STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor manufacturer, inaugurated its new state-of-the-art design and development facility in Greater Noida, India, on Saturday, February 18. The company also announced its plans to invest US$30 M in local operations over the next two years and recruit 300 new engineers by the end of 2006. The new facility was inaugurated by Brijesh Kumar, IT secretary, Ministry of Information and Technology, in the presence of customers, government representatives, local authorities and members of the press. Set on a 100,000 square meter area and with a capacity for 5000 employees, the new campus is ST’s largest design center outside Europe and one of its largest R&D facilities worldwide.
In his speech at the inaugural ceremony, Carlo Bozotti, president and CEO of STMicroelectronics, declared, “The new facility truly underlines the growing importance of ST’s India operations within our global R&D efforts. These efforts represent the essence of the company’s continued growth. ST India has contributed significantly to the development of leading-edge technologies and products for a number of our key applications, including set-top box, multimedia, imaging, wireless telecommunications and automotive.”
Among other achievements, designers in India participated in the development of ST’s Nomadik™ platform, an award-winning mobile application architecture, as well as helping to design ST’s market-leading set-top box chips and low power CMOS camera modules. ST engineers in India also contributed to the development of the first design platform on the 90-nm deep-submicron CMOS technology, and their research and development activities have been recognized with almost 40 patents worldwide.
Since its inception in the late 1980s, STMicroelectronics India has evolved into one of the largest semiconductor research and design operations in the country, currently employing 1500 people. The company has a successful track record in attracting talented engineers, leveraging its strong relationships with leading Indian universities and research institutes. Globally committed to the principles of corporate responsibility, ST also cooperates with the local government authorities in India to bridge the “Digital Divide” by offering computer literacy courses and technology access.