Cavendish Kinetics, maker of tunable radio frequency micro-eletromechanical systems, has closed on $36 million in funding that it expects to use for advancing its technology a generation and developing RF switches for a more efficient, simplified RF front end that can support the numerous bands that make up modern cellular systems.
Paul Dal Santo, president and CEO of Cavendish, said the funding round “empowers us to go out and continue the progress we’ve already made.” Cavendish has been shipping tuners to commercial customers already, Dal Santo said, and will use the funds to develop a second generation of its RF MEMS tuners as well as develop RF MEMS switches and prepare them for commercialization. Cavendish focuses on high-volume RF MEMS production.
The company lays claim in particular to reliability – crucial for microscopic mechanical systems, which could potentially wear out or fail due to moving parts. Dal Santo said the company will continue to make that a priority as it builds its reputation for quality and consistency and works to broaden its market to larger OEMs. In January, the company announced that its RF MEMS tuners had passed 100 billion cycles in lifetime testing with zero failures – representing a “virtually unlimited lifetime,” as the company put it.
“We are not going to release the switches until we’re comfortable, and that will take several iterations, but we expect to be sampling by the first quarter of next year and we would expect to be in a commercialization position by the second half of next year,” Dal Santo said.
Cavendish completed a previous $7 million funding round in November of last year (its existing investors include Qualcomm Ventures), and has been focusing its efforts on smaller phone manufacturers and the Chinese market. Its RF MEMS components have been used in the ZTE’s Nubia Z7 and Z9 LTE smartphones for China Mobile.
Dal Santo said the company has been “very calculating” in its approach to the market thus far, pursuing early adopters with short-cycle times and low volume as the company makes sure that its quality levels are validated. He added that he expects the continued evolution of wireless technology to boost the use of tunable RF MEMS components going forward, both with tackling the complexity of LTE band support and looking forward to 5G. Tunability and low-loss components, he said, result in “a much more efficient front-end, lower power consumption and ultimately, much better radiated power.” For instance, if a user wraps his or her hand around a device in such a way that de-tunes the antenna, Cavendish’s parts can detect and re-tune accordingly, he said.
“The more configurable your phone is, the better it is going to be able to handle the evolution into 5G,” Dal Santo said.
TechNavio has predicted a compound annual growth rate for the overall RF MEMS market of nearly 17% between 2013 and 2018, adding that the technology is “expected to penetrate the 3G and the 4G mobile market, especially in the developing countries.”
According to the report, “increased usage of RF MEMS in smart devices is one of the major drivers of the market. Over the past few years, there has been unprecedented growth in the adoption of RF MEMS in smartphones. The demand is expected to grow as RF MEMS provide fast data transfer and enhanced network operations in smart devices. The cellphone manufactures are increasingly adopting the technology because of its size and compatibility, along with reduced cost per unit.”
Image: Mertsalov via 123RF
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Cavendish’s RF MEMS had surpassed 1 billion testing cycles successfully. The actual figure is 100 billion lifetime test cycles. RCR regrets the error.
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