| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | Hsinchu, Republic of China |
| Key people | Keith Wu, Chairperson Gordon Gau, President Patty Li, Vice President Chang Chi, Exec Vice President Armstrong Tsai, Spokesperson |
| Products | Microcontrollers, Memory Computer peripheral Remote Control, Telecom Power Management, Display Driver |
| Revenue | 98 Million USD for 2009 |
| Employees | 658 as of October 2009 |
| Website | www.holtek.com/english/ |
Holtek Semiconductor is a major Taiwan based semiconductor design centre and provider. Along with its headquarters and design operations based in the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, Holtek also has a major operating presence in mainland China as well as marketing centers throughout the world. Holtek's major design focus is in the area of 8-bit microcontroller development and has around 650 employees worldwide. Holtek also designs and provides a range of peripheral semiconductor products such as remote control, telecommunication, power management, computer peripheral, and memory devices. Holtek's device application area is heavily concentrated in the consumer product field such as household appliances, computer peripheral products, remote controllers, leisure products, medical equipment etc. as well as industrial controllers. The large volumes of Holtek microcontrollers manufactured over the years has seen their presence as the brains behind many well known home appliances and says much for the reliability of their devices. These include some European brand names such as Philips, Siemens, Märklin and Japanese brand names such as Futaba and Sony to name but a few. The company, although providing low cost controllers, is not over focused on the typical Taiwanese cost-down approach, but rather in being able to offer special features that competitors don't have. A glance at the Holtek selection guide will reveal a wide range of device with many special integrated functions.
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The company's origins go back to 1983 with the establishment of Holtek Semiconductor as a design house in Taipei. From the design of remote control, telecom and voice/music devices, the company moved quickly into the fast emerging microcontroller design area. In 1988 the company moved to the Hsinchu Science Park under the name of Holtek Microelectronics and began also its combined manufacturing and design operations. This was followed in 1998 by the establishment of Holtek Semiconductor Inc. as a pure design house with its device manufacturing contracted out. The decision to move out of the manufacturing and focus their energies in the design only area reflects the decision of many companies in the semiconductor design business. This decision seems to have been well founded witnessed by the subsequent growth of the company. Although perhaps not the name you would think of when microcontrollers are mentioned, Holtek has grown to become the largest designer and supplier of microcontroller devices in Taiwan. The company's development has enabled it to hold also a commanding position in the China Mainland making it a favoured choice for designers and manufacturers of electrical products.
Holtek's main design focus is directed towards its range of microcontrollers. The microcontrollers in the present Holtek range all contain a universal 8-bit RISC processor and with common features such as timers, external interrupts, power-down functions, low-voltage reset, bi-directional I/O pins etc. The range of microcontrollers support clock speeds from 32 kHz up to 12 MHz. Device specific features include functions such as EEPROM memory, A/D converters, LCD interfaces, USB interfaces, operational amplifiers, etc. Some of Holtek's 8-bit microcontroller major device categories are listed below:
Although the focus is on microcontrollers, Holtek continues to develop a large range of devices in other important areas, most of which could be classified as microcontroller peripheral devices. One important area is that of Low Dropout Regulators where Holtek has provided a comprehensive range of product offerings with the special characteristics of extremely low supply currents. Holtek also continues to support some of its traditional products such as Remote Control and Telecommunication devices, which were the products developed in the early days of Holtek but which are still in widespread use. Indeed the early HT12 series of Remote Control devices can still often be seen in DIY remote control projects, perhaps due to their easy availability and easy use. Some of Holtek's range of peripheral products includes the following device categories:
Holtek Semiconductor devices may not be a name that comes to mind when thinking of microcontrollers but the company holds a major presence in many of today's home appliances, computer peripheral equipment, home medical equipment market.
The HT48RXX I/O Series is a series of Holtek devices optimised for digital applications requiring multi I/O pins. The device range is supplied with Program Memory capacities from 0.5K to 16K and is One Time Programmable, OTP, type meaning it can be programmed by the user using Holtek supplied programming tools. The Data Memory capacity ranges from 32 to 576 bytes and is RAM type. Devices come in a range of package types from 10 to 64 pins. The 10-pin packages are Ultra Small package types, known as MSOP.
The HT48FXX I/O Series is a series of Holtek devices optimised for multiple I/O control digital applications. The device range is supplied with Program Memory capacities from 1K to 8K and is a Flash Memory type meaning it can be reprogrammed by the user using Holtek's programming tools. Data Memory capacity is from 64 to 224 bytes and is RAM type. There is also 128 or 256 bytes of EEPROM memory available for non-volatile user data storage. The devices are supplied in a range of package types from 18 to 64 pins.
This series of devices goes back to the origins of Holtek Semiconductor's earliest IC developments. Although designed many years ago, these devices have proved to be extremely popular for simple remote control applications and can be found in many of today's low end remote products. Their ease of use and low cost has certainly been two important factors for their widespread use in such a wide range of products. The devices are still readily available and have also been popular with electronic hobbyists proven by their regular appearance in electronic magazines such as Elektor and Everyday Practical Electronics forming an excellent introduction into the enoding and decoding of remote control signals.
The devices have a wide operating voltage range and include an internal oscillator circuit requiring only the addition of an external resistor to generate the modulation frequency. Their low power features make them popular in battery powered applications.
Holtek also supplies its IDE-3000 development system to support its full range of microcontroller devices. This is a suite of hardware and software development tools which includes real time hardware emulation and software simulation as well as tools for device programming of OTP and Flash type devices. Some of Holtek's ICE In-Circuit Emulators also include an integrated device programmer eliminating the need for separate programming tools. The separate programming tools can be operated in a stand alone mode without a PC connection. The newest hardware emulators offer the advantages of lower cost and use actual MCU hardware devices allowing them to emulate the microcontroller more accurately. The disadvantage is however that they can only emulate one type of device and not universal in nature like the earlier emulators.
The bias toward a higher concentration of microcontrollers in the Holtek device product mix is expected to continue although peripheral products will continue to remain an important part of the device range. The microcontroller development strategy, in addition to higher functioning 8-bit devices and a move away from OTP types towards Flash types, will also see releases of a whole new range ARM based 32-bit capacity devices. The trend to provide devices of lower power in response to the profusion of battery powered consumer devices has also seen Holtek begin to release its TinyPower range of microcontroller devices.
In recent years Holtek has worked closely with many universities in Taiwan and China to set up microcontroller development laboratories. While this effort is aimed at promoting microcontroller education among mainstream engineering courses it also serves to promote Holtek microcontroller devices among industries future engineers. In connection with this Holtek runs an annual microcontroller design competition where significant prizes are awarded for the best designs.