Overseas Trends

Overseas Mission from Micromachine Center / MEMS Industry Forum
Attends the MEMS Executive Congress and Visits Micro-Nano
Related Venture Firms in Silicon Valley
The MMC/MEMS Industry Forum dispatches overseas missions as one of its international interchange activities. At
the beginning of November, an overseas mission attended the MEMS Executive Congress that was held in Monterey,
California. The group also visited universities and companies in North America, particularly those in Silicon Valley in
the MEMS and nanotech fields, in order to conduct a survey of current trends. The following is an overview of theoverseas mission’s activities.
SDate:
November 2 (Sunday) - 9 (Sunday), 2008
SPurpose: To attend the MEMS Executive Congress in order to ascertain the latest trends in the MEMS field asviewed from a management standpoint and create a network of MEMS industry managers around theworld, and to use the time before and after the Congress to visit micro/nano related companies,universities and other institutions in Silicon Valley in order to conduct a survey of technical trends andforge business relationships.
SItinerary:
SParticipants:
November 2 (Sunday)Depart Japan; arrive San Francisco
Omron:
Sato, Takahashi
November 3 - 5 (afternoon) (Monday - Wednesday) Visit relevant organizations(Omron Silicon Valley)
November 5 (evening) - 7 (morning) (Wednesday - Friday)
Panasonic: Okamoto
Attend MIG MEMS Executive Congress
Lintec:NakataNovember 7 (Friday)
Visit relevant organizations
MMC:
AdachiNovember 8 (Saturday) Depart San Francisco
November 9 (Sunday)
Arrive Japan
Map showing North American locations visited

MEMS Executive Congress Dinnerat the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Overseas Mission at SiTime

SMEMS Executive Congress

The MEMS Executive Congress is an annual conference held by the MEMS Industry Group (MIG), a MEMS
Industry Forum overseas affiliate based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The conference is attended by executives ofMEMS-related firms from around the world.
This year, the MEMS Executive Congress was held at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa in Monterey, California. The
133 Congress attendees included four from Japan:- Mr. Sekiguchi of Omron Corporation, an MIG member firm;- Professor Esashi of Tohoku University (who also served as a panelist);- Mr. Okamoto of Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd., one of the participating companies making up the overseas mission; and- Mr. Adachi of the Micromachine Center.
The Congress program included the keynote addresses and panel discussions listed below. One of the mostnoteworthy features of the MEMS Executive Congress seems to be the long lunch and other break times, designed toencourage networking and the exchange of information among attendees.
Keynote Addresses■ Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOTs)
Roger Meike Sun Microsystems Laboratories■ Towards New Paradigms of Sensing, Computing and Communication
Tapani Ryhanen Nokia Research Center
Panel Discussions■ Panel 1 : Convergence of MEMS in Consumer Electronics and Mobile Communications■ Panel 2 : MEMS Inside: Enabling Low Power, Energy Monitoring and Conservation■ Panel 3 : Investments in MEMS Leading to Liquidity Events – A VC Perspective■ Panel 4 : MEMS Emerging Technology Outlook■ Panel 5 : MEMS Market Analysis
Next year’s MEMS Executive Congress will be held November 4 - 6 in Sonoma, California.
SCompany and university visits
The following is an overview of the locations visited in North America.
■Cavendish Kinetics: Venture firm specializing in the development of CMOS-compatible MEMS
The goal of Cavendish Kinetics is to provide memory, sensors and switches using a 100% CMOS-compatible process.
The basic technical concept is to control silicon-to-silicon adhesion and form cantilever structures by means of a CMOS-compatible process,creating memory, sensors and switches solely by changing the mask designs. The company has a business model under which it utilizes SVTC
technologies in a fabless manner and licenses its technology.

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■Kovio, Inc.: Venture firm specializing in nanoink and printed electronics
Kovio was founded in 2001 by Dr. Jacobson of the MIT Media Lab and has 51 employees. The company obtained USD $23.5 million in Series Dfunding; Japanese companies Yasuda Enterprise Development Co., Ltd., Mitsui Ventures, Panasonic Venture Group and Toppan Forms Co.haveinvested in the company. Kovio currently specializes in the development of silicon ink (synthesized using the wet method) and silicon ink printing
technologies used for manufacturing RF-ID tag transistor circuits. The smallest circuit width is 10 µm with mobility of 70 - 80. These circuits havegreater mobility and durability as compared to organic semiconductors.

■Nanochip, Inc.:

Venture firm specializing in cantilever memory development

This fabless startup company, founded in 1996, developed prototype devices based on a concept similar to the Millipede project at the IBM
research lab in Zurich. Nanochip has received funding since 2004. This company introduced the concept of creating memory through thecombination of three layers: a CAP wafer (with a pocket for storing a magnet), a Mover wafer and a CMOS wafer. An electromagnetic system withhigh drive force in the X and Y directions is used to enable displacement of +- 100 µm, and an electrostatic system was adopted due to the low
cantilever displacement of 0.4 µm.

■NanoGram Corporation:

Venture firm specializing in nanoparticle / nanoink and solar cell development

Founded in Silicon Valley in 1996, this venture firm has received funding of USD $68.7 million from Yasuda Enterprise Development Co., Ltd.,
Mitsui Ventures, Inc, Nagase & Co., Ltd., Tokyo Electron Limited and other companies. It has 85 employees and offices in Japan and South Korea.
A core technology of the company is a process through which a precursor is thermally decomposed using a laser beam and condensed intonanoparticles. Using this technology, NanoGram has generated numerous nanoparticles while maintaining control of particle size and composition.
Currently the company’s primary focus is on developing the technology to form multicrystal silicon foil (SilFoil) directly on substrates using thelaser reaction deposition method, with the aim of producing solar cells. As this method enables large-area film formation in a non-vacuum
environment, the cost is low as compared to conventional multicrystal silicon solar cells. Design of a 5 MW pilot line is currently underway.

■Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc.:

MEMS display development company

Qualcomm MEMS Technologies is a 100% subsidiary of Qualcomm, a company famous for its achievements in 3G CDMA technology. Qualcomm
MEMS Technologies develops and manufactures reflective “IMOD” displays that reflect ambient light and output specific wavelengths. The
principle is to use surface micromachining to form resonant structures that move individual pixels through electrostatic drive, using lightinterference to reflect RGB wavelength light to an external location. A black and white display product developed for use in Chinese cellularphones is being manufactured in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Development of a full color display for use as the display in MP3 music players is also
progressing, and the initial customers for this product have already been secured. As the device is a reflective one, the screen is easy to see even in
direct sunlight, and no backlight is required. Electrostatically driven hysteresis is used to maintain “off” status at low voltage, so power
consumption is much lower than that of a liquid crystal display. On the other hand, as the screen is dark in indoor locations, a front light is used toimprove visibility.

■Silicon Clocks, Inc.:

Venture firm specializing in Si resonator and MEMS/CMOS integration

Dr. Howe of Stanford University serves as chief scientist for this startup firm. A new CEO has been brought on board to oversee a shift in thebusiness model from the previous emphasis on silicon oscillator product development to the licensing of element IP (“MEMS on CMOS” integration
process, wafer-level vacuum sealing, resonator and other device design, and analog circuit design). Silicon Clocks is currently seeking licensees andhas shown great interest in Japanese firms. The company integrates MEMS resonators on CMOS using LPCVD polysilicon-germanium.

■Silicon Microstructures, Inc.:

MEMS development division (pressure sensors) of the German firm Elmos Semiconductor AG

Founded in 1991, this company has 90 employees and is a specialty manufacturer of piezoresistance type MEMS pressure sensors (10 mbar - 10bar). In 2001, it was acquired by and became a 100% subsidiary of the German firm Elmos Semiconductor AG (a manufacturer of automotiveASIC). Since 2004, Silicon Microstructures has manufactured pressure sensors on 6” lines for automotive use (TPMS, etc.) and for the medical care(blood pressure meters, etc.), industry and consumer markets. Its product line also includes absolute pressure sensors that utilize vacuum sealing.

■SiTime Corporation:

Venture capital firm specializing in Si resonator development

The aim of this company is to create new markets by replacing crystal oscillators with its Si resonators, utilizing their properties of compact size,
low cost, high reliability and CMOS compatibility. The 4” crystal oscillator achieved through joint research between Bosch and Stanford University
professor Tom Kenny were expanded to an 8” process in 2005 by SVTC Technologies in order to shift to mass production. In the latter half of 2006,
the achievements were transferred to Jazz Semiconductor, and a mass production system was put in place in 2007. This year, production of 2.5
million units was achieved. Future goals are to achieve a market shift from crystal oscillators amounting to JPY 1.7 trillion yen, and to develop newmarkets for these devices. The MEMS division has been consigned to Jazz Semiconductor and the CMOS divisions to TSMC, with packaging
conducted through fabrication in Malaysia and Thailand.

■SVTC Technologies, LLC:

8” CMOS/MEMS process development foundryIn the SVTC business model, ideas from users and concept models developed at the university laboratory level are brought in, and customers
dispatch engineers to conduct process development using SVTC facilities (in some cases, the customer provides the equipment needed for processdevelopment). In this way, the company serves as a bridge to mass production. Major benefits include the fact that customers are able to use theprocess recipes accumulated by SVTC and own 100% of the intellectual property relating to the processes they develop. Fabrication is conductedusing the R & D facility of Cypress Semiconductor, and facilities are currently being expanded. This year, SVTC acquired a company with a large
fabrication plant in Texas, and the company also has a third center of operations in south San Jose that is dedicated to the fabrication of solar cells.
Process development is conducted by users or by SVTC based on agreements with users. SVTC also conducts consulting relating to processdevelopment and provides engineering services to meet user needs.

■MEMS research by Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC), University of California at Berkeley
SCase studies of nanotech research at BSAC presented by Dr. Javey- Printable nanowire- Nanocolumn GaAs solar cell
- High-strength adhesion by means of nanowire with polymer coating

SAdvanced MEMS Inc. – Endoscope equipped with MEMS mirror
This startup firm, founded by a U. C. Berkeley post-doctorate researcher, is developing the technology to integrate an electrostaticallydriven MEMS mirror and laser light source at the tip of an endoscope in order to obtain images of areas beneath the surface of the skinusing the light coherence tomography method. Information contained in 2mm2 sectional slices are continually obtained at a resolution of
10µm, making it possible to quickly detect cancer cells that previously were difficult to discover through surface observations.

At the places we visited, the worsening economy resulting from the financial crisis has made it difficult to secure
venture capital, even in Silicon Valley. As a result, some companies were switching from cost-intensive productmanufacture and sale to a business model based on licensing, and some have even been forced to lay off some of theiremployees due to cash flow problems. Yet some companies were still doing well; for example, this year SiTime
shipped 2.5 million MEMS resonators.
With attendance at an international conference and visits to 10 different companies in the space of five days, theoverseas mission had a very busy schedule. However, the companies were located near one another in Silicon Valley,
where MEMS related companies and universities are concentrated, and the weather was good. As a result, the trip
was a resounding success, and the Micromachine Center would like to express its appreciation to those who
participated.
The MEMS Industry Forum plans to dispatch overseas missions in the future as well. If there are any particularregions or companies that you think it would be instructive to visit, please let us know.

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