"We called upon our experience and track record as an innovator in the frequency control market to find an answer to our customers' needs for scalability, reliability, programmability and low power," said Ed Grant, vice president North American products and operations, Vectron. "We are very familiar with the challenges of delivering a MEMS solution, and we believe that Discera is the answer for this space. These first products will enable us to expand our market presence in the high volume commercial and consumer electronics space. We look forward to working with Discera to offer additional products to serve our customers in the future."
The electronics industry has been waiting for a reliable, scalable, cost-effective alternative to quartz oscillators; Discera's MOS1 oscillator has successfully been qualified to stringent reliability tests, making it ready for volume production in 2Q07. The MOS1 oscillator family, announced today by Discera, generates frequencies between 1 to 125 MHz at 2ppm frequency increments for a high degree of flexibility in meeting customer needs. The product offers excellent temperature stability and very low power consumption and is packaged in a tiny industry standard IC package, providing a significant cost advantage over hermetically sealed packages used by quartz-based oscillators.
The jointly available product consists of a silicon MEMS resonator and an ASIC embedded within a conventional QFN package or ceramic package. The product is now available in production quantities and has been successfully tested in 25,000 centrifuge acceleration and 50G vibration operation with no measurable deviation.
"Vectron is a respected brand, known for its high precision and excellent quality in the timing space," said Venkat Bahl, Vice President, Discera, Inc. "By offering VMC2 as one of its products, we believe they have validated CMOS MEMS-based timing and helped open the door to a new era for electronics manufacturing. We look forward to working with them to accelerate the move from quartz to silicon in our target markets. The combination of Vectron's technology infrastructure and IP with our MEMS know-how and products will have a potent impact."
Discera demonstrated its technology as a plug-and-play direct replacement of quartz crystal in a camcorder device at Vectron's booth at the Electronica show this past November. This was the first MEMS demonstration in a consumer device. Key target applications for MEMS-based timing devices are DVD players, gaming consoles, set-top boxes, camcorders, PDAs and cameras. For more information please contact Discera or visit www.discera.com.
About Discera
Discera is a fabless analog semiconductor company that offers tiny, high performance silicon resonators for the frequency and timing control markets. These resonators act as the heartbeat or pulse for a variety of devices from consumer products such as cameras and MP3 players to specialized equipment for the military. The company's PureSilicon™ resonator technology is a fundamental building block that offers, according to Semico Research, "a better mousetrap" for creating fully integrated, low cost, small form factor wireline and wireless products, such as oscillators, filters, and RF components. Unlike crystal based oscillators, Discera's PureSilicon™ based CMOS oscillators can be integrated into other CMOS based circuits. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Discera is a privately held company with investments from Ardesta, Partech, 3i, and Qualcomm Ventures. More information is available at www.discera.com.
About Vectron
Vectron International is a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of frequency control, sensor, and hybrid product solutions. Vectron solves complex timing, filtering and sensor challenges by delivering customized solutions that speed time to market and offer low total cost of ownership. Vectron uses the very latest techniques in both bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) based designs from DC to microwave frequencies. Committed to the industry's highest quality service standard and complete satisfaction, Vectron International leverages its global footprint and 50 years of experience to help customers achieve competitive differentiation and improve their bottom line. Vectron International is headquartered in Hudson, NH, and has operating facilities and sales offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please call 1-88-VECTRON-1 or visit www.vectron.com.
Media Contacts for Discera:
Venkat Bahl
Discera, Inc.
408-432-8600 x228
Email Contact
Emilie Harris
Lois Paul & Partners
512-638-5321
Email Contact
Media Contacts for Vectron:
Bill Holbrook
(603) 578-3052
Email Contact
Jessica Ryan
(617) 587-2923
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