Coventor Gets to Know MEMS Community in Israel

On Tuesday March 12, Coventor hosted an informational seminar in Caesarea, Israel with the help of local MEMS company, Maradin, who provided very generous assistance in organizing the event, helping us choose a venue and bringing together a sizable portion of the Israeli MEMS community.

It turns out that much of the current MEMS effort in Israel has its origin in a government sponsored program during the 2000-2004 timeframe. Since then, MEMS technology has taken on a life of its own. Representatives of all types of organizations were present, including a number of MEMS start-up companies with innovative new product concepts, semiconductor foundries, an ASIC design services firm, a packaging services firm, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM), and defense systems integrators. Not surprisingly, considering that Israel is a relatively small country, many of these firms have connections with each other already.

After socializing over a typical Israeli breakfast buffet, Adi Baram of Maradin welcomed the attendees and Oren Levy, a local MEMS expert, gave  an introduction to Israeli MEMS efforts. Oren used videos of various MEMS-based artificial flying insects to illustrate the exciting future of MEMS.  Oren is the organizer of a MEMS forum in Israeli that occasionally gathers to discuss topics of mutual interest. Sondra DiSabatino, Coventor’s EU Sales Manager, then spoke about the opportunities for the MEMS industry and gave a brief introduction to Coventor.  Following Sondra, Coventor’s V.P. of Engineering – Steve Breit – presented Coventor’s vision for MEMS design automation and outlined how Coventor’s tools address MEMS design and integration challenges.  Steve included a detailed case study of closed-loop accelerometer design and gyro design. Steve’s presentation was followed by two presentations by Coventor’s Applications Engineering Manager, Chris Welham. Chris’ presentation built on Steve’s, showing applications and demonstrations of applying Coventor’s tools to optical and RF MEMS. In between the presentations we had several breaks and lunch, which provided great opportunities for the attendees to trade experiences.

Many attendees said they were impressed with the extent of Coventor’s vision for MEMS design and the degree to which the software tools have advanced. More importantly, everyone appreciated the opportunity this event provided to gather the Israeli MEMS community in one place and exchange experiences and ideas. The event was a great way for Coventor to meet everyone, get our message out about MEMS design automation, and understand the interests of these organizations and their ties with outside parties, especially in Asia. We expect that this is just the beginning of a long, successful partnership between Coventor and the Israeli MEMS community.