Linear Technology Corporation was an American semiconductor company that designed, manufactured and marketed high performance analog

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

s. Applications for the company's products included telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products, notebook and desktop computers, video/multimedia, industrial instrumentation, automotive electronics, factory

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

, process control, military and space systems. The company was founded in 1981 by Robert H. Swanson, Jr. and Robert C. Dobkin. In July 2016, Analog Devices agreed to buy Linear Technology for 14.8 billion dollars. This acquisition was finalized on March 10, 2017. The Linear name survives as the "Power by Linear" brand that is used to market the combined power management portfolios of Linear Technology and Analog Devices.

Products

As of August 2010, the company made over 7500 products, which they organized into seven product categories:

data conversion Data conversion is the conversion of computer data from one file format, format to another. Throughout a computer environment, data is Character encoding, encoded in a variety of ways. For example, computer hardware is built on the basis of cert ...

(analog to digital converters, digital to analog converters),

signal conditioning In electronics, signal conditioning is the manipulation of an analog signal in such a way that it meets the requirements of the next stage for further processing. In an analog-to-digital converter application, signal conditioning includes volta ...

(operational amplifiers, comparators, voltage references),

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power st ...

(switching regulators, linear regulators, battery management, LED drivers), interface (RS232, RS485),

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...

(mixers, quadrature modulators), oscillators, and space and military ICs. The company maintained

LTspice LTspice is a SPICE-based analog electronic circuit simulator computer software, produced by semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices (originally by Linear Technology). It is the most widely distributed and used SPICE software in the industr ...

, a freely downloadable version of

SPICE A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

that includes

schematic capture Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation (EDA) at which the electronic diagram, or electronic schematic of the designed electronic circuit is created by a designer. This is done interact ...

Locations

Corporate headquarters were in

Milpitas, California Milpitas ( Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José Mar� ...

. In the United States, the company had design centers in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

;

Grass Valley, California Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. Situated at roughly in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this northern Gold Country city is by car from Sacramento, from Sacramento I ...

;

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

;

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

;

North Chelmsford, Massachusetts North Chelmsford is an unincorporated village in the town of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, United States. Although North Chelmsford has its own zip code (01863), library, post office, fire station, water district, and local calling area, it is other ...

;

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...

;

Cary, North Carolina Cary is a town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh–Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh largest muni ...

;

Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...

; and

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

. It also had centers in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. The company's

wafer fabrication Wafer fabrication is a procedure composed of many repeated sequential processes to produce complete electrical or photonic circuits on semiconductor wafers in semiconductor device fabrication process. Examples include production of radio frequ ...

facilities were located in Camas, Washington and Milpitas, California.

References

External links

* {{Finance links , name = Analog Devices, Inc. , symbol = ADI , sec_cik = ADI , yahoo = ADI , google = ADI Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Companies based in Milpitas, California Electronics companies established in 1981 American companies established in 1981 1981 establishments in California 2017 mergers and acquisitions Semiconductor companies of the United States American corporate subsidiaries

Products

Locations

See also

References

External links