AMFitzgerald | Ed's Threads

Clever integration of new microelectronic/nanoelectronic technologies will continue to provide increased functionalities for modern products. Light Imaging, Detection, And Ranging (LIDAR) technology uses lasers to see though fog and darkness, and smaller less expensive LIDAR systems are needed for autonomous driving applications now being developed by dozens of major companies around the world. A significant step in the right direction has been taken by the US government’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) after working with AMFitzgerald on a MEMS mirror Light-field Directing Array (LDA) prototype.

In-process photo of the Light-field Directing Array (LDA) MEMS prototype designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (Source: AMFitzgerald & Assoc.)

For the past several years, AMFitzgerald has been developing the fabrication process for a novel MEMS micro-mirror array designed by Dr. Robert Panas’s research group at LLNL, as shown in this video. The technology has been developed specifically to serve LIDAR, laser communications, and other demanding applications where existing MEMS mirror array technologies are insufficient. The novel design offers exceptional speed and tilt range, with three axes (tip-tilt-piston), feedback control, and 99% fill factor. The technology is available for license from the LLNL Industrial Partnerships Office.

At the upcoming MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress, on May 11, Dr. Carolyn D. White will present a case study on how she developed this complex prototype and leveraged AMFitzgerald’s ecosystem of partners to integrate specialty processes. Dr. Alissa Fitzgerald—founder and principle of AMFitzgerald leading the development of innovative MEMS and sensor solutions for specialty applications—will be giving a keynote address on “Next Generation MEMS Manufacturing” at 9:10am May 17 during The ConFab. Dr. Fitzgerald has unparalleled expertise in how to best design MEMS for different fab lines, and is a speaker not to be missed.

—E.K.

A secretive investment holding company out of Hong Kong named GAE Ltd has acquired 98% of the shares in Silex Microsystems AB (Jarfalla, Sweden). The transaction took place on July 13th of this year when the former major shareholders agreed to sell all of their respective holdings, while Silex founder and CEO Edvard Kalvesten retains 2% of the shares in the company and continues his role as CEO and board member of Silex. No changes are made to the organizational structure or business operations of Silex, while the new owners plan to build a new high-volume manufacturing line near Beijing that clones the equipment and processes in Sweden with first wafers out by mid-2017 (as reported at EETimes).

Silex claims to be the “world’s number one Pure Play MEMS Foundry”, has worked with AMFitzgerald&Assoc. on RocketMEMS shuttle wafers to reduce MEMS development time by 6-12 months, and has developed multiple Through-Silicon Via (TSV) technologies to allow for efficient 3D integration of MEMS and CMOS.

Almost lost as a footnote in the news is that Silex holds IP on lead-zirconium-titanate (PZT) thin-film technology that allows for efficient piezo-electric energy-harvesting chips. MicroGen Systems is currently in the market with aluminum-nitride (AlN) piezo-cantilever micro-power generator system to power IoT nodes by scavenging either single-frequency or multi-frequency vibrations, working with X-Fab in Germany as foundry partner. If PZT-based piezo-cantilever energy harvesters can compete with AlN-based devices then the former could constitute much of the product volume in the new Silex Beijing fab. In 2014, Yole Developpement forecast “the integration of IoT-dedicated electronic components to result in a market volume of 2B units for these devices by 2021;” if 30% will use energy harvesting then this represents 600M units globally.

—E.K.

Tag Archives: AMFitzgerald

MEMS Mirrors for LIDAR

Silex’ Strategic Acquisition by China