A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, LLC, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) product development company, and Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd. (SPP)’s MEMS Infinity — which offers a full-service MEMS silicon wafer foundry —announced a strategic and technical alliance to expedite the commercialization of thin-film PZT MEMS chip technologies. PZT is a versatile piezoelectric material that is sought after for MEMS sensors or actuators serving high-growth applications such as True Wireless Stereo, automotive LiDAR, medical ultrasound imaging, AR/VR, haptics and other applications that require precise performance in a robust, ultra-miniaturized form factor.
“As a material that enables many types of emerging, performance-intensive MEMS devices, thin-film PZT is much in demand,” said Dr. Alissa M. Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of AMFitzgerald. “PZT, however, requires specific process tools and expertise that are not widespread. For companies trying to develop PZT MEMS technologies, it’s been especially difficult to access commercial-quality material during development stages, while wafer volumes are low. That’s a problem because using poorly controlled research-grade materials during prototyping really slows down product development. But that’s about to change. Our new alliance with MEMS Infinity will give our customers an integrated design-to-manufacture solution using high-quality PZT from day one.”
The AMFitzgerald-MEMS Infinity alliance meets a critical need in the MEMS industry ecosystem:
- Pairs AMFitzgerald’s expertise in MEMS development with MEMS Infinity’s aerospace-grade prototyping and manufacturing capability in PZT MEMS.
- Offers a seamless design-to-production experience for customers.
- Facilitates global access to MEMS Infinity’s thin-film PZT.
- Leverages proprietary data on thin-film PZT to improve accuracy of MEMS design and modeling, minimizing the need for design-build-test cycles and accelerating product development.
- Provides customers with foundry-specific MEMS design — which lowers barriers to access, decreases risk, shrinks overall development cost, and speeds the path to commercialization.
- “For decades, SPP has used production-proven processes of its high-quality PZT to produce MEMS inertial sensors for the most demanding applications,” said Mr. Masahiko Tanaka, managing executive officer, Sumitomo Precision Products. “To respond to increasing worldwide needs, our foundry expansion through MEMS Infinity broadens our manufacturing capability in PZT MEMS. Together with AMFitzgerald — our choice collaborator for PZT MEMS design and product development — we can deliver an exceptional solution for customer needs in growing markets.”
