Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today announced its entry into the human interface market with the introduction of the QuickSense™ portfolio of highly accurate and fast-response touch, proximity and ambient light sense devices supported by a common development environment. Ideal for portable, consumer and industrial electronics products, the power-saving QuickSense devices enable a complete, elegant human interface.

Increasingly, electronics products incorporate sophisticated sensing technology to improve the consumer experience by adding intelligence to anticipate user needs and enabling interaction with devices through touch and intuitive gestures. This advanced human interface functionality introduces challenges into the design environment, creating power and performance tradeoffs and introducing a higher level of software complexity.

Silicon Labs’ QuickSense family addresses these challenges by leveraging proven, patented and patent-pending technologies and a straightforward design environment to give developers a single source for human interface silicon and software solutions. The company’s mixed-signal intellectual property is the foundation for a portfolio of human interface technologies encompassing infrared, capacitive touch sense, high-performance processing and low-power design. The new QuickSense portfolio includes the following:

• The Si11xx family of proximity and ambient light sensors. This family uses a patented single-pulse proximity measurement technique that dramatically reduces overall system power. The Si11xx devices also offer an innovative, patent-pending touchless proximity slider for gesturing. The devices provide extended range under a wide variety of lighting conditions, improving the end user experience and enabling the use of lower cost or lower profile LEDs. The new proximity and ambient light sensors are ideal for portable electronics, displays, kiosks, dispensers, interactive toys and other consumer and industrial products.
• The C8051F800 family of capacitive touch sense microcontrollers (MCUs). Based on a patent-pending capacitance-to-digital converter that enables best-in-class touch sensing, the F800 family eliminates the need for mechanical buttons and sliders. The small-footprint, high-performance F800 touch sense MCUs are ideal for personal electronics, small appliances, residential light controls, thermostat controls, home security panels, set-top boxes and commercial point-of-sale interfaces.
• The expanding C8051F7xx family of capacitive touch sense MCUs. This series of new touchscreen controllers is expected to be available beginning in early 2010 with initial support for two-finger touch screens followed by support for multi-touch touchscreens for applications such as handsets, personal navigation devices, portable gaming systems and other consumer electronics products.

Silicon Labs’ new sensing devices are all easily programmable through the QuickSense Studio development software. The QuickSense Studio Configuration Wizard simplifies the integration of human interface technologies in end products, allowing engineers to set up capacitive buttons, sliders and wheels, and ultimately touchscreens, by using an intuitive software GUI that generates all the C code required for the selected functions. The studio enables the configuration of infrared proximity and ambient light sensors through a comprehensive library of application programming interfaces (APIs). The QuickSense Studio also provides a real-time monitoring and adjustment tool enabling developers to thoroughly test and optimize their user interfaces.

“Silicon Labs has a long track record of tackling formidable analog challenges and applying innovative mixed-signal design techniques to deliver integrated, high-performance and lower power solutions that are easy to use,” said Mark Thompson, vice president and general manager of Silicon Laboratories. “By applying our ability to integrate advanced analog peripherals and intelligent processing in power-efficient ICs, we’ve created a portfolio that will spark fresh innovation in human interfaces for a wide range of electronics products. And with the launch of our QuickSense software environment, we’re providing embedded designers with a straightforward way to enable sensing technologies in their products.”

Availability

The QuickSense F700 and F800 touch sense MCUs and the Si11xx proximity and ambient light sensors are available now. All QuickSense parts are supported by the QuickSense Studio and a suite of development tools to enable quick evaluation and design. For more information please visit www.silabs.com/pr/QuickSense.

Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of highly integrated, easy-to-use products offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. These patented solutions serve a broad set of markets and applications including consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, Silicon Labs is a global enterprise with operations, sales and design activities worldwide. The company is committed to contributing to our customers’ success by recruiting the highest quality talent to create industry-changing innovations. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.

Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Laboratories’ current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could impact Silicon Laboratories’ financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Laboratories’ filings with the SEC. Silicon Laboratories disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Note to editors: QuickSense, Silicon Laboratories, Silicon Labs, the “S” symbol, the Silicon Laboratories logo and the Silicon Labs logo are trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.