NASDAQ bell ringing with Power Integrations

I was recently invited to attend an opening bell ceremony at NASDAQ where Power Integrations’ CEO Balu Balakrishnan would ring the bell. The event marked the tenth anniversary of the company’s initial public offering in December 1997.

The company was also observing the fifth anniversary of the launch of its LinkSwitch products, the first monolithic power-conversion chips that replace the notoriously inefficient power supplies known as “energy vampires.” In 2002, the LinkSwitch received an Electronic Products Product of the Year Award. It was nice to hear that a product I nominated is still doing well in the market.

After the bell ringing, I chatted briefly with Balu about PI’s new energy efficiency products, which are becoming more important now with global warming. He noted that their chips that were shipped the last quarter of 2007 actually saved approximately 1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

One market that PI is looking into now is LED lighting. Though it’s a smaller market, Balu believes LED lighting will be preferred over incandescent and fluorescent in the near future.