Category Archives: MEMS

(December 22, 2010) — Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY) and DALSA (TSX: DSA) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement that provides for the acquisition of DALSA by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teledyne. Teledyne will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of DALSA for CAD $18.25 per share payable in cash.

The aggregate value for the transaction is approximately CAD $341 million, taking into account DALSA’s stock options and net cash as of September 30, 2010. DALSA is a maker of high performance digital imaging and MEMS products with approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. For the twelve months ended September 30, 2010, DALSA had sales of approximately CAD $201 million.

"Teledyne and DALSA are each acknowledged leaders in digital imaging technology but our product lines and customer bases are almost entirely complementary," said Dr. Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and CEO of Teledyne. For example, DALSA produces among the world’s most advanced visible light imaging sensors and cameras for commercial applications, while Teledyne produces extreme resolution infrared sensors and subsystems primarily for government applications.

"The combined strengths of Teledyne’s and DALSA’s leading imaging technologies will allow us to develop new infrared and visible light products that serve our respective markets and customers. Furthermore, DALSA’s custom MEMS capabilities will be augmented by having access to Teledyne’s extensive MEMS research activities and advanced process technologies.

"With the acquisition of DALSA, Teledyne is making a substantial commitment to Canada. We are especially attracted to strong support for research and development and advancement of technology provided by both the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments of Ontario and Quebec. Finally, following the acquisition of DALSA, and the previously announced divestiture of Teledyne Continental Motors, Teledyne will be transformed into a pure-play electronics, instrumentation and engineering focused company."

"I view this transaction as a natural evolution for DALSA and a positive development for all DALSA stakeholders including shareholders, employees, executives, local communities, customers and vendors," commented Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, Chairman of the Board and Founder of DALSA. "The decision to be a part of a larger organization recognizes that in order for DALSA to become a billion dollar company, we need to team up with an industry leader with complementary technologies. Finally, as the founder of the company, I am pleased to see DALSA’s name live on, in its new incarnation as Teledyne DALSA."

"Being part of the Teledyne team will provide many opportunities for accelerated growth for DALSA," said Brian Doody, Chief Executive Officer of DALSA. "I am looking forward to working with my existing management and executive team, along with the Teledyne team, as we move forward together in the next stage of the company’s development. As envisioned in the agreement with Teledyne, our principal operations will continue to function in their existing locations. Moreover, Teledyne expects to continue to invest in our technology and business."

Additional Information
The purchase price payable by Teledyne of CAD $18.25 per common share represents a premium of 27.7 percent over the twenty-day volume weighted average trading price of CAD $14.29 for DALSA common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the period ending December 21, 2010. Holders of approximately 6.4 million DALSA common shares, representing approximately 34.7 percent of DALSA’s outstanding common shares, have entered into support agreements with Teledyne pursuant to which they have agreed to support and vote in favor of the transaction.

The transaction will be carried out by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). The completion of the transaction is subject to, among other things, the approval of shareholders of DALSA representing at least two-thirds of the common shares of DALSA represented at a special meeting of shareholders of DALSA to be called to consider the transaction and Court approval. In addition, the transaction is subject to a number of additional closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals, as well as other customary closing conditions.

The transaction has been reviewed by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of DALSA and has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of DALSA following the unanimous recommendation of the Special Committee. The Board of Directors of DALSA unanimously recommends that the shareholders of DALSA vote in favor of the transaction. Canaccord Genuity Corp acted as financial advisor to DALSA, and the Special Committee and the Board of Directors have received an opinion from Canaccord Genuity that the consideration offered under the transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to DALSA’s shareholders.

The definitive agreement contains a termination fee in the amount of approximately CAD $10.2 million, which is payable by DALSA to Teledyne in certain circumstances if the transaction is not completed. The definitive agreement provides that DALSA will call and hold a special meeting of the DALSA shareholders for the purposes of considering the transaction. If all necessary approvals are obtained and the conditions contained in the definitive agreement are satisfied, DALSA and Teledyne expect that the transaction will close in February 2011.

DALSA anticipates declaring a quarterly dividend, consistent with previous practices, prior to the closing date.

Full details of the arrangement and certain other matters will be included in the management information circular of DALSA (the "Information Circular") which will be filed with the regulatory authorities and mailed to DALSA shareholders in accordance with applicable securities laws. Shareholders may obtain a copy of the definitive agreement, Information Circular of DALSA, and other meeting materials when they become available at www.sedar.com

(December 22, 2010) — Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY) and DALSA (TSX: DSA) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement that provides for the acquisition of DALSA by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teledyne. Teledyne will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of DALSA for CAD $18.25 per share payable in cash.

The aggregate value for the transaction is approximately CAD $341 million, taking into account DALSA’s stock options and net cash as of September 30, 2010. DALSA is a maker of high performance digital imaging and MEMS products with approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. For the twelve months ended September 30, 2010, DALSA had sales of approximately CAD $201 million.

"Teledyne and DALSA are each acknowledged leaders in digital imaging technology but our product lines and customer bases are almost entirely complementary," said Dr. Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and CEO of Teledyne. For example, DALSA produces among the world’s most advanced visible light imaging sensors and cameras for commercial applications, while Teledyne produces extreme resolution infrared sensors and subsystems primarily for government applications.

"The combined strengths of Teledyne’s and DALSA’s leading imaging technologies will allow us to develop new infrared and visible light products that serve our respective markets and customers. Furthermore, DALSA’s custom MEMS capabilities will be augmented by having access to Teledyne’s extensive MEMS research activities and advanced process technologies.

"With the acquisition of DALSA, Teledyne is making a substantial commitment to Canada. We are especially attracted to strong support for research and development and advancement of technology provided by both the Canadian Federal and Provincial Governments of Ontario and Quebec. Finally, following the acquisition of DALSA, and the previously announced divestiture of Teledyne Continental Motors, Teledyne will be transformed into a pure-play electronics, instrumentation and engineering focused company."

"I view this transaction as a natural evolution for DALSA and a positive development for all DALSA stakeholders including shareholders, employees, executives, local communities, customers and vendors," commented Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, Chairman of the Board and Founder of DALSA. "The decision to be a part of a larger organization recognizes that in order for DALSA to become a billion dollar company, we need to team up with an industry leader with complementary technologies. Finally, as the founder of the company, I am pleased to see DALSA’s name live on, in its new incarnation as Teledyne DALSA."

"Being part of the Teledyne team will provide many opportunities for accelerated growth for DALSA," said Brian Doody, Chief Executive Officer of DALSA. "I am looking forward to working with my existing management and executive team, along with the Teledyne team, as we move forward together in the next stage of the company’s development. As envisioned in the agreement with Teledyne, our principal operations will continue to function in their existing locations. Moreover, Teledyne expects to continue to invest in our technology and business."

Additional Information
The purchase price payable by Teledyne of CAD $18.25 per common share represents a premium of 27.7 percent over the twenty-day volume weighted average trading price of CAD $14.29 for DALSA common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the period ending December 21, 2010. Holders of approximately 6.4 million DALSA common shares, representing approximately 34.7 percent of DALSA’s outstanding common shares, have entered into support agreements with Teledyne pursuant to which they have agreed to support and vote in favor of the transaction.

The transaction will be carried out by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). The completion of the transaction is subject to, among other things, the approval of shareholders of DALSA representing at least two-thirds of the common shares of DALSA represented at a special meeting of shareholders of DALSA to be called to consider the transaction and Court approval. In addition, the transaction is subject to a number of additional closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals, as well as other customary closing conditions.

The transaction has been reviewed by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of DALSA and has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of DALSA following the unanimous recommendation of the Special Committee. The Board of Directors of DALSA unanimously recommends that the shareholders of DALSA vote in favor of the transaction. Canaccord Genuity Corp acted as financial advisor to DALSA, and the Special Committee and the Board of Directors have received an opinion from Canaccord Genuity that the consideration offered under the transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to DALSA’s shareholders.

The definitive agreement contains a termination fee in the amount of approximately CAD $10.2 million, which is payable by DALSA to Teledyne in certain circumstances if the transaction is not completed. The definitive agreement provides that DALSA will call and hold a special meeting of the DALSA shareholders for the purposes of considering the transaction. If all necessary approvals are obtained and the conditions contained in the definitive agreement are satisfied, DALSA and Teledyne expect that the transaction will close in February 2011.

DALSA anticipates declaring a quarterly dividend, consistent with previous practices, prior to the closing date.

Full details of the arrangement and certain other matters will be included in the management information circular of DALSA (the "Information Circular") which will be filed with the regulatory authorities and mailed to DALSA shareholders in accordance with applicable securities laws. Shareholders may obtain a copy of the definitive agreement, Information Circular of DALSA, and other meeting materials when they become available at www.sedar.com

(December 21, 2010 – Marketwire via COMTEX) — Zarlink Semiconductor (TSX: ZL) has invested US$5 million as part of a US$10 million Series C financing in Multigig, a fabless semiconductor company that provides advanced clock generation and timing products for the wired and wireless communications markets. CMEA Capital and Sierra Ventures also participated in the financing.

Multigig will use the financing to invest in the continuing development of its RotaryWave timing technology. RotaryWave technology delivers clocks with extremely low jitter for high-speed communication applications.
"There is growing demand for new timing technologies for wired and wireless applications," said Kirk Mandy, president and CEO, Zarlink Semiconductor. "Multigig’s timing technologies deliver performance, cost and power advantages across a widening range of telecom, communications, networking, server and storage applications."

"Multigig is pleased to have Zarlink as a strategic investor in our Series C financing," said Michael Canning, president and CEO, Multigig. "Our current products represent a significant advance in timing technology. However, there is much more that we can achieve with RotaryWave in terms of increased integration and improved performance. This Series C financing will help us reach that goal."

Zarlink Semiconductor delivers mixed-signal chip technologies for a broad range of communication and medical applications. For more information, visit www.zarlink.com.

Multigig, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company that provides advanced next-generation clock and timing solutions for the wired and wireless communications markets. Visit Multigig online at www.multigig.com.

(December 21, 2010) — The Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are joining forces to develop MEMS Capacitive Sensor Platform Technology for power-efficient and highly sensitive motion sensing applications that are relevant to consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace industries.

MEMS capacitive sensor technology is increasingly common in today’s consumer electronics, playing a key role in the way users interact with mobile communication devices and 3D virtual multimedia gaming systems. Also read: MEMS gyroscope market says gaming FTW, though smartphone apps gaining

Under the agreement, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be responsible for preliminary platform design specifications and process flow. IME will concentrate its effort in developing a modular and scalable capacitive sensor technology platform with standardized process modules and process integration scheme based on IME’s advanced MEMS fabrication facilities and tools. IME’s multi-wafers bonding technology will be a key enabler for this joint project.

"GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a founding member of the A*STAR MEMS Consortium and we are glad to extend our collaboration with IME to support Singapore’s vision of a world-class MEMS hub for R&D and manufacturing," said Raj Kumar, SVP of the 200mm business unit and GM of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore. 

Said Professor Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of IME, "The worldwide MEMS industry is entering an exciting chapter in their development and growth, with revenues projected to hit more than USD 16 billion (SGD 22 billion) in 2015[2]. IME is committed to helping our industry partners respond faster to upcoming trends by anticipating their needs and providing them with solutions that are relevant, practical and sustainable."

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). Positioned to bridge the R&D between academia and industry, IME’s mission is to add value to Singapore’s semiconductor industry by developing strategic competencies, innovative technologies and intellectual property; enabling enterprises to be technologically competitive; and cultivating a technology talent pool to inject new knowledge to the industry. Its key research areas are in integrated circuits design, advanced packaging, bioelectronics and medical devices, MEMS, nanoelectronics, and photonics. For more information, visit IME on the Internet: http://www.ime.a-star.edu.sg.

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven Singapore. For more information about A*STAR, please visit www.a-star.edu.sg.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a full-service semiconductor foundry with global manufacturing. It was launched in March 2009 through a partnership between AMD (NYSE: AMD) and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC). For more information on GLOBALFOUNDRIES, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com.

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(December 17, 2010) — Techcet’s Michael A. Fury reports in-depth from sessions at IEDM 2010, held earlier this month in San Francisco, looking at paper 18.3 on a reverse trend from electronic switching back to mechanical switching in the form of MEMS devices. 18.3, "Prospects for MEM Logic Switch Technology (Invited)," was presented by T.-J. King Liu, J. Jeon, R. Nathanael, H. Kam, V. Pott*, E. Alon, University of California, Berkeley, *Institute of Microelectronics.

18.3: Device leakage and RF channel switching are among the problems driving a reverse trend from electronic switching back to mechanical switching in the form of MEMS devices, as presented in an invited talk by Tsu-Jae King Liu of UC Berkeley. A MEMS air gap of 1nm can provide IOn/IOff ~ 1010. Planar plates are used as actuating elements rather than linear mechanical levers; a see-saw configuration guarantees that complementary logic functions can be satisfied. Devices have been shown to endure 1015 cycles, satisfying most wireless applications with a 10-year lifetime. MEMS logic functions can be fabricated with 2×-4× fewer devices than the corresponding CMOS functions.

 

(a) 3D schematic of the see-saw relay structure and definition of design parameters. (b) Schematic cross-sections illustrating complementary operation. (c) SEM views of a fabricated see-saw relay.

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., reports on a range of talks at IEDM 2010:

He is senior technology analyst at Techcet Group, LLC, P.O. Box 29, Del Mar, CA 92014; [email protected].

by Michael A. Fury, Techcet Group

December 17, 2010 – The IEDM Technical Fields Awards Luncheon (Tues. 12/07/2010) honored eight individuals for their contributions to the field of electronic devices:

  • Ghavam G. Shahidi of IBM Research, for SOI CMOS development;
  • Bijan Davari of IBM Research, for submicron CMOS and STI development;
  • Takehisha Yaegashi, Shoichi Sasaki, and Shinichi Abe, at the time all at Toyota Research, for development of the Toyota Hybrid System which became the Prius;
  • John E. Kelly III of IBM Research, for management leadership & strategic vision;
  • Mark J.W. Rodwell at UC Santa Barbara, for sub-millimeter wave InP HBTs; and
  • Tsu-Jae King Liu at UC Berkeley, for development of the FinFET.

Following the award presentations, James Clifford of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies talked about the evolution and directions for mobile wireless devices. We have already experienced a convergence of computers and consumer devices with wireless technology. Today we are making the full Internet experience available through wireless devices. More than half of the world’s inhabitants will have their first Internet experience with a wireless device rather than an Ethernet connection. One example of an emerging application that is driving new technology is digital band-aids that can notify a patient and the doctor of signs of infection. The new Mirasol display is an interferometric modulation device with near infinite pixel and color resolution at low power. Fabless Qualcomm shipped a record 7B chips in 2010.

(Additional information can be found online at 2010 IEDM Technical Program. All figures are reproduced with permission of IEDM.)

23.1: An invited paper on graphene-based fast electronics and optoelectronics was presented by P. Avouris at IBM Research. Wafer-scale graphene was fabricated by desorbing Si at 1450°C from the Si face of a SiC wafer. Devices were then fabricated on a single crystal terrace. Although graphene is a zero bandgap material, bandgap devices can be fabricated using dual- or multi-gate structures. A 240nm gate device fabricated on a single terrace showed an fT of 230GHz. Graphene’s properties suggest that photodetector applications are an appropriate fit. A fast photodetector using alternating Pd and Ti electrodes was shown to work well at 10Gb/sec.

Schematic and SEM of the multifinger, two-different metal graphene photodetector and its utilization to detect optical data streams at 19Gbit/s. Bottom: Open eye test indicating error-free detection of optical data at 10GBits/s.

23.2: I. Meric of Columbia U fabricated a graphene FET using h-BN (hexagonal) as the gate dielectric, which has a lattice mismatch to graphene of only 2% but a thermal conductivity 600× greater than SiO2. The device configured with a Cr/AuPd ohmic contact had a mobility of 10,700 cm2/Vsec and good saturation behavior at gate lengths of 3μm, 1μm and 0.5μm, but high contact resistance remains to be reduced.

Optical image of GFET (left); schematic of the back-gated device structure (right).

18.3: Device leakage and RF channel switching are among the problems driving a reverse trend from electronic switching back to mechanical switching in the form of MEMS devices, as presented in an invited talk by Tsu-Jae King Liu of UC Berkeley. A MEMS air gap of 1nm can provide IOn/IOff ~ 1010. Planar plates are used as actuating elements rather than linear mechanical levers; a see-saw configuration guarantees that complementary logic functions can be satisfied. Devices have been shown to endure 1015 cycles, satisfying most wireless applications with a 10-year lifetime. MEMS logic functions can be fabricated with 2×-4× fewer devices than the corresponding CMOS functions.

(a) 3D schematic of the see-saw relay structure and definition of design parameters. (b) Schematic cross-sections illustrating complementary operation. (c) SEM views of a fabricated see-saw relay.

17.4: It really didn’t matter what the subject matter was — there was no way I was going to miss an invited talk entitled "May the Fourth (terminal) Be With You: Circuit Design Beyond FinFET," by H. Kioke of AIST, Tsukuba. True to form, the opening slide began with large text receding upward at an angle and off into the darkness of space, just like Star Wars. His proposal is a 4-terminal device in which the single FinFET gate that surrounds three sides of the channel is split into separate two gates by removing the portion of the gate the crosses on top of the channel. In the fab this would be done by CMP; in his slide he used a light saber. The resulting Cross-Drive XMOS device operates with an input gate and a separate control gate, and falls into the More Than Moore category. Target applications for this low voltage, low leakage device include flex power FPGA, flex pass gate SRAM, and low voltage op amp. Development of a 4-terminal SPICE model is underway.

21.5: To satisfy the demand for NVRAM on flexible substrates, C.H. Cheng of National Tsing Hua U proposed a very high performance non-charge based resistive RAM using an ultralow-power hopping conduction mechanism. The RRAM device stack consisting of Ni/GeOx (8.5nm)/HfON(6nm)/TaN on a transparent PI film showed a mechanical endurance of 105 bending cycles, electrical endurance of 105 cycles at 50nsec switching that required 5μW power.

Comparison of device data for various NVM devices on flexible organic substrates (PET, PI, PES) or rigid glass.

23.6: I returned once again back in the graphene session, where H. Wang of MIT presented a GHz ambipolar frequency multiplier based on CVD graphene. The test device fabricated had a cutoff f-3dB~1.5GHz. For hypothetical THz devices, the specs will need to be 250Ω · μm contact resistance, 40nm gate length with 5-10nm Al2O3 gate dielectric, and graphene mobility μ~2000-3000 cm2/Vsec. To achieve these goals, he proposes building the device circuitry in silicon with the contacts on top, then laying a PMMA-transferred graphene layer on top followed by graphene patterning and contact bonding. Such fabrication work remains to be done.

Structure of the fabricated devices. Ohmic metal: 2.5nm Ti/ 45nm Pd/ 15nm Au. Gate dielectric: 5nm SiO2 (e-beam) + 15nm Al2O3 (ALD). Gate metal: 30nm Ni/ 200nm Au/ 50nm Ni. Source to drain distance LDS = 1.7μm. Gate length LG=1.6μm. Channel width W=25μm.

 

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D, is senior technology analyst at Techcet Group, LLC, P.O. Box 29, Del Mar, CA 92014; e-mail [email protected].

(December 17, 2010) — Highlighted by their adoption in Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones are set to achieve a more than 50% increase in shipments in 2010 and a fourfold rise by 2014, according to the market research firm iSuppli, now part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

Global MEMS microphone shipments are set to expand to 695.6 million units this year, up 57.7% from 441 million in 2009, as presented in the attached figure. By 2014, shipments will rise to 1.7 billion units, four times the total for 2009.

Global MEMS microphone shipments forecast through 2014 (Millions of units). Source: iSuppli, December 2010
 

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Millions of units    

201.5

244.6

326.3

441.0

695.6

1014.2

1276.1

1525.2

1737.7

MEMS microphones are tiny microphones that use a pressure-sensitive diaphragm etched on a semiconductor using microelectromechanical technology. They are commonly found in cell phones, headsets, notebook PCs and video cameras, replacing conventional electret condenser microphones (ECM).

"In a major milestone, Apple in 2010 employed MEMS microphones in the iPhone 4, the first time the company used the technology in the iPhone line," said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst, MEMS, for iSuppli. "Although Apple previously used MEMS microphones in the fifth-generation iPod nano released in 2009, the company exclusively had been employing ECM technology in the iPhone line. With this move, Apple in 2010 will become the world’s second-largest buyer of MEMS microphones, behind Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Apple was the sixth largest buyer in 2009."

Although they are significantly more expensive than ECM devices, MEMS microphones provide a host of advantages in terms of size, scalability, temperature stability, and sound quality.

The iPhone 4 incorporates two separate MEMS microphones for noise suppression, a technique that reduces background sounds to improve the clarity of voice communications. Although noise suppression has been available since 2006, the arrival of Motorola Inc.’s Droid as well as the iPhone 4 has caused the popularity of the technology — and of MEMS microphones — to soar. The majority of smart phones by 2014 will use two or more MEMS microphones.

The mobile handset market in 2010 is the largest consumer of MEMS microphones, ahead of notebook PCs. Headsets will form the third largest user of MEMS microphones, due to their use by Apple. By 2014, mobile handsets and notebook PCs will still be the largest application for MEMS microphones, followed by slate-type tablets, such as Apple’s iPad.

MEMS microphone products:

Since establishing the business in 2003, MEMS microphone pioneer Knowles Electronics has maintained market dominance, with the company set to account for more than 80% of shipments this year. The company has benefitted from its strong intellectual property (IP) portfolio. However, competition is rising, with 3 of the world’s 5 largest MEMS microphone suppliers now being Asian suppliers of conventional ECM: AAC Acoustic Technologies Holdings Inc., BSE Co. Ltd. and Hosiden Corp. All of these traditional ECM suppliers recently added MEMS microphones to their portfolio. These companies buy MEMS die from Infineon Technologies, package and sell them, using their existing channels. Analog Devices Inc. is the only other pure MEMS company in the Top 5.

An International Trade Commission ruling in November 2010 should make it easier for newcomers to compete with Knowles. A commission judge ruled that Knowles’s silicon microphone patents were invalid.

For more information on this topic, see iSuppli’s upcoming report, entitled: MEMS Microphones Gain Volume in 2010 and Set to Make More Noise.

iSuppli market research reports help deliver vital information on the status of the entire electronics value chain. iSuppli’s MEMS & Sensors market research provides up-to-date, insightful coverage of the consumer, automotive, and high-value markets for MEMS, or microelectromechanical sensors. For more information, visit www.isuppli.com

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(December 16, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Syndiant, maker of high-resolution microdisplays for pico projectors, is expanding its global reach to include offices in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.

The Hong Kong office will be led by Dr. Dennis Cheng, and will be used for close R&D collaboration with technology partners and prestigious universities in Hong Kong and South China. Additionally, the office is in close proximity to key customers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Syndiant’s new office is located at Unit 315A, 3/F, Enterprise Place, No. 5 Science Park West Avenue, Hong Kong Science Park, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Science and Technology Park has 20 state-of-the-art buildings on a 22 hectare campus. Since its inception, the Park has become home to more than 300 technology companies.

Syndiant manufactures small, high-resolution light-modulating chips used in pico projectors small enough to embed in a cell phone. Syndiant’s patented VueG8 technology provides a large screen experience in handheld electronics, such as smartphones, notebook computers, portable media players, video game consoles and cameras. For more information, visit www.syndiant.com.

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(December 16, 2010 – PRNewswire) — The DNA Medicine Institute (DMI) successfully completed reduced-gravity experiments on its rHEALTH sensor for the 2010 Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology (FAST) program, at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas, at the end of September.

The rHEALTH sensor uses a microfluidics chip designed to extract a multitude of diagnostic information from a single drop of blood. Although designed for use in reduced-gravity environments in space, the lab-on-a-chip technology can be applied to real-time health monitoring at patient’s bedside or in a doctor’s office, and allow for real-time clinical intervention in acute situations. It was one of 17 technology demonstration projects, from 10 different states, for reduced-gravity aircraft flights. The DMI device was subject to zero, lunar, and 1.8 g conditions for periods up to 25 seconds in a Boeing 727 airplane flying repeated parabolic trajectories. A joint team from DMI and NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) successfully performed experiments on the rHEALTH platform, which included sample loading, mixing, and detection. The device operated without fail on all four lunar and zero-gravity flights.

The team tested a range of experiments including sample loading, microfluidic mixing, and detection on the aircraft under reduced gravity conditions. The technology was controlled by a laptop computer and custom software.

"The reduced gravity tests from NASA’s FAST 2010 program provided simulated conditions for implementation of the rHEALTH technology in space. The ability to successfully operate this technology on the parabolic flights also mean that the device is rugged and robust in environments with vibration and variable g-forces, which may be seen in many emergent clinical scenarios here on Earth," said Eugene Y. Chan, M.D., president and chief scientific officer of the DNA Medicine Institute.

NASA’s FAST program is designed to demonstrate whether emerging technologies can perform as expected in the reduced-gravity environment of the moon and Mars, or the Earth orbit’s zero-gravity environment, thus allowing the incorporation of new technologies into the agency’s flight programs and other commercial aerospace applications. It can also reduce the risk of using new technologies during space missions by providing an opportunity to prove how they work in a reduced-gravity environment, providing insight, before expensive testing, into the reasons some technologies may fail.

Other NASA uses of MEMS include near-IR portable spectrometry. To learn more, read: Water on the moon? NASA MEMS-based Phazir spectrometer chat with Steve Senturia

For a complete list of NASA’s 17 selected FAST projects, their associated leading organizations, partners and information about previous FAST flights, visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/innovation_incubator/FAST/index.html

DMI utilizes an interdisciplinary, multi-faceted approach to innovation that draws upon diverse and disparate fields including medicine, nanotechnology, genomics, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and advanced engineering. For more on the rHEALTH test, visit http://www.dnamedinstitute.com/parabolicflight

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(December 14, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Silicon Biosystems, S.p.A., a provider of specialized molecular and cell biology technology, has formed a U.S. subsidiary operation, Silicon Biosystems, Inc., to be headquartered in San Diego, CA. The newly formed business will focus on commercial operations and the development of the North American research and clinical diagnostics markets for the company’s DEPArray technology platform.

"The formation of our own commercial operation in the U.S. represents a significant step forward for our business," stated Giuseppe Giorgini, CEO of Silicon Biosystems, S.p.A. "Our DEPArray platform will allow clinicians and researchers working to advance personalized medicine in areas such as clinical oncology to identify new biomarkers and improve patient treatment based on genetic information they have previously not had access to. We are excited to begin commercial discussions with thought leaders in the U.S."

The company’s DEPArray technology exploits microelectronics and the principles of dielectrophoresis to isolate and manipulate cells in a suspension matrix. The approach, patented by Silicon Biosystems, offers the unique possibility of controlling individual cells and micro-particles inside a disposable cartridge. The DEPArray platform makes it possible to find, sort, select and separate individual cells for further analysis or culturing.

Silicon Biosystems, S.p.A. is based in Bologna, Italy and has developed a set of proprietary solutions called lab-on-a-chip technologies, targeted at miniaturized cell-biology testing. For more information on Silicon Biosystems, Inc., visit www.siliconbioUSA.com