X-FAB and Senodia bring MEMS gyroscopes to China

ERFURT, GERMANY & SHANGHAI, CHINA: X-FAB Silicon Foundries Group and Senodia Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd have concluded development and are ramping production of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gyroscopes for high-volume consumer applications.

X-FAB will serve as the front-end manufacturing partner, leveraging its open-platform inertial sensor process. Senodia will use sensor devices manufactured by X-FAB to produce single-axis and 3-axis gyroscopes. X-FAB, a leading pure-play MEMS foundry, offers a range of qualified open-platform MEMS process technologies covered by comprehensive design support. Senodia is the first commercial MEMS supplier to design and package gyroscopes in China. It recently raised its production capacity to more than 2.5 million MEMS gyroscope chips per month.

Single-axis MEMS gyroscopes can detect movement on one axis of rotation – yaw, pitch or roll – and more complex 3-axis gyroscopes can detect movement in all three. These gyroscopes are ideal for many high-volume applications such as mobile phones, tablet PCs, camcorders, gaming controllers, remote controls, digital cameras, electronic toys, and automotive and medical devices.

Bo Zou, chairman/CEO of Senodia said: “We chose to work with X-FAB because of its high-performance process technology that enables us to develop products very rapidly and cost-effectively for the market place. X-FAB’s open platform inertial sensor process was immediately available and ready to use for realizing our designs. With X-FAB’s experience as a high-volume MEMS foundry, and our expertise and commitment to help customers develop their MEMS gyroscope applications, we believe Senodia is at the forefront of serving the world’s ever-increasing market demand for MEMS gyroscopes in consumer electronics.”

X-FAB has provided a MEMS foundry service for more than 10 years and considers inertial MEMS a cornerstone for the company’s MEMS growth. X-FAB CEO, Rudi De Winter said: “Our goal is to provide fast and easy foundry access for our customers to develop and manufacture first-time-right products. We are very pleased to work with Senodia, which has turned the inertial MEMS technology platform in record time into a gyro product that meets market needs.”