AUSTIN, Texas, April 28, 2010 - Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Nasdaq: SLAB) today announced the acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Silicon Clocks, an early stage company creating innovative microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. Silicon Clocks’ CMEMS™ (CMOS+MEMS) technology is aligned with Silicon Labs’ efforts to leverage its CMOS-based timing products into high-volume applications such as consumer electronics.
Silicon Clocks pioneered the development of a MEMS process technology that allows for the fabrication of MEMS resonators and other sensor structures directly on top of standard CMOS wafers. This approach will eliminate the need for boutique semiconductor processing and enables new levels of performance, integration, and size by eliminating the electrical parasitics and packaging issues associated with traditional solutions that co-package a standalone MEMS device and an IC.
“The Silicon Clocks team has created a very innovative MEMS technology that is designed to be compatible with standard CMOS mixed-signal ICs, enabling a new category of timing products that reduce system cost and optimize performance in a tiny footprint,” said Mark Downing, vice president of business development and corporate strategy for Silicon Laboratories. “In addition, we believe this is a strategic technology platform uniquely capable of integrating several different MEMS with their associated CMOS circuitry on the same monolithic die.”
Silicon Clocks will augment Silicon Labs’ R&D team and bring 20 key patents to the company.
About Silicon Clocks
Headquartered in Fremont, CA, Silicon Clocks was founded in 2006 to develop high performance semiconductor timing and sensor designs and its patented CMEMS™ technology. Silicon Clocks was backed by leading venture investors including Tallwood Venture Capital, Charles River Ventures, Formative Ventures, Lux Capital and Silicon Labs. For more information visit www.siliconclocks.com
About Silicon Laboratories Inc.
Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of highly-integrated, easy-to-use products offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. These patented solutions serve a broad set of markets and applications including consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive.
Headquartered in Austin, TX, Silicon Labs is a global enterprise with operations, sales and design activities worldwide. The company is committed to contributing to our customers’ success by recruiting the highest quality talent to create industry-changing innovations. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com
