August 10, 2006 – Siliconaire Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, is now offering a new approach to providing operations-level services to fabless semiconductor startups.

The company, founded in early 2005, aims to help startups reduce operational risk and costs in the early stages of their business, by taking early designs through silicon implementation and into product manufacturing. Specific services include design (e.g., package selection/development, DFM/DFT, ATE test development); prototyping (lot activities, assembling, delivery); qualification (ESD, life test), and ramp-up activities including yield improvement, inventory planning, and logistics.

Top Siliconaire execs mostly hail from Atheros Communications, with backgrounds at semiconductor firms including Cirrus Logic, AMD, Sierra Semiconductor, National Semiconductor, and VLSI Technologies. Founder and CEO Ron Das has served on the board of the Fabless Semiconductor Association, and the technical advisory board of Semiconductor Research Corp. and Sematech.

“Our process allows innovators to focus on their core competency while we provide the operational expertise,” stated Das. “We are not a fabless ASIC company, operating between the fabless start-up and the suppliers, diluting that critical relationship and depriving the start-up of its own margins over time.”

The new business model gives fabless semiconductor companies access to cost-effective product development, as well as possible gross margins in volume production, noted Joanne Itow, managing director of market research firm Semico Research, in a statement, adding that the firm has particular strength in the RF and mixed signal market.