Analog Devices Inc Segments

Analog Products

Our analog IC technology has been the foundation of our business for over four decades, and we believe we are one of the world’s largest suppliers of high-performance analog ICs. Our analog signal processing ICs are primarily high-performance devices, generally defined as devices that support a minimum of 10-bits of accuracy and a minimum of 50 megahertz of speed. The principal advantages these products have versus competitors’ products include higher accuracy, lower cost per function, smaller size, lower power consumption and fewer components resulting in improved reliability. The majority of our analog IC products are proprietary to us in their design and our product portfolio addresses a wide range of applications. Our product portfolio includes several thousand analog ICs, any one of which can have as many as several hundred customers. Our analog ICs typically have long product life cycles. Our analog IC customers include both original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, and customers who build electronic subsystems for integration into larger systems.

We derive the majority of our analog signal processing IC product revenue from sales of data converters and amplifiers. We are the industry’s leading supplier of data converter products. Data converters translate real-world analog signals into digital data and also translate digital data into analog signals. Amplifiers are used to condition analog signals and minimize noise.

Over the past several years we have been expanding our analog IC product offerings along the entire signal chain and into areas such as micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, radio frequency integrated circuits, or RF ICs, and power management.

Our analog technology base also includes products using an advanced IC technology known in the industry as surface micromachining, which is used to produce semiconductor products known as micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS. This technology enables us to build extremely small mechanical sensing elements on the surface of a chip along with supporting circuitry. In addition to incorporating an electro-mechanical structure, these devices also have analog circuitry for conditioning signals obtained from the sensing element. The integration of signal conditioning and MEMS is a unique feature of our products which we call iMEMS®. Our iMEMS product portfolio includes accelerometers used to sense acceleration, and gyroscopes used to sense position. The majority of our current revenue from MEMS products is derived from accelerometers used by automotive manufacturers in airbag applications and in video game applications. However, opportunities from consumer and industrial customers are increasing as we develop products using this technology for applications in these end markets.

Our MEMS and RF products as well as other analog signal processing products such as high-speed clock ICs, are included in our “Other Analog” product category.

Whether the product is plugged into the wall or runs on batteries, every electronic device requires some form of power management, which can include converters, battery chargers, charge pumps, and regulators. We leverage our leading analog signal technology to devise innovative high-performance power management ICs, high-reliability infrastructure equipment and battery-operated portable medical, communications and consumer devices.

Digital Signal Processing Products

Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are optimized for high-speed numeric calculations, which are essential for instantaneous, or real-time, processing of digital data generated, in most cases, from analog to digital signal conversion. Our DSP products are designed to be fully programmable and to efficiently execute specialized software programs, or algorithms, associated with processing digitized real-time, real-world data. Programmable DSPs provide the flexibility to modify the device’s function quickly and inexpensively using software. Our general-purpose DSP IC customers typically write their own algorithms using software development tools that we provide and software development tools they obtain from third-party suppliers. Our DSPs are designed in families of products that share a common architecture and therefore can execute the same software. We support these products with easy-to-use, low-cost development tools, which are designed to reduce our customers’ product development costs and time-to-market.

Markets and Applications

The following describes some of the characteristics of, and customer products within, our major markets:

Industrial — Our industrial market includes the following areas:

Industrial Process Automation — Our industrial process automation market includes applications, such as factory automation systems, automatic process control systems, robotics, environmental control systems and automatic test equipment. These applications generally require ICs that offer performance greater than that available from commodity-level ICs but generally do not have production volumes that warrant custom or application-specific ICs. Combinations of analog, mixed-signal and DSP ICs are usually employed to achieve the necessary functionality.

Instrumentation — Our instrumentation market includes engineering, medical and scientific instruments. These applications are usually designed using the highest performance analog and mixed-signal ICs available. Customer products include oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, CT scanners, MRI equipment, blood analyzers and microscopes.

Defense/Aerospace — The defense, commercial avionics and space markets all require high-performance ICs that meet rigorous environmental and reliability specifications. Many of our analog ICs can be supplied in versions that meet these standards. In addition, many products can be supplied to meet the standards required for broadcast satellites and other commercial space applications. Most of our products sold in this market are specifically tested versions of products derived from our standard product offering. Customer products include navigation systems, flight simulators, radar systems and security devices.

Automotive — Although the automotive market has historically been served with low-cost, low-performance ICs, demand has emerged for higher performance devices for a wide range of safety and entertainment applications, as well as for powertrain electronics. In response, we have developed products specifically for the automotive market. We supply a MEMS IC used as a crash sensor in airbag systems, roll-over sensing, global positioning satellite, or GPS, automotive navigation systems, anti-lock brakes and “smart” suspension systems. We offer a wide portfolio of analog ICs used in powertrain and body electronics applications to help improve fuel efficiency and lower emissions. In addition, our analog and DSP ICs have application in engine control, in-cabin electronics, audio and collision avoidance systems.

Communications — The development of broadband, wireless and Internet infrastructures around the world has created an important market for our communications products. Communications technology involves the acquisition of analog signals that are converted from analog to digital and digital to analog form during the process of transmitting and receiving data. The need for higher speed and reduced power consumption, coupled with more reliable, bandwidth-efficient communications, has been creating demand for our products. Our products are used in the full spectrum of signal processing for audio, data, image and video communication. In wireless and broadband communication applications, our products are incorporated into cellular handsets, cellular basestation equipment, portable media devices, PBX switches, routers and remote access servers.

Consumer — Market demand for digital entertainment systems and the consumer demand for high quality voice, music, movies and photographs have allowed us to combine analog and digital design capability to provide solutions that meet the rigorous cost requirements of the consumer electronics market. The emergence of high-performance, feature-rich consumer products, such as digital camcorders and cameras, home theater systems, LCD digital televisions, video projectors, video game applications and high-definition DVD recorders/players, has created a market for our high-performance ICs with a high level of specific functionality.

Computer— We currently supply ICs used for high fidelity audio in desktop and notebook computers and for power management in server computers. Our products are also used in computer peripherals such as displays, printers and scanners.