
Analog Devices, one of the main technology companies in the industry of semiconductors and electronics, has just set in a development centre in the Science and Technology Park of the Universitat de València, the only one in Spain and the biggest one in the continental Europe. World leader in operational amplifiers and signal converters, the American company arrives with a staff of 60 highly qualified people and two additional objectives: promoting the interaction with research groups and incorporating new talents coming from universities in the company.
Founded 50 years ago in Massachusetts (USA), Analog Devices (ADI) is one of the biggest manufacturers of semiconductors in the world. Leader in advanced signal processors and in high performance converters (a bridge between the analogic and the digital world), has a catalogue of 10,000 high added value products. The company has a total amount of staff of more than 9,000 workers and has more than 60 headquarters around the world. With a turnover value close to 3,000 million dollars per year, in its client portfolio it is possible to find the main companies in the world of consumer electronics, industrial applications and communication infrastructures.
The Development Centre in the Science and Technology Park arrives with a payroll of more than 60 highly qualified workers distributed in four specific disciplines –microelectronic design, applications, chip and sketch evaluation–, and develops four main working lines: design of integrated sensors and of solutions of integration of control systems in only one chip; transmission and reception of high-speed signals ; design of ultra-low-power systems, and systems with applications in health and wellness. The Centre has laboratories for the evaluation of integrated circuits and the development of application prototypes.
“Analog Devices arrived in Valencia 10 years ago, after identifying Spain as a supplier of the best active for a technology company”, says Javier Calpe, director of the Development Centre in Spain. And it did it with a reduced workforce of technicians who mainly came from its centre in Limerick (Ireland), the most important of ADI outside the USA. “Since the, we have continued to incorporate graduates from Valencian universities to the company”. Electronic analogical engineers, who specialise in hardware, applications or sketching, are the profiles this company, formed almost entirely by high professional qualification workers, is looking for.
Completely immersed in the international consume and industrial market on a large scale, the multinational company wants to increase its influence in the Spanish productive framework, from the proximity to scientific university community. “The University, as a creator and transmitter of knowledge, must contribute to the strengthening of the productive framework. It is not useful to train highly trained graduates if the job market does not benefit from them, and this task is also a responsibility of the companies. For Analog it is crucial to interact with university research groups and to attract young talent to the company”, concludes Javier Calpe.
The new Development Centre of Analog occupies 1,500m2 of the business area in the Science and Technology Park, which already hosts around 20 small ICT enterprises. The arrival of the multinational company means the consolidation of in the Science and Technology Park of a firm space dedicated to Information and Communication Technologies, and a clear commitment of the Universitat de València with this emerging sector which is gaining more territory, together with Biotechnology, in one of the main values of the academic institution in contribution to the transformation of the productive system in a model based in knowledge.
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