Silicon Laboratories Acquires Ireland CMOS Sensor Maker

To further expand its capabilities in CMOS based sensors, Austin, Texas-based Silicon Laboratories has acquired Ireland’s ChipSensors Ltd., a developer of CMOS sensors for detecting temperature, humidity and gases. ChipSensors’ technology complements Silicon Labs’ touch, proximity sensing and recently acquired MEMS technology with the purchase of Silicon Clocks.

Historically, sensors have been manufactured using specialized materials and manufacturing processes that demand external support circuitry and post-assembly calibration. ChipSensors’ proprietary, patented technology can enable the sensors, signal conditioning circuits and RF transceiver functions, together with the microcontroller and memory, to be integrated and calibrated in a single CMOS IC, said Silicon Labs. These highly integrated devices provide a cost-effective solution to precision sensing for high-volume applications, the supplier added.

“In addition to a strong alignment with Silicon Labs’ existing sensor-related R&D efforts, ChipSensors’ technology also offers synergy with our existing MCU and wireless products, targeting similar end market applications and therefore enabling more content per system and unique integration opportunities,” said Mark Downing, vice president of corporate strategy and business development for Silicon Laboratories (News - Alert), in a statement.

In another statement, Tim Cummins, CEO and founder of ChipSensors, commented, “Joining forces with Silicon Labs provides us with an exceptional opportunity to both collaborate with a team that has a reputation for the highest caliber mixed-signal engineering and potentially grow the design team in Ireland to take advantage of the strong local technical talent.”

According to the buyer, ChipSensors’ technology enables the surface of an IC to be used to sense temperature, humidity, andcertain gases. In this scheme, the technology uses low-k dielectric material as an insulator between metal interconnect. By selectively admitting or blocking ingress of the agent to be sensed, the dielectric constant of the material is changed, resulting in a capacitive sensor whose electrical characteristics is detected and measured accurately using on-chip circuitry.

Target (News - Alert) applications for the ChipSensors’ technology include thermostats, automotive climate control, printers, wireless sensor networks, security systems, gas leak detectors, white goods, and food and drug transportation.

In April, the company acquired Silicon Valley-based Silicon Clocks that pioneered the development of a MEMS process technology for the fabrication of MEMS resonators and other sensor structures directly on top of standard CMOS wafers.