NXP Semiconductors CEO Rick Clemmer believes the company will outgrow the semiconductor market next year.
"I expect our high performance mixed-signal business to grow 50% faster than the market next year based on our current level of design wins," Clemmer told Electronics Weekly at Electronica in Munich this week.
Clemmer expects the standard products business to grow at around the same rate as the market next year.
The high performance mixed-signal business, which includes the firm's ARM Cortex-M series microcontrollers, accounts for 70% of NXP's revenues.
"So if we say the total market will grow at around 5% next year then I think we can grow at 10%," said Clemmer.
"Not bad for a weak year," added Clemmer.
Clemmer admitted that he had seen a softening of the mixed-signal business in the last two quarters, which has contributed to flat quarter on quarter revenue growth.
He also said there were some capacity limitations as well, particularly on the ARM 32-bit microcontrollers in September.
"But this caught up in October and we are now at an inventory level we want to be at," said Clemmer.
The lack of capacity on some product lines was due to greater than expected design wins at the start of the year, said Clemmer.
NXP still runs 85% of its products through its own wafer fabs.
Clemmer said the company was investing in new capacity. "We had a x3 increase in capital expenditure investment this year and we will hold that at the same percentage of revenues in 2011," said Clemmer.
"Embedded non-volatile memory will see an increase in capacity from Q3 this year to Q3 next year," said Clemmer.
He also expects to increase capacity for high voltage driver ICs and RF devices.