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World’s Leading Crystal and MEMS Oscillator Vendors Bring New Era to Timing Market, Meet Customer Demands for Improved Scalability and Reliability and Low Power
SAN JOSE, Calif. – January 26, 2007
Discera, Inc, and Vectron International, a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of Frequency Control, Sensor, and Hybrid Product solutions, today announced the two companies are sampling MEMS based oscillators to customers. Vectron is sampling VMC2 (Discera’s MOS1) as a direct replacement for quartz crystal oscillator for high volume timing applications. Since announcing their collaboration this past November, the two companies have been working together to make these oscillators available to meet the needs of a market where quartz solutions have been pushed to the limits in terms of scalability, cost and processing. Separately today, Discera also announced they are sampling their MOS1 oscillator to customers. (See “Discera Ushers in Next Generation Device for $3.5B Timing Market”)
“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.
Media Contacts:
Venkat Bahl
Discera, Inc.
408-432-8600 x228
venkat@discera.com
Emilie Harris
Lois Paul & Partners
512-638-5321
emilie_harris@lpp.com
Media Contacts for Vectron:
Bill Holbrook
(603) 578-3052
bholbrook@vectron.com
Jessica Ryan
(617) 587-2923
jryan@brodeur.com
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