Key Sectors of Growth Address Increased Demand in Industrial, Consumer and Security Applications

NORTH TYNESIDE, England, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/–Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductors, focused on microcontrollers, nonvolatile memory, logic, RF components and sensors, announced today that it is ramping up the UK’s largest and most successful semiconductor manufacturing facility to meet growing customer demand. The company’s North Tyneside fabrication plant, in the North East of England, has just hit its milestone of producing 50 million silicon chips per month and is set to reach 60 million a month by the year end. The increased production, mainly to support Atmel’s rapidly growing Smart Card IC business will significantly contribute to Atmel’s strategy of increased asset utilization. In terms of the flexible management of Atmel’s capacity this comes as a welcome addition as significant back-up to plants already present in Rousset, France and Colorado Springs, USA, supporting the company’s commitment to supply chain management and the on-time delivery of products to its customers.

Innovative products addressing growth markets: North Tyneside has become the company’s flagship production site for secure smartcard Ics manufacture alongside other microcontroller and memory chips. The smartcard market is growing exponentially due to ever-increasing demand for secure internet banking, smart credit cards, mobile phone SIM cards and secure personal ID cards. Atmel North Tyneside is also manufacturing microcontrollers for a wide range of industrial, consumer and automotive products. The fabrication plant also produces chips for mobile phone cameras, computers and other telecommunications products.

Atmel’s North Tyneside managing director Craig McInnes said: “We have come through the semiconductor industry’s biggest recession in a position of strength to meet growing market demand. Just this year we have achieved a three-fold increase in the number of units produced per employee. That is a fantastic effort by any industry’s standards,” he continued. “We are looking forward to becoming one of Europe’s most important semiconductor manufacturers and exceeding the needs of our valued customers,” he concluded.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest intellectual property (IP) portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You Are^SM.