BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. semi-conductor maker Analog Devices Inc (ADI) is set to gain unconditional European Union antitrust approval for its proposed $21 billion takeover of Maxim Integrated Products, a person familiar with the matter said. The deal, ADI’s biggest, will boost its market share in automotive and 5G chipmaking and enable it to better compete with larger firms including Texas Instruments. ADVERTISEMENT The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the bid by March 31, declined to comment. ADI and Maxim did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Maxim’s shares gained after the Reuters report and were 2.9% higher, while ADI’s rose 2.7%. ADVERTISEMENT ADI’s strength is in broad industrial, communications and digital healthcare segments while Maxim is strong in automotive and data centre markets. Based in Norwood, Massachusetts, ADI supplies sensors, data converters, amplifiers and other signal processing products to a broad swathe of industries from transportation to healthcare, instrumentation and portable consumer devices. San Jose, California-based Maxim designs and manufactures analog chips that are used in cars, manufacturing, energy, communications, healthcare and connected devices. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alexander Smith