular IC. We target areas where we can provide compelling product improvements. Once we have solved the primary challenges, our field application engineers continue to work closely with our customers’ design teams to maintain and develop an understanding of our customers’ needs, allowing us to formulate derivative products and refined features. In providing mixed-signal ICs for our customers, we believe our key competitive advantages are: ● Analog and RF design expertise in CMOS; ● Mixed-signal, firmware and system design expertise; ● Microcontroller and system on a chip design expertise; ● Software expertise, including multiprotocol connectivity and real-time operating systems for the IoT; ● Module integration and wireless design expertise; ● Silicon-to-cloud security integration expertise; and ● Our broad understanding of systems technology and trends. To fully capitalize on these advantages, we have assembled a world-class development team with exceptional analog and mixed-signal design expertise led by accomplished senior engineers. Analog and RF Design Expertise in CMOS We believe that our most significant core competency is world-class analog and RF design capability. Additionally, we strive to design substantially all our ICs in standard CMOS processes. Most of our product designs now incorporate some type of RF in CMOS technology. While it is often significantly more difficult to design analog ICs in CMOS, CMOS provides multiple benefits versus existing alternatives, including significantly reduced cost, reduced technology risk and greater worldwide foundry capacity. CMOS is the most commonly used process technology for manufacturing digital ICs and as a result is most likely to be used for the manufacturing of ICs with finer line geometries. These finer line geometries can enable smaller and faster ICs. By designing our ICs in CMOS, we enable our products to benefit from this trend towards finer line geometries, which allows us to integrate more digital functionality into our mixed-signal ICs. Designing analog and mixed-signal ICs is significantly more complicated than designing standalone digital ICs. While advanced software tools exist to help automate digital IC design, there are far fewer tools for advanced analog and mixed-signal IC design. In many cases, our analog circuit design efforts begin at the fundamental transistor level. We believe that we have a demonstrated ability to design the most difficult analog and RF circuits using standard CMOS technologies. Mixed-Signal, Firmware and System Design Expertise We consider the partitioning of a circuit to be a proprietary and creative design technique. Deep systems knowledge allows us to use our mixed-signal and RF in CMOS design expertise to maximize the price/performance characteristics of both the analog and digital functions and allow our ICs to work in an optimized manner to accomplish particular tasks. Generally, we attempt to move analog functions into the digital domain as quickly as possible, creating system efficiencies without compromising performance. These patented approaches require our advanced signal processing and systems expertise. We then leverage our firmware know-how to change the ‘personality’ of our devices, optimizing features and functions needed by various markets we serve. For example, our wireless SoC devices for IoT applications integrate both digital and analog domains in a single chip. The SoCs combine ARM Cortex-M processor cores, a variety of digital and analog peripherals, hardware cryptography accelerators, and analog-intensive multiprotocol radio transceivers. This system integration at the chip level leverages our deep expertise in mixed-signal and RF design, and low-power wireless MCU architectures pioneered for more than a decade. 6 Table of Contents Microcontroller and System on a Chip Design Expertise We have the talent and circuit integration methodologies required to combine precision analog, high-speed digital, flash memory and in-system programmability into a single, monolithic CMOS integrated circuit. Our microcontroller products are designed to capture an external analog signal, convert it to a digital signal, compute digital functions on the stream of data and then communicate the results through a standard digital interface. The ability to develop standard products with the broadest possible customer application base while being cost efficient with the silicon area of the monolithic CMOS integrated circuit requires a keen sense of customer value and engineering capabilities. Additionally, to manage the wide variety of signals on a monolithic piece of silicon including electrical noise, harmonics and other electronic distortions requires a fundamental knowledge of device physics and accumulated design expertise. Software Expertise Our software expertise allows us to develop products for markets where intelligent data capture, high-performance processing and communication are increasingly important product differentiators. The software we have developed to address these markets enables machine-to-machine communications, providing intelligence to electronic systems. Our products integrate high-performance, low-power wireless and microcontroller ICs with reliable and scalable software into a flexible and robust networking platform. The demand for low-power, small-footprint wireless technology is accelerating as more and more IP-enabled end points are being connected to the IoT. Our software enables a broad range of power-sensitive applications for the IoT, including smart energy, home automation, security and other connected products. We believe that the combination of our software and IC design expertise differentiates us from many of our competitors. As the IoT continues to mature, a new class of embedded applications is emerging, presenting feature-rich and task-intensive use cases. This growing complexity is driving the need for real-time operating systems to help simplify software development for IoT applications by coordinating and prioritizing multiprotocol connectivity, SoC peripherals and other system-level activities. In addition to being able to manage numerous application tasks, an RTOS enhances scalability, and makes complex applications predictable and reliable. To address these application needs, in 2016 we acquired Micrium, an embedded RTOS provider. Micrium has established itself as a reliable, high performance and trusted RTOS software platform, with an installed base that has grown to millions of devices. Module Integration and Wireless Design Expertise The market for wireless modules has grown as customers search for solutions that provide turnkey wireless connectivity for their products. The development of modules is difficult due to stringent requirements, including high levels of integration, programmability, performance, reliability, security and power efficiency. In addition, designs must meet numerous wireless standards deployed in various environments and serving diverse requirements. Our combined expertise in IC design and software development allows us to engineer modules that provide robust, high-performance connections in challenging wireless environments. We have developed wireless modules based on numerous wireless standards, including Z-Wave, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi and sub-GHz. We believe our demonstrated proficiency in the design of modules provides our customers with significant advantages such as fast time to market, reduced development cost, global wireless certifications and software reuse. Silicon-to-Cloud Security Integration Expertise Security is of paramount importance to our customers. More than ever before, device manufacturers and OEMs developing IoT products have specific needs to ensure their solutions are secure. Security is a complex endeavor involving the convergence of multiple integrated hardware and software technologies. IoT products are designed to ensure the devices operate in a trusted and reliable manner, enforce policies as well as protect the confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of data and private information being processed and transmitted. The building blocks are built in hardware based on dedicated IC security components integrated into SoC designs. These specialized security components are designed to enhance cryptographic capabilities and exploit unique physical characteristics of CMOS to establish foundations of trust and enable device identity and assurance. 7 Table of Contents In addition to developing specific security hardware and software capabilities, we also focus design and engineering efforts on technologies that simplify and accelerate adoption by customers of security features engineered into our silicon chips. This is primarily achieved through software tools such as Simplicity Studio and its integration with cloud-based services that simplify implementation, reduce complexity and enable management of security for fleets of devices. Those capabilities are designed to help customers develop products and solutions with chip-to-cloud security integration, enable faster time to market and reduce security defects, risks and losses due to security attacks and incidents. We are creating innovative security solutions that enable customers to develop best-in-class, simple and economical solutions. We will continue investing in security-specific research and development that addresses a dynamic threat landscape, emerging regulatory requirements, and evolving customer security and privacy needs. Understanding of Systems Technology and Trends Our focused expertise in mixed-signal ICs is the result of the breadth of engineering talent we have assembled with experience working in analog-intensive CMOS design for a wide variety of applications. This expertise, which we consider a competitive advantage, is the foundation of our in-depth understanding of the technology and trends that impact electronic systems and markets. Our expertise includes: ● Frequency synthesis, which is core technology for wireless and clocking applications; ● Integration, which enables the elimination of discrete components in a system; and ● Signal processing and precision analog, which forms the heart of consumer, industrial, medical and automotive electronics applications. Our understanding of the role of analog/digital interfaces within electronic systems, standards evolution, and end market drivers enables us to identify product development opportunities and capitalize on market trends. Manufacturing As a fabless semiconductor company, we conduct IC design and development in our facilities and electronically transfer our proprietary IC designs to third-party semiconductor fabricators who process silicon wafers to produce the ICs that we design. Our IC designs typically use industry-standard CMOS manufacturing process technology to achieve a level of performance normally associated with more expensive special-purpose IC fabrication technology. We believe the use of CMOS technology facilitates the rapid production of our ICs within a lower cost framework. Our IC production employs submicron process geometries which are readily available from leading foundry suppliers worldwide, thus increasing the likelihood that manufacturing capacity will be available throughout our products’ life cycles. We currently partner primarily with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) to manufacture the majority of our semiconductor wafers. We believe that our fabless manufacturing model significantly reduces our capital requirements and allows us to focus our resources on design, development and marketing of our ICs. Once the silicon wafers have been produced, they are shipped directly to our third-party assembly subcontractors. The assembled ICs are then moved to the final testing stage. This operation can be performed by the same contractor that assembled the IC, other third-party test subcontractors or within our internal facilities prior to shipping to our customers. During fiscal 2021, most of our units shipped were tested by offshore third-party test subcontractors. We expect that our utilization of offshore third-party test subcontractors will remain substantial during fiscal 2022. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our suppliers are uncertain, evolving and dependent on numerous unpredictable factors outside of our control. If our suppliers experience closures or reductions in their capacity utilization levels in the future, we may have difficulty sourcing materials necessary to fulfill production requirements. Disruptions to our business and supply chain (and the business and supply chains of our customers) could cause significant delays in shipments of our products until we are able to shift our manufacturing, assembling or testing from the affected subcontractor to another third-party vendor. Capacity is currently limited at certain of our third-party foundry, assembly and test subcontractors due to a spike in semiconductor demand. 8 Table of Contents Backlog We include in backlog accepted product purchase orders from customers and worldwide distributor stocking orders. Product orders in our backlog are subject to changes in delivery schedules or cancellation at the option of the purchaser typically without penalty. Our backlog may fluctuate significantly depending upon customer order patterns which may, in turn, vary considerably based on rapidly changing business circumstances. Accordingly, we do not believe that our backlog at any time is necessarily representative of actual sales for any succeeding period. Competition The markets for semiconductors generally, and for analog and mixed-signal ICs in particular, are intensely competitive. We anticipate that the market for our products will continually evolve and will be subject to rapid technological change. We believe the principal competitive factors in our industry are: ● Product size; ● Power requirement; ● Level of integration; ● Customer support; ● Product capabilities; ● Reputation; ● Reliability; ● Ability to rapidly introduce new products to market; ● Price; ● Intellectual property; and ● Performance; ● Software. ​ We believe that we are competitive with respect to these factors, particularly because our ICs typically are smaller in size, are highly integrated, achieve high performance specifications at lower price points than competitive products and are manufactured in standard CMOS which generally enables us to supply them on a relatively rapid basis to customers to meet their product introduction schedules. However, disadvantages we face include our relatively short operating history in certain of our markets and the need for customers to redesign their products and modify their software to implement our ICs in their products. Due to our diversified product portfolio and the numerous markets and applications we serve, we target a relatively large number of competitors. We compete with Broadcom, Espressif, Infineon, MediaTek, Microchip, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Qualcomm, Renesas, STMicroelectronics, Synaptics, Telink, Texas Instruments and others. We expect to face competition in the future from our current competitors, other manufacturers and designers of semiconductors and start-up semiconductor design companies. Our competitors may also offer bundled solutions offering a more complete product, which may negatively impact our competitive position despite the technical merits or advantages of our products. In addition, our customers could develop products or technologies internally that would replace their need for our products and would become a source of competition. We could also face competition from module makers or other systems suppliers that may include mixed-signal components in their products that could eliminate the need for our ICs. Many of our competitors and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, access to larger customer bases, complementary product offerings, and significantly greater financial, sales and marketing, manufacturing, distribution, technical and other resources than us. Current and potential competitors have established or may establish financial and strategic relationships between themselves or with our existing or potential customers, resellers or other third parties. Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors could emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share. Intellectual Property Our future success depends in part upon our proprietary technology. We seek to protect our technology through a combination of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and confidentiality procedures. As of January 1, 2022, we had approximately 1,377 issued or pending United States and foreign patents. Patents generally have a term of twenty years from the date they are filed. As our patent portfolio has been built over time, the remaining terms of the individual patents in our patent portfolio vary. There can be no assurance that patents will ever be issued with respect to our patent applications. Furthermore, it is possible that any patents held by us may be invalidated, circumvented, challenged or licensed to others. In addition, there can be no assurance that such patents will provide us with competitive advantages or adequately safeguard our proprietary rights. While we continue to file new patent applications with respect to our recent developments, existing patents are granted for prescribed time periods and will expire at various times in the future. 9 Table of Contents We claim copyright protection for proprietary documentation for our products. We have filed for registration, or are in the process of filing for registration, the visual images of certain ICs with the U.S. Copyright Office. We have registered the “Silicon Labs” logo and a variety of other product and product family names as trademarks in the United States and selected foreign jurisdictions. All other trademarks, service marks or trade names appearing in this report are the property of their respective owners. We also attempt to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information through agreements with our customers, suppliers, employees and consultants, and through other customary security measures. We intend to protect our rights vigorously, but there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful. In addition, the laws of other countries in which our products are sold may not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. While our ability to effectively compete depends in large part on our ability to protect our intellectual property, we believe that our technical expertise and ability to introduce new products in a timely manner will be an important factor in maintaining our competitive position. Many participants in the semiconductor and electronics industries have a significant number of patents and have frequently demonstrated a readiness to commence litigation based on allegations of patent and other intellectual property infringement. From time to time, third parties may assert infringement claims against us. We may not prevail in any such litigation or may not be able to license any valid and infringed patents from third parties on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Litigation, regardless of the outcome, is likely to result in substantial cost and diversion of our resources, including our management’s time. Any such litigation could materially adversely affect us. Our licenses include industry standard licenses with our vendors, such as wafer fabrication tool libraries, third-party core libraries, computer-aided design applications and business software applications. Human Capital Our success depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees, particularly highly skilled analog and mixed-signal engineers and senior management personnel. We strive to meet this objective by offering competitive compensation and benefits in a diverse, inclusive and safe workplace, with opportunities for our employees to grow and develop in their careers. As of January 1, 2022, we employed 1,667 people, of whom more than 60% are in engineering roles. Women represent approximately 20% of our workforce and men represent approximately 80%. We are a multi-national and multi-ethnic workforce, with sites and employees in more than a dozen countries. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that attracts and retains exceptional talent. We actively promote diversity in our recruitment, development and promotion practices. These principles are also reflected in our employee training, in particular with respect to our policies against harassment, discrimination and the elimination of bias in the workplace. We hold our employees to high performance standards and our compensation plans are designed to deliver competitive base pay and attractive incentive opportunities. Our benefits programs are tailored to the various countries in which we operate. We benchmark for market practices, and regularly review our compensation and benefit programs against the market to ensure they remain competitive. We support a high-performance culture through learning and development solutions aligned with our strategic priorities. Our approach is business-centric, accessible and inclusive. Employees continuously collaborate and share their expertise through an internal training program consisting of classes and workshops that help strengthen technical and professional skills and advance careers. We also host university professors and external speakers to broaden knowledge, trigger creativity and inspire innovation. Our e-learning libraries and on-demand training videos allow employees to absorb information at their own pace and share their recommendations with co-workers. Employees are invited to attend our annual two-day technical symposium featuring peer-reviewed presentations showcasing our internal technical achievements and talks from outside experts to educate and inspire our workforce. Our talent development programs provide employees with the resources they need to help achieve their career goals, build management skills and lead their organizations. We regularly review succession plans and focus on promoting internal talent to help grow our employees’ careers. 10 Table of Contents We believe that our future success will be dependent on retaining the services of our key personnel, developing their successors and properly managing the transition of key roles when they occur. Our key technical personnel represent a significant asset and serve as the primary source for our technological and product innovations. We use employee surveys to better understand and improve the employee experience and identify opportunities to continually strengthen our work philosophy. We use employee feedback to drive and improve processes and ensure a deep understanding of our culture and vision among our employees. We believe the development of our company culture, along with competitive compensation, career growth and development opportunities have helped increase employee tenure and reduce voluntary turnover. During fiscal 2021, our voluntary employee turnover rate was approximately 10%. The health and safety of our employees is of utmost important to us. We offer comprehensive benefits to protect the health of our employees and their families as well as their way of life. We provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of innovative, flexible and convenient health and wellness programs that support their physical and mental health by providing tools and resources to help them improve or maintain their health status. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented a response plan that we believe was in the best interest of our employees and the communities in which we operate. This included largely transitioning our global workforce to a remote work model, while implementing additional safety measures for essential employees continuing critical on-site work. Corporate Social Responsibility As a global corporate citizen, we are committed to environmental sustainability, operational excellence, and providing support for people and communities around the world. We live by our promise to "do the right thing" for our employees, customers, shareholders, communities and planet. We strive to minimize resource use and reduce the environmental impact of our production processes by designing smaller and more energy-efficient products, conserving energy and precious resources, and investing in sustainable technologies and energy conservation practices. Innovative solutions don’t stop at our products – we are focused on addressing complex community challenges through collaborative, actionable and results-driven programs. Our philanthropy program provides financial, volunteer and in-kind support to organizations that are solving critical community needs, improving the quality of life, including those promoting diversity, inclusion and social justice, and expanding STEM opportunities for underrepresented groups. Actions we have taken in pursuit of these commitments include: Environmental Programs ● Adopted and require our suppliers to support the Responsible Business Alliance® (RBA®) Code of Conduct; ● Prioritized qualified suppliers who are socially and environmentally progressive; ● Delivered products that met environmental regulations and requirements; and ● Demanded excellence in our quality and environmental management systems, each certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards. Social Programs ● Donated a portion of our annual profits to charitable organizations; ● Allocated funds to our global sites for grants supporting critical causes locally; ● Provided corporate matching gifts to expand the impact of individual employee donations; ● Offered 24 hours of paid time off per year for employees to volunteer in their communities; ● Sponsored community service projects and supported relief efforts when disasters occur; ● Partnered with organizations committed to building diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments; ● Provided financial grants to nonprofits offering STEM education programs for underrepresented and underserved groups; and ● Supported research to improve safety, sustainability, and overall quality of life in densifying cities. 11 Table of Contents Governmental Regulations We are subject to international, federal, state and local regulations that are customary to businesses in the semiconductor industry. Such regulations include: ● The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (“RoHS”), which restricts the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment; ● General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which provides guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union; ● The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), which prohibits companies and their individual officers from influencing foreign officials with any personal payments or rewards; and ● Conflict minerals reporting, which imposes disclosure requirements regarding the use of “conflict” minerals mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries in products. Our compliance with these laws and regulations has not had a material impact on our financial position or results of operations. Available Information Our website address is www.silabs.com. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available through the investor relations page of our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our website and the information contained therein or connected thereto are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. ​