Rogue Valley Microdevices, an Oregon-based MEMS foundry, announced this week its acquisition of a 50,000-square-foot commercial building in Palm Bay, Florida to serve as its second microfabrication facility. Targeting an overall MEMS market expected to reach $22.3 billion by 2027, according to Yole Intelligence, Rogue Valley Microdevices has been serving a global customer base from its Medford, Oregon facility since 2003. The company says its expansion to Palm Bay will allow it to increase supply-chain resilience and to boost production volume.
"For the last two decades, Rogue Valley Microdevices has played a critical role in the MEMS and sensor ecosystem," said Jessica Gomez, the company's founder and CEO. "We've helped some amazing innovators transition from lab to fab, even supporting those with needs too complex or specialized for other foundries to take on. As we continue to build efficiencies and add capabilities in Medford, our expansion to Palm Bay will alleviate capacity constraints. Our goal as a manufacturing partner is to provide a wide variety of services, helping our customers to expedite the commercialization of their technology, and continuing to support them as they scale to meet market demand."
The company's expansion will increase the domestic supply of MEMS and sensor devices, which are strategically important across multiple industries. MEMS and sensors devices are not only essential to life-enhancing applications such as molecular diagnostics and environmental monitoring, but are also strategically important for LiDAR and next-generation defense and aerospace products.
"Our expansion to Palm Bay is the culmination of a multi-year search for the ideal location to grow our company and the MEMS manufacturing industry," added Gomez. "The Space Coast is a hub of scientific and technical innovation, which makes it an ideal location for us. We're equally excited at the level of community support we've already received from both the city of Palm Bay and from the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. We look forward to a long and collaborative relationship."
Rogue Valley Microdevices has completed its purchase of a commercial building located at 2301 Commerce Drive in Palm Bay, Florida. The space will be reconfigured for a cleanroom and office space, with initial production of its first MEMS devices slated for 2025.
"We’re excited about our expansion to Palm Bay because it will allow us to offer more capacity and additional capabilities to our customers. Our new fab in Palm Bay will let us innovate and commercialize faster, but in a safe IP protection-friendly fab based in North America. As we expand our foundry services to Palm Bay, one of our key business principles remains the same: that is to work with our customers early-on during the development process and support them through production. Whether you’re an established company rolling out a new type of device or expanding your portfolio of products, or you’re a new company looking to disrupt the market, there's a place for you at Rogue Valley Microdevices," said Gomez.
Rogue Valley Microdevices is a full-service precision MEMS foundry that combines process modules with the engineering expertise to go seamlessly from custom design to manufacturing. Specializing in MEMS and sensors device manufacturing, including microfluidics and lab-on-chip platforms, Rogue Valley Microdevices offers a flexible equipment set and the ability for customers to start with smaller batch sizes, serving a key function in the commercial MEMS manufacturing ecosystem. The company also maintains a comprehensive set of wafer services, with over 50 unique dielectric and conductive thin films and all services performed in its own class 100 cleanroom.
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