Category Archives: MEMS

July 12, 2011 — Pure-play MEMS foundry Micralyne Inc. and A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates (AMFitzgerald), a MEMS product development firm, partnered to fast-track product commercialization. Customers can move early-stage designs through proof-of-concept to volume manufacturing via AMFitzgerald’s expert MEMS design and rapid prototyping services and Micralyne’s high-value MEMS manufacturing experience.

Customers with an "in-depth understanding of the problems addressed by their specific application" do not always have MEMS design or manufacturing experience, said Nancy Fares, CEO of Micralyne. In this partnership, she adds, customers can focus on the concept while the foundry partners focus on manufacturing efficiency and fast time-to-market.

“Our clients need to turn their ideas into silicon. We offer the design, modeling and rapid prototyping that moves them quickly from the idea stage to a foundry-ready MEMS design,” explained Alissa M. Fitzgerald, PhD, founder and managing member of AMFitzgerald. "An important part of our work is the delivery of a proven MEMS prototype—both a mask design and a robust process flow—to the foundry for a fast ramp to high-yield volume production." Micralyne as a manufacturing partner adds significant value through "coordinated design-for-manufacture development and seamless foundry transfer."

Micralyne is a large, independent MEMS foundry. For more information on Micralyne, visit http://www.micralyne.com

AMFitzgerald offers MEMS product development via custom device design, MEMS prototyping and process development, multiphysics finite element modeling, foundry transfer, production support, and technology strategy consulting. Visit: http://www.amfitzgerald.com

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July 8, 2011 – JCN Newswire — The Institute of Microelectronics (IME), an institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) brought Touch Micro-System Technology (tMt), Taiwan-based 8" micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) foundry, into its efforts for lab-to-fab MEMS supply chain development.

tMt will help refine areas in IME’s three-party collaboration model for MEMS prototyping and mass production for medical, consumer, and other applications. tMt will bring its mass production expertise to the fabless/fablite partners at IME, looking in particular at cost pressures and the transition from concept to product. The foundry tMt will bring the partners "beyond R&D and prototyping," said Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of IME, "towards productization and mass production."

IME has added other speciality foundries to its research consortium, recently partnering with specialty foundry TowerJazz on MEMS and other projects. GLOBALFOUNDRIES joined the IME in late 2010 to work on MEMS Capacitive Sensor Platform Technology.

The Institute of Microelectronics (IME) is a research institute of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. Its key research areas are in integrated circuits design, advanced packaging, bioelectronics and medical devices, MEMS, nanoelectronics, and photonics. For more information, visit IME at http://www.ime.a-star.edu.sg. A*STAR is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven Singapore.

Touch Micro-System Technology (tMt), spun off from Walsin Lihwa MEMS Business Unit in 2004, is a specialized 8" MEMS foundry, partnering with over 30 global MEMS companies to develop and produce pressure sensor, motion sensor, MEMS microphone, micro-mirror, and other products. Please visit http://www.tmt-mems.com/.

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July 7, 2011 — poLight AS, reflowable autofocus actuated cameraphone lenses maker, closed its Series B financing round with NOK100 million (USD 18.5 million), led by Norway’s Investinor. Existing shareholders Viking Venture III AS, Alliance Venture Polaris AS and SINTEF Venture III AS also funded the round.

poLight is tapping into a viable market — improving consumers’ cameraphones — while leveraging the established semiconductor supply chain for manufacturing, said Christian Dupont, CEO of poLight, asserting that investors recognize this lucrative combination.

Viking Venture cites poLight’s progress since its series A investment (2009): bringing in Dupont and a management team, sampling the lens technology with major cameraphone makers, and developing partnerships with leading micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) suppliers. poLight has been featured by analysts for its use of ferroelectric thin films in MEMS.

poLight’s round B of financing could be extended to NOK130M (USD 24.5 million) in the second part of the year with additional investors joining the consortium.
 
poLight’s tunable lens (TLens) offers auto focus (AF) actuators based on the company’s optical polymer technology. The construction halves the camera module’s power consumption.

The device can focus instantly for videos and photos. The lens can be used in devices as high-quality as 12 mega-pixel.

poLight develops micro-optics components with wafer-scale polymer layers. It was spun out of Ignis ASA. For more information, visit www.polight.com.

Investinor wis funded by the Norwegian government to invest in highly competitive and promising Norwegian companies aiming for international growth and/or expansion. For more information, visit www.investinor.no.

Viking Venture is a technology-focused venture fund in Norway. Viking Venture invests in companies that have passed the seed phase and are ready for commercialization.

Alliance Venture is a venture capital firm investing in privately held, early stage technology companies.

SINTEF is a large contract R&D institute in Europe. SINTEF’s subsidiary Sinvent AS manages the IPR and venture portfolio of SINTEF.

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July 7, 2011 — A quadcopter designed by "Team McGill," students at McGill University, won the iNEMO Design Contest, hosted by STMicroelectronics (STM) and Digi-Key. Team McGill used the iNEMO evaluation board and 9 embedded degrees of freedom for their winning quad-copter design. The second place finisher, Stanford University’s team, also designed a quadcopter.

Each project in the contest incorporates an iNEMO Inertial Measurement Unit and was judged on the number of degrees of freedom (DoF) used (the MEMS device enables 10), hardware and firmware/software quality, the design’s novelty, its use of daughter boards, ease of use, and appeal of its user interface.

ST’s iNEMO offers 9-axis MEMS sensing of linear, angular, and magnetic motion, along with pressure and temperature sensing, managed by the STM32 32-bit microcontroller. Digi-Key stocks iNEMO on its US and Canadian websites.

Team McGill will receive a $5,000 cash prize and an all-expense-paid trip, including airfare and accommodations for three nights, to Europe to visit the ST iNEMO Development Labs in Catania, Sicily, Italy. For their second-place efforts, Team Stanford received a $2,500 cash prize.

STMicroelectronics provides semiconductors for multimedia convergence and power applications. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com

Digi-Key Corporation is an Internet-based distributor of electronic components. Learn more at www.digikey.com.

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July 5, 2011 — STMicroelectronics (STM) maintained its clear lead in contract micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturing in 2010, acheiving 5x higher revenue from MEMS foundry services than the nearest competitor, Texas Instruments (TI), according to IHS iSuppli’s latest research.

STM’s 2010 MEMS foundry revenue totalled $228.6 million, the only company to top 100-million dollars. Inkjet wafers made for the Hewlett-Packard Co. represented the majority of STM’s MEMS revenue. And although HP inkjet revenue has been shrinking, STM managed to grow its foundry takings by capturing an increasing share of HP inkjet production in the last four years. STM also has started working with other inkjet manufacturers, such as Kodak, and has won several foundry programs in the bio MEMS space, such as insulin pumps with Debiotech of Switzerland.

TI hit $47.4 million in revenues for 2010, perpetuating a foundry-revenue slide its been in since Lexmark’s business dropped in 2004. However, TI recently contracted with a Top 15 maker of consumer MEMS, so look for higher TI MEMS foundry revenues in 2011.

Sensonor Technologies took third place in IHS iSuppli’s rankings with $38.0 million.

Sony Corp. came in fourth with $31.9 million, a 51.2% jump in revenue spurred by primary client Knowles Electronics, which dominates MEMS microphones.

Figure. Top MEMS mixed-model foundries (Millions of US dollars). Source: IHS iSuppli 2011.

IHS iSuppli distinguishes the pure-play MEMS foundries that do not manufacture their own MEMS from mixed-model foundries that offer MEMS contract manufacturing in addition to their core business. The top 10 mixed-model MEMS makers reached $396 million in 2010 revenues (STM and TI earned 70% of that). In comparison, the top 10 pure-play foundries reached $205.3 million over the same period.

While the mixed-model companies have more revenues, pure-play foundries are seeing rapid growth: 48.4% expansion in 2010. Mixed-model companies barely grew: 2.4% expansion as a whole.  

Four pure-play MEMS foundries each had revenue in 2010 that exceeded $30 million, surpassing that mark for the first time. Silex Microsystems led the pack with $36.0 million revenue, pulled mostly from industrial and scientific applications, along with medical applications and optical MEMS.

Micralyne grew 50% last year to reach $31.3 million.

Asia Pacific Microsystems came in third with $31.2 million.

Dalsa Corp., which led pure-play foundries in 2009, placed fourth with $30.9 million.

IHS iSuppli notes that the foundry business model can mean many things today: from a wafer-supply company to a one-stop shop, and from diversified foundries to specialized houses. Some MEMS foundries also have positioned themselves as prototyping sites for research and development, and others pursue serial production.

While MEMS foundries make the chips, the intellectual property (IP) related to the MEMS parts belongs to the fabless company or design house. Exceptions to this rule include Memscap, which controls the IP on the variable optical attenuator chips it sells to JDSU and other telecommunications companies. IHS iSuppli calls this model a good way to shorten time to market, though warns it could scare off some clients.

Learn more in MEMS Competitive Analysis 2011 from IHS iSuppli: http://www.isuppli.com/MEMS-and-Sensors/Pages/MEMS-Market-Shares.aspx?MWX

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July 1, 2011 — Silicon Sensor International AG’s wholly owned subsidiary Microelectronic Packaging Dresden GmbH signed a nomination letter with an automobile supplier. Microelectronic Packaging Dresden will expand its 3-year-old cooperation with the auto maker.

Under the new agreement, Microelectronic Packaging will double its production of steering angle detection sensor modules over the next 3 years. Contract terms were also extended by 4 years.

Silicon Sensor International’s Board of Directors expects that the contract for the term until 2016 will comprise a sales volume of up to EUR50 million. Moreover, the Company informed that until the fiscal year 2015, it forecasts to achieve revenue totaling at least EUR100 million.

Source: Reuters

Recent Trading: Silicon Sensor International (SIS.DE) MCap is EUR62.8 million (US$90.6 million) at the last price of EUR9.48. The value of EUR1,000 invested one year ago is EUR1,505 [vs EUR1,234 for the DAX index], for a capital gain of EUR505. The total return to shareholders for 1 year is 50.5%.

Currency Conversion: Euro1= US$1.4425 [or US$1= Euro0.69]; Against the US$ the Euro jumped (or 1.7%) for the day; rose 0.4% for the week; increased 1.9% for the month; advanced 10.5% in the past year. EUR1 = 100c.

Source: www.BuySellSignals.com

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Also read: Auto consumer resurgence bodes well for global MEMS consumption

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June 30, 2011 — SEMICON West, held every July in San Francisco, is a major tradeshow and conference for semiconductor manufacturing professionals. Semiconductor packaging has become a major focus in recent years, and this year, BEOL attendees can go to the head of the line for ATE Vision 2020, 3D IC standards meetings, a keynote, and multiple sessions dedicated to packaging technologies. Here’s your guide to attending SEMICON West on a packaging track.

SEMI highlights a couple sessions that attendees won’t want to miss (schedule details below): 3D in the Deep Submicron Era, Contemporary Packaging: Challenges and Solutions for 40nm and Beyond, and Heterogeneous Integration with MEMS and Sensors. The 3D session will look at dramatic developments in IC packaging — through silicon vias (TSVs) and stacked dies, and silicon interposer (2.5D) technology based upon TSVs. The session will cover design standards, test platforms, and roadmaps that link the strategies of memory, MPU, GPU and other chip manufacturers including foundries and packaging firms.

While these are exciting developments, a majority of today

June 30, 2011 – PR Newswire — OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:OVTI), digital imaging company, will acquire wafer-level lens production and assembly processes out of its joint venture with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), VisEra Technologies Company Ltd.

The move will take OmniVision’s CameraCube fab steps in-house instead of outsourcing to VisEra. CameraCube represents a strong market opportunity, said Shaw Hong, OmniVision Technologies CEO. Sensors and lens elements are fabricated as one reflowable monolithic unit, targeting cutting-edge image sensor applications.

The cash consideration for the operations is $45 million. OmniVision anticipates that the parties will close the transaction in Q2 FY2012. This transaction help streamline and expand production, consolidate the supply chain, and lower costs, said Hong. TSMC began adding to its VisEra capabilities in 2010.

OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ:OVTI) makes advanced digital imaging technologies. Find out more at http://www.ovt.com.

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June 29, 2011 – MEMS Industry Group (MIG) will present the inaugural display of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and MEMS-enabled products entitled "MEMS in the Machine" DemoZone at the Extreme Electronics Stage, South Hall at SEMICON West.

SEMICON West, hosted by SEMI, will take place July 12-14 in San Francisco.

MIG member companies throughout the MEMS supply chain will be featured in the MEMS DemoZone display, showcasing the diversity, enabling capabilities and the nuances of MEMS technology.

Featured products include a consumer product teardown from Chipworks, consumer products from Freescale Semiconductor, an automotive demo from Meggitt (Endevco), a gas chromatograph and given imaging pill from MEMSCAP, a MEMS scanning mirror in a pico-projector from Touch Microsystem Technology, and an IR Thermal sensor from OMRON. Additional products including a wafer from Okmetic will give examples of MEMS along the supply chain.

MIG is also exhibiting on the show floor in conjunction with numerous MIG member companies.

A special hands-on demonstration of some of these displays will take place with between on July 12 at 12:45pm and 2:00pm after "The Future of MEMS: Solutions for Moving from a Niche to a Mainstream Business" (which takes place at 10:30am-12:30pm) during the Extreme Electronics TechXPOT, in the South Hall of SEMICON West. Speakers include Bosch Research, Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor, GlobalFoundries, imec, Sand9, and Yole Développement discussing how to bring MEMS into the mainstream and stable production no matter what the volume. MIG managing director, Karen Lightman, will moderate the session.

A second MEMS program, entitled "Heterogeneous Integration with MEMS and Sensors," will be presented at the NorthOne TechXPOT, 2-4:30pm on July 12th. Panelists will cover the eco-system of integrating MEMS and ICs.

Learn more by visiting MIG in South Hall, booth 2734 or at www.memsindustrygroup.org.

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More SEMICON West previews:

June 28, 2011 — EV Group (EVG), MEMS fab equipment supplier, will install a 200mm Gemini fully automated wafer-bonding system with cleaning module at the MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre (C2MI) being built in Technoparc Bromont, Quebec, Canada.
 
The Gemini system will be used to develop and manufacture micro electromechanical system (MEMS) devices requiring advanced packaging and full integration with CMOS. The research center aims to successfully transfer designs to high-volume manufacturing (HVM), and as such requires flexible, high-performance equipment, said Luc Ouellet, Teledyne DALSA VP of technology development. EVG’s Gemini will work alongside tools from Alchimer and Akrion, among others.

The 200mm Gemini platform can handle up to 4 pre-processing modules and incorporates EVG’s latest software and control system. The cleaner module will control particulate levels in the tool and assist in post-processing of the wafers. It meets the facility’s aggressive technical specifications, and throughput and productivity requirements. The tool is flexible for the research environment and easily scaled for HVM.

Sucessful device packaging could lead to improved pressure sensors, telecommunications MEMS sensors, inertial sensors, RF MEMS devices, imaging sensors, and microfluidics, among other applications.

EVG has a strong track record with a 150mm system at Teledyne DALSA, noted Steven Dwyer, EV Group VP and GM, North America. The 200mm Gemini will be a version of the Gemini platform (300mm) installed at SEMATECH’s 3D R&D Center in Albany, NY.

The MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre (C2MI) is an original partnership between Université de Sherbrooke, Teledyne DALSA Inc. and IBM Canada Ltd, Bromont Plant. The C2MI will be an international pioneer in packaging the next generation of microchips and designing packages for future MEMS. Learn more here http://www.electroiq.com/news/2011/06/1436945770/teledyne-dalsa-to-update-on-final-phase-of-innovation-center-at-nanotech-conference-expo-2011.html or visit www.c2mi.ca.
 
EV Group (EVG) serves semiconductor, MEMS and nanotechnology manufacturers with wafer bonding, lithography/nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and metrology equipment, as well as photoresist coaters, cleaners and inspection systems. More information is available at www.EVGroup.com.

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