ATMEL Corporation Overview
ATMEL Corporation is a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of advanced semiconductor products, including microprocessors, programmable logic devices, non-volatile memory, security chips, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits. integrated circuits. Through the combination of these core technologies, ATMEL produces a wide range of general purpose and application-specific system-on-chips to meet the growing and evolving needs of today's electronic system design engineers.ATMEL's world-class expertise and extensive experience in system-level integration allows its products to be developed from existing modules, guaranteeing minimal development delays and risks.
Through its manufacturing, engineering, sales and distribution network in over 60 countries, ATMEL is committed to being customer-facing and serving the electronics markets of North America, Europe and Asia. Ensuring timely product introductions and ongoing customer support has made ATMEL's products the centerpiece of the latest electronic products. These products, in turn, help end-users do more, enjoy more convenience and stay connected, wherever they are. ATMEL helps its customers lead the market by designing products that are smaller, cheaper and have more features. As a result, companies leading global innovation are choosing ATMEL's high-performance products to accelerate their time to market and differentiate their products from competing products in both traditional and evolving markets.
Key Markets
ATMEL specializes in high-growth electronics markets such as communications, computing, consumer products, security products, automotive electronics and industrial applications. In communications, ATMEL can provide a range of complex components and chip sets needed for everything from FLASH memory in cell phones to wireless voice and data communications. The growing family of baseband controllers and RF components targets traditional as well as emerging markets such as WLAN and Bluetooth, and the high-bandwidth wireless interconnect technologies that are being rapidly embraced by networking and consumer products.
The forecast is that as cell phone technology evolves from 2.5G to 3G, a multi-billion cellular phone market based on the public **** communication protocol UMTS, with geographic coverage of Europe, USA, and Asia, will be created, and ATMEL can provide RF components, baseband processors, and non-volatile memories based on the SiGe process for this market.
As the founding father of non-volatile memory technology, ATMEL continues to integrate this core capability into complex products serving computing and consumer products such as PCs, storage products, DVDs, entertainment platforms, games and toys. In addition to partnerships with a growing number of electronic device manufacturers, ATMEL's high-density memory products, microcontrollers and ASICs are equally at home in industrial controls, military equipment, graphics processing and automotive equipment.
Security in electronic applications has always been a major issue in the development of computing and communications equipment. ATMEL has a range of products in this area, including confidential microcontrollers and confidential memories, as well as contactless products and biosensors. For example, the company's smart cards and smart card reader chips (ISO7816) are targeted at the European market, as well as the rapidly growing US and Asian security applications. Smart card technology can be used in credit cards, driver's licenses, ID cards, medical ID cards, mobile communications, TV set-top boxes, e-commerce and those related applications that require data security.
Other emerging applications are power management. As more and more features are supported, all handheld devices require power management to improve usage time. Color-screen cell phones consume a lot of power. So a sophisticated power management is necessary to get acceptable battery life. atmel has supplied custom power management ICs to many of the industry's leading vendors, and has developed a range of power management ASSPs to serve this fast-growing market.
Process and Foundry Services
ATMEL has pioneered the development of SiGe, CMOS and BiCMOS processes and has been responsible for many product innovations. The current mainstream of IC production is the 0.18um process. As part of its commitment to advanced processes, ATMEL is in the process of moving to 0.13um. SiGe and SiGE BiCMOS processes are well suited for wireless technologies, enabling the manufacture of system level ICs with a mix of RF, analog functionality and digital modules. 0.8um BCDIII technology is ATMEL's high-voltage tolerant BCDMOS process that can be applied in harsh environments such as automotive industrial controls.
As an IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturer) with a manufacturing facility and process development engineers, ATMEL can optimize process parameters to match the exact requirements of the product. This is especially important for the production of analog and RF circuits. The close support of the process development engineers to the product design engineers ensures that production, test, and yield issues are predictable and that problems are resolved quickly when they arise. Many processes can also be offered to customers on an OEM basis.
Commitment to Quality
ATMEL has a clear commitment to quality at all levels. All ATMEL locations are ISO 9001 certified, most are QS 9000 certified, and some are ISO 14001 certified for environmental protection. All ATMEL operations are controlled by a detailed in-house quality specification, which is regularly reviewed and updated. The aim is to make continuous improvements and increase overall customer satisfaction.
ATMEL's quality team works with customers to conduct quality audits to ensure that ATMEL meets their quality requirements. Lessons learned from customer projects are fed back into the next production run of the product.ATMEL's approach to keeping its products and technology up-to-date is the collaboration of research and development that is already being practiced. R&D projects are carried out in collaboration with key customers and universities, resulting in advanced functional modules, as well as improvements in process technology.
Worldwide Design Expertise and IP
ATMEL has 40 design centers around the world focused on product development, engineering support, and in-depth application development. In order to develop complex SoC products, ATMEL has established an advanced platform-based design flow that makes extensive use of simulation platforms for hardware and software verification prior to silicon release. This approach significantly reduces the design cycle and eliminates many errors.
To support these high value-added products, ATMEL has built a rich IP library. The library includes advanced RISC microcontrollers and peripherals, DSP cores, embedded memories, industry-standard interfaces, high-precision, high-speed analog converters, RF circuits, and power management macrocells. IP reuse between ASICs, ASSPs, and standard products reduces development time and costs and improves the likelihood of a one-shot silicon success.
Product Line Overview
ATMEL's products include both general-purpose non-volatile memories and microcontrollers, as well as programmable logic and ASICs and ASSPs (application-specific standard products) for a customer's specific application. These ASSPs include a wide range of products such as RF chips for wireless communications, secure ICs for smart card applications, sensors for biometric applications, and image processing devices. All of these products are developed based on independently validated, reusable IP libraries that minimize development time, and ATMEL is committed to providing today's electronic system design engineers with integrated circuit products, development tools, third-party software, and customer training to help shorten their development cycles and provide a competitive advantage.
ATMEL specializes in SoC solutions. This highly integrated, single-chip solution integrates as much functionality as the end user needs. If a single-chip solution is not feasible or economical, two or more ICs, such as a microcontroller and a non-volatile memory, can be stacked together to reduce physical size.ATMEL's goal is to integrate all the necessary modules into a SoC solution, resulting in the smallest possible system size, the smallest possible power consumption, and the lowest possible price.
Non-Volatile Memory
ATMEL is a pioneer in non-volatile memory NVM (data remains without loss when power is lost). The non-volatile nature of these memories makes them ideal for small portable products as well as battery-powered devices that don't require power-hungry spinning disks or CDROMs.ATMEL has a broad line of NVMs: EEPROM, which is updated one word at a time and is suitable for data storage; high-density FLASH memory, which is updated one block at a time and is suitable for storing programs or large data objects such as graphics. large data objects like graphics. In addition, ATMEL offers a variety of different configurations and interfaces to match the exact needs of each application.ATMEL is the world leader in serial and parallel FLASH memories, and its products meet the program and data storage needs of the computing, automotive, telecom, consumer products, and military application markets.
Another innovative ATMEL product line is DataFlash(r), which combines the advantages of FLASH and EEPROM. It utilizes on-chip RAM as a cache to achieve the special feature of read/write one bit at a time. And all of this can be accomplished with very little connectivity. In addition, ATMEL continues to produce EPROMs to meet the needs of previous projects.
Microcontrollers
The AVR(r) is an 8-bit RISC microcontroller that is many times faster than traditional CISC architectures in terms of instruction and data throughput capabilities.The AVR has a very rich set of on-chip analog and digital peripherals, as well as in-system programmable EEPROM and FLASH memory. This greatly increases flexibility, eliminates bottlenecks in accessing external memory, and improves program and data security. The product line extends from tinyAVR(tm) (1K of on-chip program FLASH) to megaAVR(tm) (128K of on-chip program FLASH).
For applications that require high processing power while still keeping power consumption as low as possible, ATMEL offers ARM(r)-based 32-bit microcontrollers. This family offers a wide variety of memory capacities and on-chip features to meet the needs of a wide range of high-performance applications exactly. For those applications requiring very high data bandwidth consider the 64-bit MIPS(r) products or the 128-bit mAgic VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) signaling processor cores.
ATMEL has a wide range of microcontrollers based on the 80C51 architecture, including in-circuit programmable FLASH versions, OTP versions, and ROM versions. Advanced on-chip peripheral features such as CAN bus controllers, USB controllers, MP3 decoders, and smart card interfaces are also available, and ATMEL can also provide highly reliable microcontrollers for military and space applications based on the Motorola PowerPC(r) architecture.
Programmable Logic and Programmable System-Level Integration
ATMEL's programmable logic products range from simple PLDs all the way up to high-density FPGAs. using advanced design tools, system designers can customize the logic modules to achieve the data processing required by the application. The advantage is that products can be brought to market as quickly as possible and development costs can be kept as low as possible.
The FPSLIC(tm) (Field Programmable System Level Integrated Circuit) is a revolutionary ATMEL product that combines the processing power of a microcontroller with the flexibility of an FPGA: an AVR core, peripherals, SRAM program memory, and FPGA modules. Its security variant even combines FPSLIC and EEPROM (which holds the system's application and configuration code), thus reducing the size of the PCB and guaranteeing the security of the user's IP. The development tool for this product line is System Designer(tm). It contains tools for mutual verification to enable simultaneous development of software and hardware.
ASICs
ATMEL's ASIC product line encompasses gate/embedded arrays, CBICs, and purely customized products. They are targeted at medium and high volume end products that require optimal performance, lowest power consumption, and lowest price.
ATMEL's ASICs are SoC solutions that integrate microcontrollers and peripherals, DSPs, memory modules, standard interfaces (USB, Ethernet, PCI, Bluetooth, CAN bus, etc.), application-specific logic circuits, power management units, and analog functionality into a single chip with millions of transistors. Because these ASIC designs are based on standard microprocessors or ASSPs and enable IP reuse, the design cycle can be significantly shortened. ATMEL is one of the few semiconductor manufacturers able to integrate high-performance, high-precision analog modules (especially ADCs and DACs) into digital ASICs. In addition, ATMEL offers a range of radiation-hardened ASIC products for space applications.
Security ICs
ATMEL's leading security ICs primarily serve the smart card market and embedded security applications. These chips integrate an 8- or 32-bit microprocessor that is protected against external tampering with FLASH memory or ROM into a single silicon chip. FLASH-based products offer the advantages of flexibility and fast time-to-market, while ROM-based products are suitable for products that have stabilized in performance, ensuring a price advantage for the product.ATMEL's Secure ICs include contact interfaces compliant with ISO7816 standards, as well as dual-interface contactless products compliant with ISO14443 Type B standards and USB standards. These products have the industry's highest security certifications such as ITSEC E3, Common Criteria EAL4+ and Visa(r) International's Level 3 approval. Also suitable for secure terminal applications are biosensor products, starting with the industry-leading FingerChip(tm) dynamic fingerprint sensor. Ideal for access control and security applications, this ATMEL-patented sliding biosensor is especially suited for mobile and low-power products that require a small footprint, whether for business or consumer products.
ASSP - Standard Products for Specific Applications
ATMEL's ASSPs are targeted at multimedia and communications products. Product lines include wireless and wired networking products, voice, video and digital camera processors, digital TV decoders, and a comprehensive line of sound products under the Dream(tm) logo. Related ICs include VoIP processors, complete DVD control chipsets, GPS receivers and a range of broadband data conversion ICs. other ASSPs include USB products for PC connectivity, power management products, automotive applications and industrial control products.
RF products
RF products complement many other data processing devices, and ATMEL offers RF front-end products that are compliant with the 802.11 WLAN specification and the Bluetooth specification, as well as single-chip controllers embedded with ARM microprocessors. In addition, RF chips for GSM, GPS, CDMA and DECT cordless phones are in volume production or in design.
Rapidly evolving security systems require a range of RFID and access control ICs. ATMEL's SmartRF product line, which includes microtransmitters and microtransponders, targets low-cost, battery-powered wireless data communications applications. Automotive RF products, on the other hand, include door control and remote control devices. many of ATMEL's RF products are based on industry-leading SiGe and SiGe BiCMOS processes. This allows these products to reach carrier frequencies up to GHz while being priced close to standard CMOS ICs.
Imaging ICs
ATMEL's imaging and sensing products include CCDs, COMS camera sensors, and processors in markets ranging from entry-level products to high-resolution products for the professional, medical, and military sectors. In addition to sophisticated graphics processors and industrial-grade camera sensors, ATMEL has a wide range of ICs involving the latest technologies in image processing that can be integrated into complete digital camera modules.
Sales and Distribution
ATMEL's products are sold in up to 60 countries through extensive worldwide sales channels. 8,000+ professionals, including ATMEL's direct sales force as well as a network of representative organizations and distributors, are dedicated to meeting the needs of ATMEL's customers. There are ATMEL sales branches in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Contact ATMEL
A detailed list of Atmel's support network of regional offices alongside corporate, engineering, product and sales information can be found on the web at www.atmel.com or by contacting Atmel directly at (408) 441-0311. Also, requests may be sent to /literature. Atmel Corporation 2003. All rights reserved. Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof and others contained herein, are trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof and others contained herein, are trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Terms and product names in this document may be the trademarks of others.