If you have an automobile or a consumer electronic product, the chances are very good you own a component manufactured by ADI.

     Based in Norwood, Mass., Analog Devices Inc. has 8,500 employees and earns $2.6 billion annually. It MEMS accelerometers represent about 5 percent of total sales.

     The company has three main factories, one each located in Wilmington, Mass., Cambridge, Mass., and Limerick, Ireland. “We also have some backend operations in the Philippines,” says Howard Wisniowski, product marketing manager for iMEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes.

     ADI created the iMEMS line in 1989, which went into production in 1992.  Its first product was the ADXL50, a high-g accelerometer Saab used in its airbag deployment system.

     These days, most iMEMS accelerometers sell to Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive system suppliers. “Our next biggest market is consumer goods—digital cameras, TV, gaming and portable gaming, medical, navigational and media devices,” says Wisniowski.

     Both the consumer products and automotive markets are “growing healthily” in ADI’s forecasts.

     He described the consumer products market as “exploding.” Some of the factors driving this sector are that digital TVs will be gone by 2009, flat panels are replacing CRTs and the console/computer gaming business is booming.

     “It’s growing above 10 percent annually,” he says.

     ADI’s automotive business is growing 10 percent per year. “By 2011, from 20 to 22 percent of the components of all automobiles will be electronic.