SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA--(MARKET WIRE)--Oct 6, 2008 -- Altium, the leading developer of unified electronic product development solutions, has announced that Heidelberg Instruments GmbH has selected Altium as its electronics design standard. Altium's solution will be used across all electronics design teams at Heidelberg Instruments' R&D headquarters located in Heidelberg, Germany.

Electronics designers at Heidelberg will use Altium to develop key components for the next generation of its direct writing laser lithography systems. These systems will use a focused laser beam to write submicron structures on semiconductor substrates, with areas ranging from a few milllimetres to four square metres.

In addition to high precision mechanical and optical components, a large range of specialized electronic components is needed for the systems. These modules are highly sensitive analog sensor amplifiers, high current motor drivers, and boards to generate and to amplify RF signals. Former solutions worked with small scale CPLD devices, but to increase the data rate and volume, Heidelberg will now use FPGAs from multiple suppliers. The purpose is to generate pixel data for the substrate design, which can be up to several terabytes.

"The design process for FPGA devices in BGA housings will be dramatically accelerated by using the unified design environment provided by Altium. With our old software tools, several time consuming steps were needed to do pin swapping in a design. This can now be done up to ten times faster," comments Roland Kaplan, Vice President of Research and Development at Heidelberg Instruments. "Another reason for choosing Altium Designer is the easy import of our old designs and the support of FPGAs already in use."

Altium supports innovative product development through its unified design methodology. By bringing together the various disciplines of design, electronics engineers have a complete off the shelf solution that frees design from the documentation and formatting constraints of traditional point tools. This approach means engineers can focus on the value-adding aspects of design and deliver differentiated products to market.

"Real product differentiation lies in the development of intelligent devices, so it's wonderful to see a respected innovator, such as Heidelberg Instruments, really embrace Altium's unified design concept," comments Frank Hoschar, Managing Director and VP Sales & Support EMEA, Altium. "By bringing together all of the design disciplines, Heidelberg Instruments can now focus on device intelligence and the elements of design that make a lasting impression."

About Heidelberg Instruments

With an installation base in over 30 countries, Heidelberg Instruments is a world leader in production of high precision maskless lithography systems. These systems are used for direct writing and photomask production by some of the most prestigious universities and industry leaders in the areas of Advanced Electronic Packaging, MEMS, BioMEMS, Nano Technology, ASICS, Display, Micro Optics, and many other related applications. For more information, please visit www.himt.de.

About Altium

Altium Limited (ASX:ALU.AX - News) provides world-leading unified design solutions that break down the barriers to innovation, and help organizations easily harness the latest devices and technologies, to create their next generation of electronic products.

Altium's solutions are unique because they unify the separate processes of electronics design, all within a single electronics design environment, working off a single data model, which links all the aspects of electronics product design into one process.

Founded in 1985, Altium has headquarters in Sydney, Australia, sales offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and resellers in all other major markets. For more information, please visit www.altium.com.

Altium, Altium Designer, LiveDesign, and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited or its subsidiaries. All other registered or unregistered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

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