Atmel Joins Industry-Academic Alliance to Create New IC Research Center

Source: Atmel Corporation

Heilbronn, Germany. Atmel® Corp. (Nasdaq:ATML) announced today, together with Multilink Technology Corp. and United Monolithic Semiconductors, it has teamed up with the University of Ulm to create a joint R&D group operated in public-private partnership. Named "Competence Center on Integrated Circuits in Communications," the new entity will be located on the University of Ulm s campus in Ulm, Germany.

It will conduct research and development activities on integrated circuits primarily for analog functions in wireless and high-speed opto-electronic systems, using Atmel s Silicon/ Silicon-Germanium and United Monolithic Semiconductors Gallium-Arsenide processing facilities. Aside from circuit design, the center will also be active in semiconductor device modeling as well as device and circuit characterization.

"Our goal is to exploit synergistic design effects between broadband wireless and opto-electronic applications, as well as between different semiconductor technologies," explained Professor Hermann Schumacher, who will direct the center s operations. Examples for projects undertaken are high linearity amplifiers for today s challenging CDMA systems, and front-end ICs for high-end, long-haul fiberoptic communication systems operating at 40 GHz and beyond. Demonstrating the importance of wireless and opto-electronic techniques to students in the course of master and doctoral theses, the center will also assist its industrial partners in recruiting well-trained staff.
The industrial partners will use the center to generate new ideas on topologies and applications -- ideas which may lead to commercial products which then will be developed in industrial development centers.

The center is supported by payments from the industrial partners, while the University of Ulm has made available offices, laboratories as well as computational and characterization infrastructure. Startup funding has been made available by the State of Baden-Wurttemberg s Ministry of Science, Research and Art. A substantial contribution has been secured also from the "Stifterverband fur die deutsche Wissenschaft," an industry-led scientific funding organization, as part of a larger grant program designed to explore new ways of industry-academic cooperation. The center will also participate in publicly funded R&D projects, and solicits collaboration with additional industrial partners.

About the partners
Founded in 1984, Atmel Corp. is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, bipolar SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process technologies. Atmel s Wireless & Microcontrollers division, jointly responsible for this industry-academic alliance, serves the Communications, Automotive, Dataprocessing and Aerospace markets, with QS-9000 certified manufacturing facilities in Nantes, France, Heilbronn, Germany and Manila, Philippines. Design centers are located in Heilbronn, Eching, Ulm, and Berlin (Germany) and Nantes (France).

Multilink Technology Corp. designs, develops and markets advanced-mixed-signal integrated circuits, modules, VLSI products and higher-level assemblies designed to enable the next generation of high-speed optical networking systems. By providing its customers with sophisticated products developed by utilizing systems level expertise and a high level of component integration, the company facilitates its customers ability to meet their time-to-market requirements. The company s products span the markets from Metro to Ultra Long Haul optical transport equipment with a focus on the fastest commercially available speeds of 10 Gb/s and higher. Multilink is headquartered in Somerset, N.J. with additional offices located throughout North America and Europe.

United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS), an ISO 9001-certified manufacturer, incorporated in 1996, designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary MMICs for wireless communications applications such as Broadband Wireless, VSAT, High Data rate optical fiber links, wireless local loop, Intelligent Traffic Systems, Automotive ACC & short range sensors, and ISM Wireless.
UMS offers a broad array of products including power amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, mixers, frequency generation and multifunction parts. The company s strategy is to focus on microwave and millimeter-wave markets by offering a broad range of standard and custom-designed MMICs in order to position itself as "one-stop-supplier."
The company s activities are shared between two production sites, in Ulm, Germany, and Orsay, France. UMS provides "off the shelf" standard components as well as leading edge technologies under Foundry Service mode for the development and manufacturing of Customer Specific Integrated Circuits.

The University of Ulm has been established in 1967 and, since the foundation of the Schools of Engineering Science and Computer Science in 1989, has established a strong presence in information and communication technologies. The School of Engineering Science maintains a 700 square meter research cleanroom building as the core of its microelectronics activities, and has invested strongly into the systems and hardware aspects of communications engineering. The establishment of a Master program on Communications Technology, with English as the language of instruction, has made the University of Ulm a magnet for many post-graduate students from all over the world. From the beginning, the School of Engineering Sciences has made active R&D relationships with industry a top priority.

About the partners
Atmel Wireless & Microcontrollers Division product information may be retrieved at www.atmel-wm.com. Note to Editors: Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof and others contained herein, are trademarks of Atmel Corp. Terms and product names in this document may be the trademarks of others.

Contact: Atmel Corp. Veronique Sablereau Tel: +33 1 30 60 70 68 (Marketing Communications Manager) veronique.sablereau@atmel-wm.com or Matthias Bopp Tel: +49 7131 67-2919 (Director R&D Communication ICs) matthias.bopp@atmel-wm.com or University of Ulm, Center for Integrated Circuits in Communications Professor Hermann Schumacher Tel: +49 731 502-6152 hermann.schumacher@e-technik.uni-ulm.de Website: http://www.uni-ulm.de/icic/