Profile: Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI.N)

Analog Devices, Inc. (Analog Devices) designs, manufactures and markets analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits (ICs) used in industrial, communication, computer and consumer applications. The Company’s signal processing products translates light, sound, temperature, motion and pressure into electrical signals to be used in a range of electronic equipment. Its ICs are designed to address a range of signal processing applications. The Company’s products include Analog Products and Digital Signal Processing Products. As of October 31, 2009, Analog Devices had approximately 60,000 customers worldwide.

Analog Products

The Company’s analog signal processing ICs support a minimum of 10-bits of accuracy and a minimum of 50 megahertz of speed. Its analog IC customers include both original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and customers who build electronic subsystems for integration into larger systems. Analog Devices derives the majority of its analog signal processing IC product revenue from sales of data converters and amplifiers. The Company also offers a range of comparators that are used in a variety of applications.

The Company’s analog technology portfolio 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 (MEMS). This technology enables 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 called iMEMS. Its iMEMS product portfolio includes accelerometers used to sense acceleration, gyroscopes used to sense rotation, and MEMS microphones used to capture audio sounds. The majority of the Company’s revenue from MEMS products is derived from automotive manufacturers and consumer customers.

Digital Signal Processing Products

Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are processors that are optimized for high-speed numeric calculations, which are essential for real-time processing of digital data generated from analog to digital signal conversion. The Company's DSP products are designed to be programmable and to 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 using software. Its general-purpose DSP IC customers write their own algorithms using software development tools that the Company provides and software development tools they obtain from third-party suppliers. The Company's DSPs are designed in families of products that share a common architecture and therefore can execute the same software.

Analog Devices competes with Broadcom Corporation, Cirrus Logic, Inc., Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Infineon Technologies, Intersil Corporation, Linear Technology Corporation, Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Microchip Technology, Inc., National Semiconductor Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, ST Microelectronics, Silicon Laboratories, Inc. and Texas Instruments, Inc.