Posted by info marketing on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 @ 10:35 AM
Industry leaders from across MEMS supply chain to provide insight on critical issues, enabling technologies and market demand for more intelligent sensor and control applications
CARY, North Carolina – October 18, 2011 – Coventor®, Inc., the leading supplier of software for developing micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), to participate in industry panel on “MEMS Sensor Fusion/Sensor Networks” at MEMS Executive Congress 2011, an annual executive forum promoting the commercialization of MEMS to be held November 2nd and 3rd in Monterey, California.
MEMS devices are being integrated with integrated circuits (ICs) in ever-increasing heterogeneous environments that combine data, software and processing from different sensors to enable complex embedded system applications. This trend in MEMS ‘sensor fusion’ and MEMS-enabled networks is becoming more relevant across a myriad of applications and markets, including healthcare, consumer, automotive and industrial.
Organized by the MEMS Industry Group (MIG), a distinguished panel of industry executives and technologists from Cougaar Software, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, INOVA Geophysical and Novatel Wireless will share their vision for the future of sensor fusion and the role that MEMS will play. Coventor’s President and CEO Michael Jamiolkowski will moderate the interactive discussion on critical business and technology issues affecting MEMS systems integration. Specifically, the expert panelists will speak to how companies can leverage sensor fusion while meeting aggressive product cost, power and performance goals; the role of software in enabling numerous MEMS devices in one package to create more ‘intelligent’ sensor networks and other sensing control applications; and the impact of sensor technology innovation on the information infrastructure and society of the future.
Sponsored by STMicroelectronics, the “MEMS Sensor Fusion/Sensor Networks” panel will take place on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 1:45 pm in the Cypress Ballroom of the Monterey Plaza Resort & Spa.
About MEMS Executive Congress
In its seventh year, MEMS Executive Congress is the executive conference that connects the MEMS supply chain with MEMS end-users. Through keynotes, panel discussions, and numerous networking opportunities, MEMS Executive Congress creates an intimate forum for decision-makers to grow the global MEMS market. For more information, please visit: www.memscongress.com.
About Coventor
Coventor, Inc. is the market leader in automated design solutions for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and virtual fabrication of MEMS and semiconductor devices. Coventor serves a worldwide customer base of integrated device manufacturers, fabless design houses, independent foundries, and R&D organizations that develop MEMS-based products for automotive, aerospace, industrial, defense, and consumer electronics applications, including smart phones, tablets, and gaming systems. Coventor’s software tools and expertise enable its customers to simulate and optimize MEMS device designs and fabrication processes before committing to time-consuming and costly build-and-test cycles. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina and has offices in California’s Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris, France. More information is available at http://www.coventor.com.
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Coventor is registered trademark of Coventor, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information, contact:
Mike Sottak
(408) 876 4418
mike@wiredislandpr.com
Posted by info marketing on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 @ 01:31 PM
Coventor recently participated in the COMS 2011, event, which was held right in our ‘backyard’ of Greensboro, North Carolina. COMS, which stands for Commercialization of Micro-Nano Systems, is an annual conference hosted by MANCEF (Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation). It draws experts and researchers from around the world, and this year there were 278 registered attendees from 17 countries.
A unique aspect of the COMS conference is that it focuses primarily on solutions, not just science and technology. It is a hands on, practical meeting to assist companies in bringing products to market. Topics presented included the latest information on technology transfer, manufacturing processes, facilities, infrastructure, investment, applications and markets, as well as regulatory issues, social implications, education and workforce development.
While a wide range of nano technologies were presented, MEMS were certainly an important part of the discussion at this year’s event. Coventor’s Jian Liu presented an overview of our work with the research organization imec on a SiGe MEMS process design kit for MEMS+IC design. This talk was well-received, and is typical of the information exchanged at COMS. Coventor has made great strides in the area of MEMS+IC design, as evidenced by our MEMS+ platform. (Coventor and imec will be hosting a training workshop on this SiGe MEMS platform in Leuven, Belgium on September 21-23.)
Coventor was pleased to be a part of this important event, especially as it showcased our headquarters’ region of North Carolina as one of the key thought leading areas in the field of nano technology and MEMS. Next year the 2012 event moves to Norway and we look forward to more insightful information on micro technology.
Posted by info marketing on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 10:16 AM
Strong growth in MEMS fuels demand for company’s robust design platform
CARY, North Carolina – March 30, 2011 – Coventor®, Inc., the leading supplier of software for developing micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), today announced it has expanded its reach in two key geographies with the opening of a new office in Italy, and a new distribution agreement in China. The expansion positions Coventor to leverage the continued growth of the MEMS market and meet the need for more sophisticated design solutions to address the challenges of developing MEMS-enabled products.
Sondra Di Sabatino, who has more 20 years experience in the CAE industry, will head up Coventor’s sales and business developments efforts for Southern Europe and Israel. The office complements the company’s existing operations in Paris. She joins Coventor from Ansoft, where she worked for 13 years and supported key accounts in the semiconductor, automotive and defense industries, as well as major national research organizations. She has also worked at MSC Software, a provider of tools for electro-mechanical design.
In China Coventor has signed an agreement with AONESOFT to develop and support its customer base in the central and southern regions of the country. The company, based in Wuhan, has 21 employees with deep technical and sales expertise and a strong track record with large commercial and academic enterprises in this area. AONESOFT has help expand software and hardware sales in this region for MSC Software, Tektronix, Agilent and Zuken and other leading companies.
“As MEMS devices become more complex and further integrated with traditional electronics systems, we have seen a strong demand for the type of design platform Coventor offers. Both Southern Europe, and including Israel, as well as central/southern China have a wide range of business opportunities for us to develop, with major semiconductor, consumer electronics automotive and defense companies present in those regions,” said Tom Flynn, Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Coventor. “Sondra has a long history working with important customers throughout the European market, and will be a valuable resource as we expand more aggressively into this area. AONESOFT is a valuable partner to help Coventor leverage the opportunities that exist there, and provides us with an excellent team of sales and support personnel to expand our footprint in this fast growing market. Both fit nicely into our global strategy to help address the toughest MEMS design challenges with a robust design platform.”
About Coventor
Coventor, Inc. is the market leader in automated design solutions for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and virtual fabrication of MEMS and semiconductor devices. Coventor serves a worldwide customer base of integrated device manufacturers, fabless design houses, independent foundries, and R&D organizations that develop MEMS-based products for automotive, aerospace, industrial, defense, and consumer electronics applications, including smart phones, tablets, and gaming systems. Coventor’s software tools and expertise enable its customers to simulate and optimize MEMS device designs and fabrication processes before committing to time-consuming and costly build-and-test cycles. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina and has offices in California’s Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris, France. More information is available at http://www.coventor.com.
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Coventor is a registered trademarks of Coventor, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information, contact:
Mike Sottak
(408) 876 4418
mike@wiredislandpr.com
Posted by info marketing on Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 12:49 PM
We are pleased to announce that the 2011 version of Semulator3D is now available to customers. The production proven tool, used by some of the world’s leading IC and MEMS manufacturers, such as IBM, Imec and Infineon, offers a host of new features that improve productivity and team collaboration for modeling new manufacturing processes. Plus, the new version delivers a significant boost in performance thanks to optimized algorithms that speed modeling of the most compute-intensive tasks.
Highlights include
- 3X performance increase in model building time
- New mesh generation capabilities for more accurate simulations
- New SEMulator3D Reader for improved model sharing and team communications
Reducing the number of wafer spins can save your company millions in actual costs, plus shave weeks off your development cycles. By using the efficiency and accuracy of virtual fabrication, you can have a significant impact on the success of your next IC or MEMS device.
If you are involved in process development for semiconductors or MEMS, you’ll want to see for yourself the benefits that customers like IMEC and Infineon are already getting from SEMulator3D’s virtual fabrication capabilities. If you are not already a customer, send us an email and we will arrange for a demonstration.
If you are an existing SEMulator3D customer, you will need a new SEMulator3D+ license file to run SEMulator3D 2011. Within the next 5-7 business days you will receive a new license file by e-mail. If you do not receive it, please send an email to license@coventor.com with your name, company name, phone number.
SEMulator3D 2011 can be downloaded from our software download center, click here. Please use your login and password to access the files. If you do not have a login or forgot your password, please contact license@coventor.com.
Posted by info marketing on Thu, Feb 10, 2011 @ 09:42 AM
Coventor has just released MEMS+ 2.1 for MATLAB Simulink and Cadence. MEMS+ 2.1 is a full update of MEMS+ 2.0 that includes a new MATLAB scripting interface. The new MATLAB scripting interface makes it possible to run simulations on a MEMS+ design directly from MATLAB, without involving Simulink. If you are a current MEMS+ customer you can download MEMS+ 2.1 from http://www.coventor.com/mems/download.html.
It is not necessary to uninstall or install MEMS+ 2.0 before installing this update. Coventor strongly advises all customer sites to install this update.
Posted by info marketing on Fri, Feb 04, 2011 @ 12:12 PM
The MEMS 2011 conference in Cancun last week continued the conference’s excellent tradition of bringing together thought leaders in MEMS, and showcasing some of the latest research and developments across all aspects of MEMS.
For Coventor, it’s a great opportunity to get a first-hand look at where the future of our industry is heading. The information we see and hear is an important influence on how we shape our next generation design tools and solutions. The organizers reported that this year's conference had over 800 papers submitted from which they selected about 40 for presentation and 300 for posters. The number of papers submitted reflects the diversity of applications in MEMS, as well as a steady overall growth trend in this area.
The presented papers tend to be about cutting edge research and first-time accomplishments, that are generally far from commercialization. A large percentage of the papers are about new ways of fabricating MEMS and NEMS (nano-electro-mechanical systems), some with composites of carbon nano tubes (CNT) and conventional MEMS materials. The posters are bit closer to commercial reality and implementation, and there were many that caught our attention.
Here’s quick summary of some of the more interesting topics presented, with an emphasis on those with the most potential near-term commercial impact:
- A paper and a poster out of Prof. Andrei Shkel’s group at U.C. Irvine on a new way to do angular rate and absolute angle sensing, using frequency modulation (FM) of the Coriolis force instead of conventional amplitude modulation (AM). This looks to be truly seminal work that could dramatically improve the accuracy of MEMS motion sensors.
- Two efforts used a combination of electrostatic and piezo-electric effects to create high-frequency resonators. Most resonators to date use either capacitance OR piezoelectric effects for energy transduction, but not both. Pure capacitive resonators have significantly lower power transmission than piezo devices, but are able to attain higher Q. Hence there are efforts to combined both effects to get higher power transmission AND high Q. Work by Prof. Clark Nguyen's group at U.C. Berkeley shows that high Q can be attained with an air gap (capacitance) between the electrodes and piezo material.
- An early effort by U. C. Davis to build a 3-axis compass using ST's THELMA process and relying on Lorentz force for sensing instead of Hall effect. Relative to Hall effect sensors, this approach promises much lower power consumption and the possibility of fabricating a compass on the same die as motion sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes). No magnetic material required.
Posted by info marketing on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 @ 07:59 PM
Bringing MEMS to the mainstream through more efficient design techniques and manufacturing processes
Leuven, Belgium – February 1, 2011 – Coventor (www.coventor.com), the leading supplier of design technology for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and the nanoelectronics research center imec (www.imec.be), today announced a strategic partnership to improve and expand the use of advanced design and manufacturing techniques for the development of CMOS integrated MEMS. The partnership includes strategic alignment on R&D roadmaps and collaboration on advanced research topics.Teams of imec and Coventor will collaborate on expanding imec’s use of Coventor’s software tools suite for MEMS + IC design. They will jointly develop process design kits (PDKs) for imec’s SiGe MEMS-above-IC process.
Building on both organizations’ success with MEMS design and manufacturing, the partnership aims at developing solutions to make MEMS more accessible to both MEMS and IC designers. Process design kits (PDKs) will be developed to improve the efficiency of this MEMS-IC co-design. The kits will target imec’s SiGe MEMS technology that uses a MEMS-last approach, where the MEMS are processed after and on top of the CMOS circuits, enabling a monolithic integration of MEMS devices with the driving and readout electronics on the same die. The SiGe MEMS platform’s flexible and modular approach also allows application-specific tuning and optimization of MEMS layer thicknesses and properties, and the processing of optional functional layers on top of the MEMS devices.
The partnership will leverage Coventor’s background in developing the necessary infrastructure for MEMS design environments. Coventor’s design tools have been production proven on hundreds of MEMS designs over the past 15 years. Recently, Coventor introduced a new product line, MEMS+®, aimed at integrating MEMS design with mainstream IC design environments. And imec has an innovative SiGe MEMS process that allows monolithic integration on top of standard CMOS.
“More and more product developers from a wide range of industries look to integrate MEMS because of their powerful capabilities. Imec is well-positioned to address this market through its CMORE initiative which seeks to expand the scaling of CMOS micro- and nano-devices by adding functions other than logic and memory to chips,” said Rudi Cartuyvels, Vice President Process Technology at imec. “By partnering with Coventor, we gain access to years of production experience and technology for MEMS design, and a breadth of expertise in developing a larger ecosystem for MEMS developers.”
“Coventor’s strategy revolves around the ‘democratization’ of MEMS, which is about eliminating the obstacles and challenges in the way of more widespread adoption of these devices. By applying the talent and resources of one of the world’s most prestigious semiconductor research institutes, our partnership with imec will help do that. Together we can develop more efficient and practical approaches to MEMS development that meet the demanding requirements of markets and applications that have yet to leverage the vast potential of MEMS,” said Mike Jamiolkowski, CEO of Coventor.
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About imec
Imec performs world-leading research in nanoelectronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,750 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2009, imec’s revenue (P&L) was 275 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be.
Note: Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a “stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shangai) Co. Ltd.).
About Coventor
Coventor, Inc. is the market leader in automated design solutions for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Its software tool suite and expertise in MEMS address the challenges of optimizing performance and integrating MEMS devices into a growing number of products – from smart phones to video games to home entertainment systems. With Coventor, MEMS designers can optimize the mechanical performance of the device and pass parameterized models, including non-linear and mechanical effects, directly to their counterparts doing IC and System design in Cadence Virtuoso™ and Matlab Simulink™. Using this novel approach, MEMS teams can now bring best in class design ideas together with critical process effects and system considerations upfront in the design process. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina and has offices in San Mateo, Calif., Cambridge, Mass, and Paris. More information is available at http://www.coventor.com.
For more information:
imec: Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile: +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be
Coventor: Mike Sottak, T: +1 408 876-4418, Mobile +1 650 248 9697. mike@wiredislandpr.com
Posted by info marketing on Wed, Dec 15, 2010 @ 03:00 PM
Each year the best minds in the MEMS industry meet up at the IEEE MEMS Conference. Held every January, it’s a great chance to see and hear about the latest developments in our industry
The 24th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2011) will be held in Cancun, Mexico from January 23-27.
If you are involved with MEMS development, you’ll want to hear first-hand about important advancements in critical design areas such as:
- Design, simulation and analysis tools
- Fabrication technologies and processes
- Silicon and non-silicon materials
- Electro-mechanical integration techniques
- Assembly and packaging approaches
- Metrology and operational evaluation techniques
- System architecture
Plus, Coventor will have its latest 3D design and analysis solutions on display, including:
MEMS+™ (Version 2.0) – A full-featured design platform for integrating MEMS +IC, featuring tight connections and common modeling capabilities with popular IC and systems design tools like Cadence Virtutoso™ and MATLAB™/Simulink™
SEMulator3D™ – the newest release of our 3D Virtual Fabrication solution saves time and cost in developing advanced manufacturing processes, with its efficient process emulation capabilities
CoventorWare™ – the industry’s most widely-used MEMS design suite, a robust set of 3D simulation, modeling and analysis tools – plus a production proven model library – to reduce development time for a complete range of MEMS applications, from gyros to resonators, and accelerometers to micro mirrors.
Plan on joining us in Cancun, Mexico for an informative experience that will keep you at the forefront to MEMS development.
To register for MEMS 2011, click here.
Posted by info marketing on Fri, Nov 19, 2010 @ 01:29 PM
BOSTON, Mass – Coventor recently hosted the second of two symposiums (the first in Dallas, this one in Boston) on the topic of MEMS+IC design. Interested engineers came to hear about the challenges and possible solutions to integrating MEMS in the mainstream IC design flow.
We demonstrated the benefits of the latest release of our MEMS+ platform, which enables MEMS modeling and simulation to be integrated with popular EDA tools from Cadence and MathWorks. The new release, 2.0, is getting a lot of attention, particularly for its ability to connect in system-level design technique with MathLab and Simulink.
But it wasn’t just us doing the talking. A representative from Analog Devices gave a presentation on that company’s use of Coventor’s software to help reduce development time and effort in recent projects. It’s always helpful for engineers to hear such things from their peers and we are grateful for Steve Bart’s (PhD.) participation in this event.
Dr. Alissa Fitzgerald, a well known MEMS expert, also gave a talk at the Boston event. Dr Fitzgerald runs a consulting firm called AMFitzgerald and Associates which has a long track record of helping companies address their MEMs development challenges and make them more productive in how they go about the design process. She has deep knowledge in critical areas MEMS design, including design optimization using simulation, and we are happy she could share some of that experience and insight with us.
Her presentation, which you can download here , was a nice overview of the MEMS industry, and talked about the challenge and importance of integrating with EDA flows. Of particular interest was the section of the presentation on the value of MEMS modeling and simulation. She estimated that a single MEMS design-fab-test cycle can cost up to $114,000 and take 9 weeks in a typical development process. Traditionally, MEMS developers go through several of these costly iterations to get their devices to work correctly.
Her point was that with a relatively small investment in simulation and modeling technology, and a trained engineer to focus on this step, companies can saves hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of development time. This is especially important as MEMS become more widely used in consumer electronics, for example, which have unforgiving schedules and time to market pressures.
Dr. Fitzgerald spent a good bit of time talking about the importance of simulation and the various ways it can be used to reduce design time and improve overall predictability of the manufacturing process. She also echoed our call for more cooperation between MEMS developers, EDA suppliers, and manufacturing companies so we can build a more efficient ecosystem to enable MEMS+IC design.
She left the attendees with a very poignant and useful thought: The fab is expensive, simulation is not. Well said and very true as we move the industry away from the traditional methods of developing MEMs and toward much more efficient and time-saving methodologies enabled by solutions like our MEMS+ platform.
Posted by Info Marketing on Mon, Nov 01, 2010 @ 03:19 AM
Coventor, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has named Tom Flynn to the position of vice president, sales and business development. Flynn will oversee the company’s continued growth into new markets and application areas as it builds on its MEMS for the Mainstream strategy to enable the proliferation of more MEMS-enabled electronic products.
Flynn joins Coventor following a 19-year career with Ansoft, Inc., where he helped lead the company’s transformation from a supplier of electromagnetic software to the market leader in simulation software for high performance electronic design. For the last ten years he served as that company’s vice president of sales and oversaw compound annual revenue growth of 16% in that period, to $108 million in 2009, and contributed to an increase in market capitalization from $50 million to $832 million. He played a key role in opening the Asia market for Ansoft, growing it to represent 45% of total revenue contribution, and was a top executive during the company’s initial public offering. For the last three years he served as a corporate officer for the company. Prior to joining Ansoft, Flynn worked in various sales roles for Gould Electronics, GenRad, and IBM. He received his Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts with a concentration in Microwave Engineering and Computer Aided Design.
In his new role he will manage Coventor’s global sales and field support operations from the company’s Silicon Valley office.
“The MEMS industry is at a pivotal point as more product developers look to the potential of MEMS to differentiate their products and enable new innovations. This requires fundamental changes in how MEMS are developed and Coventor is well positioned to address the significant growth opportunities that exist. Tom is a proven sales and business development executive with experience in similar market transformations. As he demonstrated with Ansoft in driving its global expansion, he will be an integral part of our growth strategy,” said Mike Jamiolkowski, CEO of Coventor. “His experience, business relationships, and team building skills will all be valuable assets as we take Coventor to the next level of market penetration worldwide.”
Coventor just released the newest version of its MEMS+ product suite, which anchors the company’s strategy for bringing MEMS to the mainstream. The strategy focuses on removing the traditional barriers to developing and integrating MEMS – time, cost, complexity – particularly for traditional IC designers not familiar with the nuances of MEMS. In addition to the MEMS+ platform itself, Coventor is working to enable a complete ecosystem for MEMS development through collaboration with foundries, complementary tool suppliers, IP and library developers, as well as fabless IC companies looking to leverage the MEMS opportunity.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining Coventor, not just because of the progress it has made with its products and ecosystem development model, but because MEMS in general are poised for tremendous growth. I am looking forward to helping build on the excellent foundation in place and expand the company’s reach into a wide range of dynamic markets,” said Flynn.