Dubai Silicon Oasis establishes Integrated Circuit Design Centre

The new facility will complement existing regional and global Integrated Circuit design companies already located at DSO. The move is part of DSO's long term strategy to broaden its role in the creation of a knowledge-based economy and follows the establishment of the Microelectronic Innovation Centre two years ago.

Dr Mohammed Al Zarouni, Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Silicon Oasis said:

'Dubai Silicon Oasis is committed to promoting and facilitating the development of an electronics-based industry in the UAE and the wider region. In today's challenging and ever changing scientific world, we are left with no choice but to speed up our move to keep pace with the latest in the field of technology.'

Integrated circuits are chips using microelectronic technology, and operate in products such as computers, mobile phones, TV sets, plasma displays and games consoles. The establishment of the design centre will bring IC design talent to Dubai, especially experts in Radio Frequency (RF) and Analogue capabilities, one of the bottlenecks in the design community.

Dr. Jihad Kiwan, Executive Director, Technology and Investment generation said: 'There is a substantial demand for these products within the global market. The opening of Dubai Circuit Design will facilitate the sharing of advanced design methodology, design tools and end-to-end design. The centre will create the roots for building up high tech industry in Dubai supported by DSO.'

Dubai Circuit Design will employ 15 engineers at the beginning, and is in the process of hiring 50 more. DSO recently held a series of road shows in cities with established centers of IC design excellence to attract talented engineers and IC design experts. The designers and the new ones will undergo further on-site training in complex integrated circuit design at DSO premises.