Analog Devices Inc., the worldwide leading producer of analog chips, this month became the newest full member of the University’s Integrated Electronic Engineering Center, a state designated Center for Advanced Technology.

“The IEEC looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with ADI,” said Bahgat Sammakia, IEEC director. “This is an exciting and promising new partnership.”

Full membership in IEEC costs about $60,000 per year and gives companies access to the center’s research capabilities, including the expertise of student and faculty researchers, diagnostic equipment, literature, laboratories and the broad scope of intellectual property gathered or produced by the center.

Established in 1991, IEEC pursues research in electronics packaging, the process by which a semiconductor chip, with its circuitry, is brought to a form that can be integrated effectively into a larger microelectronics assembly. The IEEC’s mission is to foster economic development in the state by conducting innovative electronics packaging research and to speed the transfer of new technologies to the private sector.

IEEC membership includes several levels. ADI becomes the seventh full member of the center that also includes IBM Microelectronics, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, GE Corporate Research and Development, Universal Instruments, BAE Systems Controls and others. With more than 50 other partners at the participating or associate member levels, the IEEC annually contributes $30 million to the region’s economic base.

Analog, based in the Boston area, decided to join IEEC after teams of its managers and engineers visited the IEEC several times, Sammakia said. Analog and the center then developed a list of 15 collaborative research projects that range from working on micro-electro mechanical systems to photonics packaging, flip chip packaging and developing new materials to be used in electronics packaging. BU now becomes one of 33 key educational partners worldwide who are collaborating with Analog on research and development activities, Sammakia said.

Analog, founded in 1965, has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Ireland, the Philippines, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. It employs about 8,800 people.