The global player in mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) technology sets a new benchmark for local semiconductor industry.

(L-R) Necip Sayiner, President and CEO, Silicon Laboratories Inc.; Lim Swee Nian, Executive Director, Electronics, EDB; and John Hollister, Managing Director, Silicon Laboratories International.

One of the world's leading companies in analogue-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, Silicon Laboratories Inc., recently opened its international HQ in Singapore at Serangoon North.

With both India and China rapidly developing, the US-based company decided to expand its operations in this region to capture the potential of these growing markets. Within its global strategy, Singapore is considered crucial for its long-term commercial success. More importantly, the new facility will bring the company's engineers and support infrastructure closer to its customer base and partners in Asia.

Since Silicon Labs established its HQ in Singapore in 2004, the company has increased its operations each year. Previously, the Singapore HQ hosted finance, operations, engineering, applications and human resources functions, but the new international HQ in Singapore will serve as its key business hub with design and R&D support for all Silicon Labs business outside of the US. To cater for this increased headcount, the new office is three times larger than its predecessor.

"At Silicon Labs, we believe our commercial success and ability to win depend on being close to customers. We believe that the culture of innovation that we have created is alive and well in our Singapore operations." – Necip Sayiner, President and CEO, Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Industry leader In IC technology

Founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas, on the principles of constant innovation and solid execution, Silicon Labs is a global enterprise with operations, sales and design activities. With 500 employees worldwide, it is one of the leading players in the innovation of high-performance analogue-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 its customers advantages in performance, size and power consumption. Throughout its 12-year history, Silicon Labs has consistently introduced best-in-class products implemented in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) that dramatically improved its customer value proposition. These products simplify the customer design process and speed up time-to-market by leveraging cutting edge architectures and CMOS process technology.

Silicon Laboratories' new facility at Serangoon North.

Silicon Labs' portfolio of both application-specific and general purpose products includes high-performance mixed-signal microcontrollers, broadcast audio solutions, ISOmodem® embedded modems, ProSLIC® subscriber line interface circuits, silicon direct access arrangements (DAAs), satellite set-top box receivers, voice codecs, clock and data recovery ICs and precision clock ICs. These patented solutions serve a broad set of markets and applications including consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive.

"In 2008, we plan to leverage our mixed-signal capabilities to introduce disruptive technology in large established markets, while expanding the breadth of our existing portfolio. We have a rich and exciting R&D pipeline with a number of key products planned for launch in the coming year to support these goals,"Sayiner says.

As a fabless semiconductor company, Silicon Labs is able to take advantage of the widely available process technology that allows for reliable, mass production of the company's products at the world's most prominent semiconductor hubs.

One of these hubs is Singapore. With Singapore's focus on innovation and manufacturing history in semiconductors, it was a natural choice to locate Silicon Labs' new Asian facility in the Republic.

Lim Swee Nian, Executive Director, Electronics, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), says, "Singapore is a competitive business location that allows semiconductor companies to easily find their business partners while enjoying success to the international market. Our vibrant semiconductor ecosystem consisting of IC design, wafer fabrication and advanced assembly and test is supported by a strong base of suppliers. This offers a 'plug and play' environment for fabless companies such as Silicon Laboratories to ramp up quickly."