Most everyone in the electronics industry supply chain has a partner program, but not all have the same breadth of engagements as Microchip’s Design partner program. Here to tell us why is Cheri Keller, Microchip’s Senior Worldwide Design Partner Program Manager.

[John Blyler] Before we discuss the partner program, let’s lay the background. I can remember designing with Microchip PIC microcontrollers in colleague. But I didn’t realize that Microchip had an extensive set of analog chips, as well as embedded software tools. Is the microcontroller business still big?
[Cheri Keller] Based on worldwide shipments alone, Microchip is still No. 1 in the 8-bit market. True, we are seeing an upward trend to higher performance (16-, 24 and 32-bit) processors from our customers and design partners. But most are still using our 8-bit

[JB] What are the trends in the 8- and 16-bit markets?
[CK] The emerging markets for us have been in the wireless area. Microchip has an extensive line of RF products, with recent emphasis in the ZigBee Alliance space. Interest has been strong across all segments of the wireless market, but especially so in medical and handheld devices. Our 8- and 16-bit chips are also strong in the industrial area, where robotic controllers are needed. And in consumer products, for toys that don’t need a lot of horsepower but do need a lot of functionality.

[JB] Microcontroller, RF chip and even a fair amount of embedded software applications. That’s quite a range of products. How do you service customers in this diverse space?
[CK] Our ultimate goal is to be a matchmaker for our end customers, which is really the key to our partners program. In addition to significant technical support, we also offer our partners a network to our end customers. One way I’ve managed to improve this connection in the last year or so is with the addition of specialist categories within the partners program. Current we have three categories; medical, RF and M-Touch, which covers capacitive touch, inductor touch and touch screen capabilities. The latter specialty is a huge trend, thanks to consumer devices like the iPod. Microsoft has a proprietary technique using our microcontroller to interface with touch sensitive displays.

We created these specialist categories to address areas where our customers need the most design help. For example, medical and RF designs typically must go through a rigorous certification process. We know specialists in those areas that can help our customers navigate the qualification process. That’s been a very large portion of the program in the last year or so.

[JB] Certification is crucial. But some customers want to enter these markets lacking a basic understanding of the technology requirements too.
[CK] Exactly. Imagine that a customer has a great idea for a medical widget but they don’t know how to develop that idea into hardware and software, to say nothing of the certification process. That is where we can help with specialist – from concept through full production and certification.

[JB] All of which leads us to the partners program, which must form the framework for all of the hardware, software and specialist services. Tell us about the program.
[CK] We’ve had a network of partners program for more than a decade. As you would expect, our partners program is a means of extending Microchip’s technical support capability to our customers—nearly 900 partners worldwide covering a range of technical expertise and markets. For example, let’s say a customer needs help with an RF design. What parts of the design should be implemented in hardware versus software? How do I manufacture the end product? Our partners program contains a full supply chain of members that can help from product concept through manufacturing. We (Microchip) understand the customer’s needs and link them up with our design partner network to get them to market as fast as possible.

To learn more, visit: www.microchip.com/partners