Tessera adding MEMS auto focus to camera offerings

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Digital camera modules in smartphones are Siimpel Corp's (Arcadia, Calif.) target market for its ultra-small MEMS auto focus and shutter mechanism. Tessera Technologies Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) -- the long-time consumer electronics chip maker -- recently acquired Siimpel for $15 million in cash. The ten year old Siimpel had 42 employees and will bring over 65 patents and patent applications to Tessera.

Tessera already had several camera module chips for mobile handset makers, such as a no-moving-parts face recognition chip, a red-eye reduction chip, an optical zoom chip and an extended depth-of-focus (EDOF) chip along with wafer-scale integration of sensor and optics packaging. Siimpel adds to Tessera's repertoire of capabilities a new MEMS auto focus and shutter mechanism that can fit in a camera module as thin as six millimeters.

Siimpel's first reported design win for its first generation MEMS camera module was the Motorola MING A1600 cellular handset back in 2008. Siimpel now claims its second generation MEMS design combines low power actuation and precision motion control in a single silicon chip, thus eliminating the complexity of a separate actuator and enabling wafer level packaging of the actuation mechanism. Both auto focus and shutter capability are enabled in a camera module that is less than 8.5-11.5 millimeters squared and 6-8 millimeters thick.

Tessera hopes to leverage its extensive customer relationships to gain design wins for enhanced camera chips in traditional applications as well as emerging IP based imaging and optics systems.

"We believe that Siimpel's innovative MEMS technology addresses the next generation of camera module requirements, while keeping costs low by utilizing the existing supply chain and materials," said chairman and chief executive officer of Tessera, Henry Nothhaft.

Siimpel claims none of its moving parts will mechanically fatigue and the entire mechanism is capable of over a million cycles from infinity-to-close focusing followed by a shutter actuation with no degradation in performance.