SYDNEY: In a significant move, Australian company Cochlear Ltd has roped in Dutch chip company NXP BV to design and manufacture ICs for hearing implant products.

According to Rene Penning de Vries, CTO of NXP, the company will deploy its ultra low power magnetic induction wireless and CoolFlux DSP technology so as to enable Cochlear's hearing implant solutions. It is believed that the long-term partnership with Cochlear will showcase NXP's strategy aimed at achieving leadership in high performance mixed-signal application domains.

NXP's activities in the medical space will also be brought to the fore with this project. The Dutch major has been aiming at fresh applications and these include wireless implanted sensors, medical body area networks and personal healthcare devices, said an EETimes report. NXP will also bring in the definition, development and supply of speech processor and wireless communication ICs to be used in forthcoming Cochlear products, it added.

Though the news of the new agreement was made public by the companies, they have preferred to keep under wraps the value of the agreement. It is also not known as to when NXP would start delivering the chips to Cochlear.