(16 August 2007 3:42 pm)

MUMBAI: Texas Instruments (TI) Inc. has acquired Integrated Circuit Designs, Inc. (ICD), a privately-held company that specializes in the design of radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs).

The acquisition is expected to enhance TI's ability to provide low-power RF solutions for industrial, commercial and consumer applications.

According to an official release, this is the latest strategic move by TI to strengthen its low-power RF portfolio and follows the acquisition of Chipcon, a provider of short-range, low-power RF transceivers for ZigBee-compliant and proprietary-based wireless systems.

"With the rapidly growing demand for industrial, commercial and residential systems to incorporate more short-range wireless technology, it is important for TI to provide a broad portfolio of innovative RF devices. The addition of ICD's design expertise will complement our existing low-power wireless business and enhance our ability to offer customers complete RF solutions," said TI Precision Analog business manager David Jones.

Edward Chalfin founder, chairman and president of ICD said, "We are very excited to join Texas Instruments and expand TI's existing design resources and expertise in the field of low-power RF."

ICD was founded in 1995 to provide consulting services in analog and mixed-signal IC design. In addition to its core analog IC design expertise and IP portfolio, ICD's capabilities include physical layout, test engineering and project management. ICD is based in Ellicott City, Maryland, and has 16 employees. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to semiconductor, the company includes the education technology business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.