Startup Gets $13 Million to Increase Scalable MEMS Fabrication
Article written by Nitin Dahad for EE Times
Omnitron Sensors, a startup based in Los Angeles, Calif.,announced today it has secured a $13 million series A funding round, which it will use to accelerate mass production of its first product: MEMS step-scanning mirror for multiple markets.
Speaking to EE Times in a briefing this week, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Eric Aguilar, said the MEMS industry has been frustrated by a lack of innovation when it comes to repeatable, reliable and scalable manufacturing processes for MEMS sensors and MEMS mirrors. He and his co-founder Trent Huang, who had previously worked at Lumedyne Technologies and then Google after it was acquired, came together in 2019 to develop a scalable manufacturing process for MEMS devices.
In doing so, they formed Omnitron Sensors and developed their own process, which they now offer to customers as fabrication IP, as well as offering their own MEMS sensors. The company said that production of MEMS sensors has typically been limited by expensive, laborious manufacturing methods for decades. Omnitron’s fabrication IP will hence address the need for mass MEMS device deployment in optical cross-connects in AI data centers, optical subsystems in long-range LiDAR for autonomous navigation, see-through displays in extended reality (XR) headsets and eyewear, and precision laser spectrometry for methane gas detection.
The company’s MEMS mirror is sampling at the moment, with its 3D step-scanning mirror said to meet the specs of frequency modulated continuous waveform LiDAR. Aguilar said they are expecting to get their first wafers from the Silex Microsystems fab soon, and that Omnitron has three letters of intent (LOI) already from customers: two for automotive LiDAR and the third for methane gas sensing.
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In his prepared statement along with today’s announcement, Aguilar said, “MEMS sensors are the intelligent microscale devices that allow us to touch the world through silicon. Yet old and inefficient manufacturing methods have prevented the kind of growth in MEMS that is typical in semiconductors. That’s about to change. Our MEMS fabrication IP offers a new paradigm for mass-producing affordable, precise sensors at scale. With major investment from Corriente Capital and with additional funding from L’ATTITUDE Ventures, our company can now deliver on the promise of our technology.”
He added in his briefing with EE Times that the company will also use the money to expand its engineering team. At present, the company has 12 people, and he is hoping to increase this to 25 people during this year. In response to a question about when we will see the first products in production with customers, he said that the company would deliver to the first three with whom they have LOIs within the next 18-24 months.
You can watch more in this video interview with Aguilar, in which he shows Omnitron’s first sensor, and talks about the background to the company’s formation and some of the market challenges they are addressing.
Watch the video interview below:
The MEMS sensor market for Omnitron
Omnitron is targeting three key markets with its MEMS sensor technology:
- AI data centers: Improving throughput and energy efficiency with its MEMS-based photonics OXC for tensor architectures, which boosts transmission speed and reliability in a low-power device, enhancing AI workflow in data centers. According to New Street Research, this market will approach $30 billion in 2027.
- LiDAR: Advancing affordability and reliability of LiDAR in AVs, with its MEMS step-scanning mirror targeting overall LiDAR subsystems market predicted to reach $6.3 billion by 2027, according to Yole Intelligence.
- Resource-constrained XR headsets/eyewear: Omnitron said its MEMS mirror satisfies growing demand for XR optics, a market that IDTechEx expects will exceed $5 billion by 2034.
