San Jose-based Cypress Semiconductor announced Wednesday that it has launched a new subsidiary that hopes to radically transform the way that tiny chips — critical components of the booming smart phone and tablet market — are packaged.
Deca Technologies, a start-up that has labored in “stealth” mode for two years, operates as an independent entitity within Cypress, which has invested about $35 million in the company. Cypress CEO T.J. Rodgers, a legendary personality in the semiconductor industry and Silicon Valley, is the chair of Deca’s board of directors.
Deca’s founder Tim Olson, a veteran of Motorola and Amkor Technologies, served on Cypress’s technical advisory board for over a decade. Packaging is an often overlooked but key part of the semiconductor business that involves encapsulating chips in plastic or metal so they can be attached to circuit boards. Deca — the word is Greek for “ten” — plans to focus on packaging at the wafer level.
“I’m going to talk about why I let Tim con me out of $35 million,” said Rodgers, who hosted a party celebrating Deca’s long-awaited debut at his Woodside home and vineyard Tuesday evening. “Chip scale packaging is a billion dollar industry, and Deca can make it cheaper than competitors.”