August 12, 2008 — Siimpel Corporation, a supplier of optical microsystems solutions, announced that it’s SiimpelFocus SF9x MEMS-based silicon camera technology is now shipping in Motorola’s recently announced MING A1600 cellular handset, which integrates the industry’s first MEMS-based, continuous autofocus camera, enhanced GPS capabilities, and a suite of mobile business applications. Motorola Inc. (www.motorola.com), a manufacturer high-performance handset products to the mobile market, selected Siimpel’s technology to provide consumers with a next-generation cellular phone with reliable autofocus capabilities similar to those found in standalone digital cameras.
“Our silicon MEMS-based design approach allows manufacturers to integrate key digital camera features such as autofocus, shutter, zoom, and image stabilization into mobile handsets without increasing the size of the camera,” said Chee Kwan, Siimpel’s chief executive officer. “The SF9x is the first in a family of products Siimpel is developing. Our product roadmap includes silicon-based designs that will further drive down the size and power constraints associated with the development of cellular phones and other mobile devices, while meeting manufacturers’ high-performance and reliability requirements.”
Motorola’s A1600 handset includes advanced imaging features which are supported by Siimpel’s continuous autofocus solution. The A1600 features include photo stitching to create panoramic images; a talking dictionary which uses the camera to recognize and translate English and Chinese characters into audio by scanning the text; and geotagging, which enables the user to tag photos with the appropriate location information.
“We’re applying our expertise in MEMS technology to deliver high-quality camera phone solutions with fast, precise, and repeatable, autofocus capabilities,” said Kwan. “We are proud that Motorola has selected our MEMS technology to deliver digital camera-like performance in its new cellular phone while reducing the power consumption by more than a factor of two compared to legacy camera solutions.”