Its products included microcontrollers (8-bit AVR, 32-bit AVR, 32-bit ARM-based, automotive grade, and 8-bit Intel 8051 derivatives) radio-frequency (RF) devices including Wi-Fi, EEPROM, and flash memory devices, symmetric and asymmetric security chips, touch sensors and controllers, and application-specific products.

Atmel serves applications including consumer, communications, computer networking, industrial, medical, automotive, aerospace and military.

Other locations include Trondheim, Norway; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Chennai, India; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; Rousset, France; Nantes, France; Patras, Greece; Heilbronn, Germany; Munich, Germany; Whiteley, United Kingdom; Cairo, Egypt.

In 2016, Microchip agreed to buy Atmel for US$3.6 (equivalent to $4.57 in 2023) billion in a deal brokered by JPMorgan Chase and Qatalyst.

Using only US$30,000 in capital, Atmel was initially operated as a fabless company, using Sanyo and General Instrument to make the chip wafers.

In 1991, Atmel expanded the Colorado facility after acquiring Concurrent Logic, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) manufacturer.

In 1995, Atmel acquired the pan-European chipmaker European Silicon Structures (ES2) and thus gained a fabrication facility in Rousset, France.

In 2010, Atmel received approval from the French government to sell its fab to Germany-based LFoundry GmbH, while retaining their design center there.

Atmel's DataFlash serial interface flash memory products were sold to Adesto Technologies in October 2012.

[16] Work done at Quantum, led to the 2012 release of Atmel's XSense product line, a flexible touch screen based on copper mesh electrodes.

They completed the acquisition of Advanced Digital Design S.A, a Spanish company that develops power line communication.

Ozmo was founded in 2004 as H-Stream Wireless by Kateljin Vleugels and Roel Peeters, and was based in Palo Alto, California.

[20] In October 2008, Atmel received an unsolicited offer from Microchip Technology and ON Semiconductor, estimated at US$2.3 billion.

[31] To provide for the Internet of Things (IoT), Atmel offers dual-band 2.4 GHz/5 GHz a/b/g Wi-Fi chips from its Ozmo acquisition.

[17] The company makes sensor hubs that manage accelerometers, gyroscopes, inertial measurement units and magnetometers.

Atmel also makes simple touch controller chips for buttons, sliders, and wheels used on industrial and consumer products.

[35] To support the application of its touch controller chips, Atmel provides a free QTouch library of software routines.

Finally Atmel offers a trusted platform module that gives strong hardware-based public key (RSA algorithm) security for both personal computers and embedded processors on a single chip.

The company also makes power management and analog companions (PMAAC) that combine a group of discrete ICs often used in handheld or battery-powered products.

Integrated functions include audio codecs (compressor-decompressor), lithium-ion battery chargers, and stereo digital-to-analog converters.

[citation needed] These products include custom integrated circuits designed to meet specialized single-customer requirements.

These products include car access, touch control, radio, CAN, VAN, and LIN Bus networking, battery management, high-temperature drivers, and serial EEPROMs.