SUNNYVALE, CA /PRNewswire/ -- "Adding sensors to analog technology will create intelligent devices, driving growth in automotive, consumer, and industrial markets," said Vijay Ullal, Group President of Consumer and Automotive Solutions at Maxim Integrated Products Inc. Ullal spoke at the 2012 DESIGN West Conference in San Jose, CA, on March 28.
Analog sensors—which collect real-world physical signals, such as motion, touch, pressure, and temperature—continue to play a transforming role in a vast range of applications, starting with smartphones and automobiles and moving on to smart homes and medical electronics. Going forward, analog integration with sensor fusion will pave the way for a new world of devices with which humans will interact in a natural way.
"There is a progression of trends toward a world where everything is connected, as sensors become pervasive and technology virtually disappears," said Ullal. The ubiquity of smartphones and cheap wireless networks enables a myriad of new applications. In the home, lighting, heat and air, security, and safety monitoring systems will become accessible and manageable via a cell phone. Clean, conscious, and connected automobiles will save many of the more than 2 million lives lost each year due to traffic accidents and outdoor air pollution. In healthcare, portable diagnostic and imaging devices will enable in-home monitoring, thus enhancing patient care. In our communities, the measurement of energy creation, distribution, and usage will be available via highly integrated metering systems-on-chips.
About Maxim
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. is a leader in analog innovation and integration, unique among semiconductor companies in the range of disparate analog functions that it can combine onto a single chip. The company's highly integrated solutions help customers get to market faster with systems that are smaller and consume less power. In July 2011, Maxim acquired SensorDynamics, a privately held semiconductor company that develops proprietary sensor and microelectromechanical systems.
Maxim makes highly integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. Maxim reported revenue of approximately $2.5 billion for fiscal 2011.