MEMS Journal -- The Largest MEMS Publication in the World

MEMS foundry Micralyne partners with Microplex to deliver metal TSV wafers

Micralyne, a MEMS foundry and sensors supplier, announced this week a collaboration with Microplex based in Placentia, California to develop and manufacture custom wafers with metal TSVs. The joint development of this technology leverages the specific expertise of each company to enable a metal TSV solution for sensor and semiconductor applications. The companies engaged in the development of the TSV offering in 2016 and are now offering full volume production capability. 

Tronics opens MEMS production facility for healthcare applications

Tronics, a TDK Group company that designs and manufactures nano and microsystems, has announced the opening of a MEMS production facility located in Addison, Texas, near Dallas.  The fab expands Tronics' MEMS development and manufacturing capabilities in North America.  Tronics aims to utilize the full control of its manufacturing assets to provide custom MEMS services tailored for healthcare applications such as diagnostic chips, microfluidics, lab-on-chips, and also suitable for chemical sensors, infrared sensors, and optical grating devices needed in the industrial field.

MEMS based scanning laser HUDs and LIDAR sensors for ADAS applications

As advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications continue to evolve and become more complex, there is an increased need for effective methods to present the safety alerts and other important information to the driver.  Head-up displays (HUDs) is an emerging solution for consolidating ADAS data into one centralized screen that allows the driver to keep the eyes on the road, while viewing alerts and warnings that appear on the windshield at the same time.  MEMS technology plays a central role in one type of emerging HUDs, which uses laser beam scanning (LBS) technology.  We spoke with Jari Honkanen, Director of Technical Marketing and Applications Development at MicroVision, to learn more and get the latest developments.

MEMS manufacturing: Materion acquires Heraeus Target Materials for $30 million

Materion Corporation  announced this week that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of the target materials business of the Heraeus Group, of Hanau, Germany, for approximately $30 million.  The acquisition strengthens Materion's position in precious and non-precious target materials for MEMS, photovoltaic, display and semiconductor markets.  The business, now operating within the Materion Advanced Materials business segment in Buffalo, New York is expected to generate approximately $50 to $60 million in new value-added sales on an annualized basis and be accretive to 2017 earnings.  Materion Advanced Materials reported value-added sales of $176.3 million in 2016.

MEMS manufacturing: ULVAC Technologies increasing market penetration with plasma ashing system

ULVAC Technologies, a supplier of production systems, instrumentation, and vacuum pumps for technology industries has been selected by a global MEMS inertial sensor manufacturer to deliver an ULVAC ENVIRO-1Xa advanced plasma ashing system for running critical low-temp descum processes and high-temp bulk photoresist strip processes.  These steps are crucial for the manufacturing of high-performance accelerometers and gyroscopes used in consumer, automotive, health and fitness, and industrial applications.

MIPI Alliance releases I3C interface specification for more seamless sensors system integration

The proliferation of sensors in mobile devices requires an increasing number of logic pins for sensor communication and control.  In a typical application, multiple digital communication interfaces (e.g. SPI, I²C, UART, and others) are used along with supporting logic signals for interrupt and sleep functionalities.  Top tier smartphones include 10 or more sensors, which are supported by 20 or more logic signals.  This takes up a lot of “real estate” and requires many dedicated pins.  The MIPI I3C interface is a new standard that improves on the features of the two-wire I²C, while maintaining backward compatibility.  MIPI’s new interface aims to standardize sensor communications by reducing the number of physical pins used in sensor system integration, and it supports low-power, high-speed communications.  We had an opportunity to speak with Ken Foust, who has been chairing the MIPI Alliance Sensor Working Group, and discussed the feedback from the sensors community to date, comparison to the other sensor interface standards, and next steps in the interface development roadmap.

Automotive sensors: emerging trends with security vulnerabilities and solutions

Connectivity is used to increase traffic safety and to provide motorists with infotainment content, but connectivity also creates vulnerability.  Increasingly connected vehicles are becoming targets for hackers that can access the vehicle’s electronic control units (ECUs), controller area network (CAN) bus systems, or even sensors through the cloud or other IT pathways.  This is causing very real concerns about cyber security in modern vehicles, and how to protect driver safety and privacy.  Irdeto is a security solutions provider for digital platforms and applications across multiple industries, including automotive.  Since its inception in 1969, Irdeto’s software security technology has protected over 5 billion connected devices and applications.  We spoke with Ben Gardiner, Principal Security Engineer at Irdeto and discussed the latest trends in automotive cyber security, and specifically focused our conversation on automotive sensors.

Optical image stabilization: comparison of MEMS and non-MEMS technologies

MEMS Drive is a fabless MEMS based actuator device maker focusing on optical image stabilization (OIS) technology for mobile devices.  The company raised $11 million in its series B round in October 2016, and is aiming to replace the currently dominant voice coil motor (VCM) technology with its MEMS based chip.  The company is planning to use the funds from the most recent financing round to expand capacity and team, and to further customize their actuator to fit a wider variety of image sensors and customer requirements.  MEMS Drive is already working with OPPO, a Chinese smartphone maker, which announced an image stabilization feature based MEMS Drive’s technology at the Mobile World Congress in 2016.  We recently spoke with the company’s CEO Colin Kwan about the technology trends in this market segment, competitive dynamics, and application requirements.

Biometric sensing in wearables: technology and application trends

Despite lower than expected sales, wearables continue to be a growing market segment.  Consumers spent over $2 billion on wearables in 2015 and are increasingly demanding better performance.  One emerging application area for wearables, accurate biometric sensing, is highly complex and requires sophisticated solutions to provide accurate measurements during regular use, as well as during high-intensity workouts.  The best performing solutions on the market are designed using a systems approach where both hardware and software are tightly integrated.  Valencell is one of the developers of biometric sensing module technology for wearable devices.  The company has raised a total of $24.5 million in venture funding to date, including $11 million in March of last year.  We spoke with Ryan Kraudel, VP of Marketing at Valencell, to get the latest trends for biometric sensing in wearables including emerging applications and competitive dynamics.

TDK to acquire MEMS maker InvenSense for $1.3 billion in cash

TDK Corporation and MEMS maker InvenSense entered into a definitive agreement this week with TDK agreeing to acquire all of the outstanding InvenSense shares for cash for a total acquisition price of $1.3 billion. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. Completion of the transaction is expected in second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018.  According to TDK, this acquisition promotes further growth in sensor and actuator products, which is an important part of the company's strategic growth plan.  The transaction brings together a more complete portfolio of sensor and software solutions spanning inertial, pressure, microphone, and ultrasonic sensor products from InvenSense, with TDK's existing pressure, temperature, electric current and various other sensors.  The acquisition will be completed through a merger of a newly created subsidiary of TDK with and into InvenSense, with InvenSense continuing following the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK.