May 17, 2012 – Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB, Country Manager Jong-Chan Lee), a global leader in high-performance analog-intensive mixed-signal ICs, announced a customer-friendly microcontroller (MCU) die sale program. This program enables customers to accelerate time-to-market and provides another option for small footprint designs. While die sale programs typically require high minimum order quantities, Silicon Labs' new program allows orders as small as a single wafer. Through this program, 8-bit 8051-based mixed-signal MCUs and the new 32-bit Precision32™ family based on ARM® Cortex™-M3 cores are available in die form.

Silicon Labs' die sales program sells dies in wafer form that have undergone sufficient testing using a unique mixed-signal testing method at the probe stage. All wafers are tested to the same level as packaged MCU products. In addition, customers may request that unpackaged dies be programmed at the factory to bring products to market faster.

Mike Salas, Vice President and General Manager of MCU Products at Silicon Labs, said, “Many customers prefer to purchase MCUs in die form. This is because it makes it easier to optimize space-constrained designs requiring small form factors and to implement their own custom packages in modular applications.” He added, “The advantage of the new die sales program introduced is that it makes it easier for customers to purchase dies by allowing them to order fully tested MCU dies in minimum quantities of a single wafer.”