Sand 9, Inc., a pioneer in precision MEMS timing products for wireless and wired applications, today announced that it has partnered with GLOBALFOUNDRIES to support high-volume manufacturing for Sand 9 products.
Representing a multi-billion dollar market opportunity, timing devices provide the ‘heartbeat’ for all electronic applications. Historically, this need has been met by quartz crystals. Sand 9’s micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) timing devices provide an alternative with performance and quality improvements over legacy quartz crystal solutions.
Sand 9 offers another major advantage over quartz crystals: integration. Unlike existing quartz crystal products, Sand 9’s more advanced piezoelectric MEMS products can be integrated with semiconductor component devices for applications such as mobile and consumer electronics. Conserving board space is a significant advantage in resource-constrained applications, and it differentiates the company from all other competitors.
“Partnering with GLOBALFOUNDRIES allows Sand 9 to meet heightened market demand for the highest-volume mobile applications, including handsets, tablets and other consumer electronics,” said Vince Graziani, CEO, Sand 9. “Our collaboration will ensure a stable, reliable supply chain for all of our customers in mobile as well as in wireline communications infrastructure, cellular base station, and test and measurement markets.”
“GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ partnership with Sand 9 is built on our complementary strength in the design and manufacturing of MEMS devices. For Sand 9, we have established a very cost-effective and novel MEMS process technology platform integrated with polysilicon through silicon vias (TSVs) for wafer level packaging,” said Raj Kumar, senior vice president for 200mm Business Unit & Fab 7, general manager, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore. “Sand 9 can leverage our strong foundation in MEMS manufacturing to realize fast and reliable ramp to production to meet the market demand for MEMS devices in consumer applications.”