A MEMS sensor start-up has located at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC) in Edinburgh.

Oligon is putting together a family of products that it calls Active ICs, bringing together MEMS transducer technology and CMOS processing electronics on a single integrated chip.

It has a proprietary process which allows the fabrication of MEMS transducers using CMOS techniques.

Oligon’s first product will be an audio IC, which will “provide chip level and package level silicon microphones with and without amplifiers and A/D conversion”, said the company.

The SMC has also released a report on its progress over the last five years. The SMC’s chairman, John Reekie, said he expected the organisation’s services to be in growing demand. Projects such as the centre for the development of micromachines, microsensors and nanotechnology being set up in Scotland will bring the SMC increasing work, he said.

Iain Hyslop, chief executive of the SMC, said planned growth at the centre will increase revenue from £330,000 currently to £1m by 2010. “It will be achieved through increased incubation activities, with a base of four companies resident in the centre and a turnover of one entering and one leaving per year,” he said.

The SMC is focused on the MEMS and microsystems market and provides start-up incubation space and equipment. It became profit-making in 2002 and in 2005 its pre-tax profit was around £25,000.

SMC
Oligon