Microvision establishes first global R&D center in ... - I-Micronews

MAY 2011 issue n°112
THE DISRUPTIVE SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGIES MAGAZINE
MEMS
Microvision establishes first global R&D center in Singapore
From page 1
By collaborating with NTU, MicroVision aims
to leverage the university's strength and
expertise in Engineering, Microelectronics
and Materials Science to conduct joint research and
development with faculty and students.
MicroVision's dedicated R&D center includes a
customized laboratory at NTU's Innovation Centre.
The company will work directly with NTU's School of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the
Division of Physics and Applied Physics.
NTU has established strong industry partners
including Rolls-Royce, Robert Bosch, Thales, and
Toray. Like MicroVision, these leading companies
chose to set up research facilities at NTU, where they
collaboratively work with NTU faculty and students
to pursue their respective research interests.
www.microvision.com
DelfMEMS successfully delivered custom RF MEMS samples to NTT DOCOMO
DelfMEMS has provided arrays of custom MEMS ohmic switches to enable tunability into Radio-Frequency front-end
modules -FEM- for mobile applications.
Voltage, size, losses, isolation, ultra-fast
switching time and power handling will be
evaluated by the innovative telecom operator
according to the requested specifications until 6 GHz.
DelfMEMS is setting-up an open technology platform
to propose a new integrated micro-mechanical
building block that is based on a strong, totally new
IP portfolio that solves past issues of RF MEMS ohmic
switches. MEMS switch is considered as the optimum
RF switching technology that drastically decreases
power consumption and bill of material by minimizing
losses between the antenna and active devices of a
FEM.
www.delfmems.com
Lemoptix MEMS micromirrors replace galvanometer and rotating mirrors
Optical MEMS scanning micromirrors much smaller, much faster, much more robust and much less power
consuming than conventional optical scanning systems.
Lemoptix silicon-based, magnetically actuated
MEMS micromirror technologies are best in
class replacement solutions to traditional
galvanometer and rotating mirrors, bringing
outstanding performance and space reduction.
Responding to industry requests to significantly
reduce size, power consumption and increased
performance of micromirror devices, Lemoptix has
developed a bottom-up approach by using semiconductor-like
equipment to build micromirrors with
actuation based on magnetic and heat-dissipating
principles instead of gearings.
Lemoptix LSCAN laser scanning micromirrors are
integrated by OEM customers into a number of
immediately available applications like optical
spectrometers, laser range finders and microscopes,
enhancing performances and enabling the
development of smaller, higher resolution and lower
cost products. Lemoptix’ resonant and static
scanning micromirrors are designed to rotate and
deflect light and can be used in a myriad of optical
applications due to the unique combination of
performance and size.
www.optoiq.com
LSCAN-F series (Resonant) (Courtesy of Lemoptix)
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Okmetic increases SOI wafer production capacity in Vantaa and specifies
long-term financial objectives
Okmetic's board of directors has approved plans to increase the group's silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer production
capacity by extending the Vantaa plant.
The around 30 million euro investment includes
the plant extension and different kinds of
production equipment. This investment,
together with the on-going SOI equipment
investments, more than triples the Vantaa plant's
current SOI wafer production capacity. Along with the
growing production amounts, new equipment and
process development, improved productivity is being
aimed at. At the same time, improvement of SOI
wafers' performance continues in order to ensure
customers' competitiveness.
The investment will be carried out mainly in 2011-
2013. The building of the Vantaa plant extension will
start in autumn 2011. The surface area of the
extension is 2,420 m2, approximately a quarter of
which is for clean room facilities. The extension is
due to be complete in the end of 2012, after which it
will be taken into production use in stages, following
the growth of the market demand.
The aim is that the investment will be covered mainly
with cash flow from operations, and no need for
significant loan financing is foreseeable.
SOI wafers are used for demanding MEMS sensors
and HV applications whose markets have increased
year by year. It is estimated that the markets continue
to grow as automotive electronics, consumer
electronics as well as industrial process control
increase. Sensor applications increase especially in
consumer products such as smart phones, cameras,
game consoles and in other portable devices.
This newly made investment decision supports
Okmetic's long-term strategy and growth objectives,
strengthens company's market leadership as the
supplier of demanding sensor wafers and enables
increase of market share in SOI wafers.
www.reuters.com
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