Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Silicon Laboratories Acquires ChipSensors

AUSTIN, Texas, October 12, 2010 - Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Nasdaq: SLAB) today announced the acquisition of Ireland-based ChipSensors Limited, an early stage technology company creating innovative single-chip CMOS sensors designed to detect temperature, humidity and gases. ChipSensors’ technology complements Silicon Labs’ touch, proximity sensing and recently acquired MEMS technology, expanding the company’s capabilities in CMOS-based sensors.


ChipSensors, a fabless semiconductor company, has an experienced management and technology team with extensive materials science and mixed-signal design expertise. The company has leveraged these capabilities to develop novel sensor technology that addresses a wide range of target markets such as thermostats, automotive climate control, printers, wireless sensor networks, security systems, gas leak detectors, white goods, and food and drug transportation.


Historically, sensors have been manufactured using specialized materials and manufacturing processes that demand external support circuitry and post-assembly calibration. ChipSensors’ proprietary, patented technology can enable the sensors, signal conditioning circuits and RF transceiver functions, together with the microcontroller and memory, to be integrated and calibrated in a single CMOS IC. These highly integrated devices provide a cost-effective solution to precision sensing for high-volume applications.


“In addition to a strong alignment with Silicon Labs’ existing sensor-related R&D efforts, ChipSensors’ technology also offers synergy with our existing MCU and wireless products, targeting similar end market applications and therefore enabling more content per system and unique integration opportunities,” said Mark Downing, vice president of corporate strategy and business development for Silicon Laboratories.


“Joining forces with Silicon Labs provides us with an exceptional opportunity to both collaborate with a team that has a reputation for the highest caliber mixed-signal engineering and potentially grow the design team in Ireland to take advantage of the strong local technical talent,” said Tim Cummins, CEO and founder of ChipSensors.


About ChipSensors

Headquartered in Limerick, Ireland, ChipSensors was funded by Kernel Capital, Enterprise Ireland and ETV Capital. For more information, visit www.chipsensors.com.


About Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of highly-integrated, easy-to-use products offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. These patented solutions serve a broad set of markets and applications including consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, Silicon Labs is a global enterprise with operations, sales and design activities worldwide. The company is committed to contributing to our customers’ success by recruiting the highest quality talent to create industry-changing innovations. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.