Product development centre opens in Bratislava

ON Semiconductor has officially opened the doors of its new product development centre in Bratislava, Slovakia.

ON Semiconductor has officially opened the doors of its new product development centre in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Keith Jackson, President and CEO of ON Semiconductor, presided over the grand opening ceremony.

Jackson was accompanied by Dr Peter Zdebel, the company's Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, and Andy Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ON Semiconductor's Automotive and Power Regulation Group.

The new development centre - located in downtown Bratislava - will focus primarily on designing integrated circuit (IC) products for power management and automotive application solutions.

Currently, the centre has a staff of 15 engineers, with plans to expand staffing to 30 in the near future.

Among the products to be developed at the Bratislava development centre are linear voltage regulator and DC/DC switching regulator products that deliver world-class power conversion efficiency.

"Because the centre is focused on power management and automotive ICs, it is in a position to create strong links between the local economy, the centres of automotive system development in Europe, and portable consumer electronics in Asia and North America", said Jackson.

"Establishing a product development centre in Bratislava fits well into ON Semiconductor's long-term business strategies".

"It is also further proof of our commitment to supporting and expanding business in Europe and throughout the world".

ON Semiconductor has a longstanding business history in Central Europe.

The company owns and operates a wafer fabrication facility, and a customer service and logistics centre in Piestany, Slovakia.

It also operates another silicon production facility, a wafer fabrication plant, and a product development centre in Roznov pod Radhostem, Czech Republic.

For the past six years, the ON Semiconductor Microelectronics Centre at the Slovak University of Technology (ONMiST) in Bratislava has successfully worked with professors and students on longer-term projects in the fields of design, characterisation and technology modelling.

Marian Balaz, Manager of ONMiST for ON Semiconductor, has directed these co-operative projects.

Professor Daniel Donoval, Head of the Department of Microelectronics, has been the principal project advisor at the Slovak University of Technology.

More than two dozen students have participated in the programme.

Most of these students have graduated from the university and are now employed by ON Semiconductor.

"The ONMiST programme was such a success that it was time to expand it into a full-fledged development centre here in Bratislava", said Jackson.

"The quality and technical talent of the people who work for us here in Slovakia - in our Piestany facility, at ONMiST and in the new Bratislava Development Centre - is nothing short of superb".

"We feel privileged to be doing business here and we look forward to expanding our relationship and growing our business in Slovakia".

ONMiST will physically be moved into the new Bratislava Development Centre.

The premises at the university - formerly occupied by ONMiST - will be used in the future for extended research and development in the field of information technology.

"The new development centre in Bratislava complements ON Semiconductor's operations here in Central Europe by providing additional resources to the region", said Balaz.

"The products developed here will primarily be produced in one of the company's two wafer fabs in the region".

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