ANC strengthens leadership through acquisition of Incus Laboratories
Includes digital ANC solutions with the addition of high-performance audio processing IP.

ams (Korea Branch Representative Lee Jong-deok) announced that it has reached a final agreement to acquire Incus Laboratories, a UK-based private company and a leading provider of intellectual property (IP) for digital active noise cancellation (ANC) technology for headphones and earphones.

Through this acquisition of Incus, ams has further strengthened its position in the ANC solutions market, where it is currently established as a leading provider of analog ANC technology to headphone and earphone OEMs. ams plans to expand its business into the new field of digital ANC solutions by leveraging Incus's IP, expertise, and noise cancellation system design toolset in the field of acoustic characterization.

ams's existing analog ANC products offer excellent acoustic performance and low power characteristics, and future digital solutions will provide the benefits of further reduced system cost and size, as well as enhanced design flexibility. With ams's new digital ANC solution, supported by Incus's design tool set and acoustic characterization technology, system development is easier because OEMs do not need to configure and assemble hardware filter networks of passive components for each headphone or earphone design.

Incus's IP runs on various general-purpose DSP cores and provides the core ANC functionality for DSP-based solutions used in many of today's bundled and aftermarket earphones and headphones. Incus solutions are renowned for providing high levels of noise attenuation across a wide frequency range by utilizing sophisticated phase shift technology that compensates for delays in the digital signal processing chain. Additionally, Incus's IP supports the use of advanced speakers and micro-speakers for the reproduction of exceptional Hi-Fi quality audio.

ams acquires all assets located in Buckinghamshire, UK, including all of Incus's patent IP. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction costs. All employees of Incus, including its founders and executives, will become employees of ams. ams plans to continue Incus's existing IP licensing business and looks forward to collaborating with partners to meet the demands of the newly expanded market resulting from this acquisition.