Virtus Advanced Sensors announces commercialization of MEMS sensor technology
To support the commercialization of its sensor technology, Virtus will establish its new U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh. Along with its current overseas office in Tokyo, Japan, the company will soon establish an office in Asia by the end of the year and hopes to have a European representative office by 2008. The U.S. based company is considering building a production facility for its 6-axis motion sensors due out by the end of 2008, but has not yet determined where that facility will be located.
"We are very excited about the growth of the inertial sensor market and the enabling role MEMS will play moving forward. We believe our patent portfolio and management strategy will help us to quickly build a strong competitive position in this fast growing market", said Louis Ross, co-founder, President & CEO of Virtus.
Mr. Ross added that Virtus will be enhancing that portfolio aggressively over the next several years through collaboration with partners in academia and industry for region-specific applications and markets. To help establish its office, the company is receiving financial, talent recruiting, and related business advisory support from The Technology Collaborative (TTC), a statewide economic development organization that supports the growth of Pennsylvania's robotics, cyber-security and digital technologies industries. Virtus hasrecently become a TTC member.
"We are thrilled to welcome Virtus Advanced Sensors as the newest member of The Technology Collaborative and regional high-tech community and are excited about the broad market applicability of their inertial sensorIP portfolio," said Mark Borger, VP of Business Development at TTC.
"Virtus represents both the technological strength and entrepreneurial spirit that has developed within our expanding cluster of companies in Pennsylvania".
Dr. Kazuhiro Okada, co-founder, inventor and acting Chief Technology Officer of Virtus, is "very excited about the prospects for developing a global business."
Mr. Okada is also the acting President of Wacoh Research,the first MEMS start-up company in Japan and is a noted pioneer in the field of MEMS inertial sensors. The Wacoh patent portfolio includes over 150 US, Japanese and European patents with 20 more patents pending. Wacoh is the largest licensor of multi-axis inertial sensor technology in Japan.
Currently, Virtus is developing 3-axis accelerometers and 3-axis accelerometer wireless units, 2 and 3-axis gyros, and 5 and 6-axis motion sensors, integrating both accelerometer and gyro components on one chip.
The company plans to begin the mass production of 3-axis accelerometers in 2007 and commercialize fully-integrated one-chip 6-axis motion sensors, consisting of a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyro sensor,in 2008.
According to Wicht Technology Consulting in Munich, the total market for MEMS inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) is set to grow from $835 million in 2004 to over $1.36 billion in 2009 a compound annual growth rate of 10%. This growth is expected due to the sharp increase in consumer electronics oriented applications which include next-generation cell phones, laptop computers and miniature hard disk drives (HDDs).
Along with the automotive industry, which has traditionally been the largest consumer of MEMS inertial sensors, other applications include next-generation medical devices, robotics, aerospace and defense.
