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Next big applications for MEMS and sensors: robotics, wellness, and smart factories

In this detailed interview, Dr. Peter Hartwell, Senior Director of Advanced Technology at InvenSense, discusses current MEMS and sensors technology trends. He also highlights emerging applications such as personal robotics, health and wellness, and smart manufacturing. Dr. Hartwell discusses some of the most interesting MEMS and sensors companies that he has seen recently, and he also comments on the applications of MEMS and sensors in ADAS and autonomous vehicles applications.  Peter also reviews the history of InvenSense and its planned future roadmap, now as part of TDK.  And we discuss the main challenges of integrating sensors in IoT applications.

Lam Research acquires MEMS software company Coventor for $137.6 million

In August of 2017, Lam Research completed the acquisition of Coventor, a MEMS modeling and simulation software company, for a total purchase consideration of $137.6 million. When asked about how Coventor fits into Lam’s portfolio, the company’s Executive VP and CFO Douglas Bettinger said that, potentially, there are benefits and synergies with Coventor’s software capability to model and simulate the actual output of Lam’s equipment. We recently spoke with Stephen Breit, Coventor’s Sr. Director of MEMS, and discussed the trends that he is seeing in the MEMS marketplace. Since Coventor works with many MEMS companies, we also asked Stephen about the notable startups and technologies.

Medical MEMS: Biolinq raises $10 million for painless blood glucose sensors

Biolinq announced this week the close of a $10 million Series A financing led by M Ventures, in collaboration with Hikma Ventures. Biolinq is a digital health company with a unique, wirelessly-enabled biosensor patch that is capable of continuously monitoring multiple biomarkers. Grey Sky Venture Partners, Three Leaf Ventures, LifeSci Venture Partners and a group of high-net-worth individuals specialized in the diabetes field are also contributing to the round. Biolinq's first commercial product, a unique minimally-invasive technology, will allow patients with diabetes to continuously monitor their blood glucose without the pain and hassle of traditional continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems.

MEMS foundry Novati acquired by Skorpios Technologies

Skorpios Technologies, a system on chip (SoC) specialist, announced this week that it has acquired Novati Technologies, a semiconductor and MEMS integration company whose fab is located in Austin, Texas.  The acquisition closed this week for an undisclosed amount.  This acquisition gives Skorpios the ability to better meet growing customer demand via vertical integration of its proprietary heterogeneous integration process by increasing volume throughput and allowing control of its critical supply chain.  Skorpios said that it expects to now have decreased fab cycle times by providing access to focused production lines in the foundry.  As a result, the company expects to have a faster time to market as well expediting development of new products, resulting in accelerated revenue realization.

Nanusens raises $2.1 million to develop NEMS devices in CMOS process

The company's NEMS based sensors are made using standard CMOS processes and mask techniques. In the Nanusens process, the inter metal dielectric (IMD) is etched away through the pad openings in the passivation layer using vapor HF (vHF) to create the nano-sensor structures. The holes are then sealed and the chip packaged as necessary. Because only standard CMOS processes are used, and the sensors can be directly integrated with active circuitry as required, the sensors can potentially have high yields similar to CMOS devices.  Nanusens claims that its process also results in nano-scale devices that overcome a major problem of MEMS inertial sensors, stiction, by two orders of magnitude by reducing the sensor size by an order of magnitude into the nano-realm.  We recently spoke with Josep Montanyà i Silvestre, the CEO of Nanusens.

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.