May 6, 2008 – Taiwan-based Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM), which calls itself one of the world’s leading independent MEMS foundry service providers, says that MEMS pioneer Dr. Kurt Petersen has joined its technical advisory board. In this role, Petersen will advise APM on its 8-inch transition strategy, advanced technology roadmap, new MEMS applications, and new partnership opportunities.

Petersen is one of the founders of SiTime, and served as the company’s CEO until the fall of 2007. Previously, he was co-founder, president, and CTO at Cepheid (NASDAQ:
CPHD), and before that was a cofounder and VP of technology of NovaSensor for 10 years.

APM is currently running 6-inch MEMS wafer processes in its 27,000 square feet facility at Hsinchu Science Park of Taiwan. APM serves many global customers who are designing state-of-art MEMS sensors and actuators, such as pressure sensors, inkjet heads, inertia sensors, microphones, RF relay and optical mirror actuators. APM President, Dr. Ming-Ru Chen, says “APM has been very focused on the foundry business model since UMC and Unimicron made a strategic investment into APM in late 2006. We want to maintain the position of being the top foundry choice for the fab-less MEMS design houses. Dr. Petersen’s appointment as a member of TAB will strengthen our ability to focus on developing cutting edge technologies and providing the 8-inch migration path for our customers.”

During his 9 years at Cepheid, Petersen was responsible for product development and helped guide the company to a public offering in 2000. General Electric acquired Petersen’s first startup, NovaSensor, in 2003. In 2001, Kurt was listed by Red Herring Magazine as a Top 10 Innovators of the Year. Kurt holds a BA degree from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the 2001 IEEE Simon Ramo medal.