Analogue Design in Scotland
It may seem that more and more of the world is going digital every day. However, the reality is that there is a quiet revolution going on in analogue electronics – and Scotland is leading the way.
In any electronic system which has to interact with the real world, for example sound or temperature measurements, there is always a critical analogue part.
A number of exciting and challenging job opportunities are currently available for experienced engineers - find out more.
With a strong mix of commercial and academic expertise in this technology area, Scotland offers many opportunities for skilled analogue engineers.
Scotland – excelling in analogue
Scotland has a history of expertise in analogue electronics, with companies such as Hughes Microelectronics, NCR and Burroughs working in this space in the 1960s.
Since then, Scotland has continued to build on its reputation of excellence in mixed signal analogue design.
Recent investment by Glasgow University in a new Electronics Design Centre (EDC) demonstrates Scotland’s continuing development in this area.
With £5.1m support from EPSRC and SFC, the aims of the EDC in teaching and research are to provide better linkages between diverse areas of technology that require electronics design.
The research encompasses activities from fundamental work on the impact of nanometre CMOS technologies to applications-led research into topics as diverse as millimetre wave imaging or the laboratory in a pill that was pioneered in Glasgow.
The industry in Scotland contains all the expertise necessary to create complete systems and this has been key in attracting and inspiring many of the key players in the industry – whether home-grown or overseas investors.
The key players
There are a wide range of companies in this space, they include:
Wolfson, whose audio microchips help power the Apple iPod and Microsoft Xbox, is based in Edinburgh but operates globally. At present Wolfson chips are used in three per cent of the world’s phones. But with their expertise at designing chips that convert digital music into analogue sound they hope to vastly increase that share.
Wolfson also recently acquired fellow Scottish microchip designer Oligon which is developing a microphone integrated into a silicon chip.
Dialog Semiconductor is poised for expansion and confidently predicts the need for more than 50 engineers for mixed signal design over the next three or four years. It opened a new major research and development centre in Edinburgh in March 2007. At the time the reason for choosing the Capital was: “Because of the combination of design skills, innovations culture and universities with relevant research programmes.”
National Semiconductor employs 450 people at its base in Greenock. In addition to producing analogue silicon chips which help maximise battery efficiency in devices such as MP3 players, the site hosts a Design Centre with roughly 40 analogue engineers.
Analog Devices has 30 years of experience and is one of the world’s leaders in the design and manufacture of precision, high performance integrated circuits used in analogue, mixed signal and digital signal processing. It has centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Allegro Microsystems Allegro's European Design Centre near Edinburgh plays an important role in the company’s product development where they design advanced analogue/mixed-mode power control IC’s for a broad range of product applications.
Plexus has its design centre in Livingston where it creates conceptual electronic solutions for many industries including medical, defence and communications.
Calnex Solutions is based in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh and develop a new class of test instrumentation for the telecoms industry.
Micrel Semiconductor is an international company but it is very proud of its design centre in Livingston. The company creates high performance analogue mixed signal and digital integrated circuits. In Scotland there is a staff of around a dozen, but they are hoping to increase that to a 25-strong team.
PSI Electronics is based in Glasgow and does research-driven work on solutions to hardware integration problems for business.
Coherent, based in Glasgow, are experts in laser solutions for industry.
Other homegrown design companies with expertise in analogue include:
Linn Products, FTDI, Gigle, Elonics, Spiral Gateway
Overseas investors include:
Atmel, ST Microelectronics (originally VLSI Vision), Wintegra, Cadence and Xilinx
Developing analogue skills in Scotland
In 2005, in response to demand from companies hungry for design talent, Scottish Enterprise along with the University of Edinburgh and the Livingston-based Institute for System Level Integration established the Analogue Skills Initiative (ASI).
The ASI aims to increase the numbers of engineers with analogue electronic skills but also to promote the need for these skills in supporting roles in traditionally non-electronic companies. Many electronics companies in Scotland are now experiencing the benefits of this scheme by supporting their employees through this training.
The success of the scheme is already apparent. Dr Martin Reekie, who runs the analogue design course at the University of Edinburgh, has developed a unique teaching aid. Students need extensive lab work to become comfortable with the concepts involved and it has been difficult to replicate work with fragile commercial transistors in a student laboratory.
After discussion with companies on the ASI steering group, Dr Reekie was able to develop a chip which provides students with the experience most useful to companies.
More information:
Job focus: Analogue jobs in Scotland
Institute for System Level Integration
University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow Electronic Design Centre
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