Austrian company AMS, a provider of sensors and analog IC solutions, has acquired German-based ASIC maker ACAM. The acquisition should strengthen ACAM's ASIC product portfolio for sensors applications due to AMS' much larger R&D, sales, and manufacturing resources. ACAM was founded 18 years ago and its unique ASIC platform is based on the company's time-to-digital (TDC) technology. AMS, formerly known as austriamicrosystems, currently has more than 1,700 employees in 20 countries. The company reported revenues of $614 million and net income of $108 million in 2014. "This was a good time for us to be acquired by ams because we are entering mass markets such as MEMS based sensors and ultrasonic gas and water meters, and we needed an investor for these strong growth goals," said ACAM's CEO Augustin Braun.
ACAM says that the acquisition should not negatively affect current ACAM employees. Accordingly to the company, one major transition goal is to keep our team complete. Some changes will occur in the functions or responsibilities of individuals, but overall the expected changes are rather small. The German location in Stutensee will be kept and operated as a subsidiary of AMS. ACAM management hopes that they can keep all team members at AMS and they are planning for future growth in headcount.
Interestingly, ACAM has had no cooperation activities with AMS until the acquisition. However, the companies believe there are lots of synergies going forward. "We and AMS were already in the same applications, but with different products. Now, sensor interface solutions of AMS and ACAM can be combined in some cases," Braun said.
ACAM is planning to release a series of new products in 2015. For MEMS and sensors, the company will release a new smaller and cheaper ASSP which should be available in April. ACAM will also be releasing their next generation ASSP for ultrasonic flowmeter applications, with samples also available in March. The company’s new high-end ASSP is also planned for release in the first half of this year.
For certain applications, such as pressure and humidity sensing, ACAM's TDC technology brings advantages such as accuracy, low power consumption, and high sampling rate compared to other approaches. In some growing markets, such as the ultrasonic flow measurement, ACAM is reportedly both a market share and technology leader. In other fast growing markets, such as MEMS based sensors, ACAM’s products and technologies are also proving to be competitive compared to other approaches.
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Copyright 2015 MEMS Journal, Inc.
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