> Peter Pfluger (right) / Brian Stephenson (left), CEO of Tronics Microsystems / COO of Tronics MEMS

Yole Développement recently met Peter Pfluger, CEO of Tronics Microsystems and Brian Stephenson, President and COO of Tronics MEMS, Inc. Yole took this opportunity to interview them to provide our readers with updates on Tronics strategy, organisation and offer. Tronics Microsystems manufactures and delivers unique MEMS components for unique customers. Its technical expertise and broad experience in MEMS manufacturing, packaging and testing allow the company to guide customers through the challenges of custom MEMS and microsystem development, from concept to production.

Peter, Tronics recently acquired a Medical Device design and development company and created a custom MEMS manufacturing company in the US, can you update us on Tronics strategy?

Our development in the US does not change Tronics’ strategy which remains focused on custom MEMS manufacturing. Tronics is now a global company with MEMS manufacturing operations in the US and in Europe and representation in Japan and China. MedTech Development, which acts as a separate division, allow us to propose additional development service to medical customers.

 

Does it change your business model?

Our expansion especially reinforces our positioning in the Medical and Life Sciences industries. Our extended manufacturing capacities also allow us to address larger volume applications. But overall we continue to collaborate with customers to transform their innovative concepts into differentiated components that are strategic for them.

 

So, how would you now characterize your offer ?

We provide our customers with a complete solution for custom MEMS components. From R&D prototyping to high volume manufacturing, we integrate into our customer's supply chain at whatever level is required. This means that we can deliver the solutions that meet our customers' needs, ranging from processed wafers to fully packaged, integrated MEMS components.

 

What competitive advantage does provide you with?

Well, I believe this provides us with advantages on both the production side and the technology side. On the production side, we are now one of the largest privately owned MEMS manufacturing companies and the only one to have two manufacturing operations. On the technology side, the addition of the US operations provides us with a very broad portfolio of manufacturing processes and assembly technologies that we feel gives us an extra advantage over our competition. With our global operations, we can offer our customers the technology, volume production capacity, scalability, and supply security they need.

 

What is now your total capacity and what wafer size do you handle?

The two sites represent an overall capacity of over 60,000 wafers per year. Both sites are equipped with 6” wafers and include assembly, packaging and test facilities. This capacity is scalable to customer demand.

 

What does it change for your customers?

As I said, we are now a global company. Our customers firstly get from us the local support they need for their project success. With our broader expertise and capability we can now also act as a one-stop-shop for their custom MEMS process and product development.

 

What expertise and capabilities are you refering to?

Well, our U.S. team brings to Tronics extensive experience in active Microfluidics and MEMS over CMOS. This complements the solutions and manufacturing know-how Tronics had on inertial and pressure sensors and on MEMS on SOI. Additionally the Dallas facility ads key process capabilities to our process technology portfolio. Some examples include poly deposition, steppers, glass frit bonding, and flip-chip bumping.

 

Do you now focus on the medical device market or do you still serve other domains?

Together with MedTech Development we are able to provide unrivalled services to our Medical customers. While Tronics provides MEMS components solutions, MedTech can support customers on the medical systems integration side. We nevertheless serve and will continue to serve customers for instrumentation, professional printing, transportation and high reliability applications.

 

What specific solutions do you provide to Medical Device customers?

The first thing we provide is a clear understanding of medical device manufacturing supply chain requirements and quality constraints. We therefore facilitate our customers’ product development and qualification and ensure the product traceability they need from design to manufacturing. In addition we also provide some product solutions such as a pressure sensor chipset and titanium packaging solutions for implantable pressure sensors. MedTech can then also assist our customers on their system development or on the MEMS system integration.

 

How is Tronics doing in this economic crisis?

As everyone we are seeing a slow down after years of growth. We have nevertheless just closed our second profitable fiscal year in a row. This puts us in a better position than others to face the downturn waiting for a better time. With our recent US expansion we are also better equipped and balanced geographically to serve customers globally. And our new strength in the medical domain will certainly be key in the coming years.