(From left to right) Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Jessica Gomez, CEO Rogue Valley Microdevices. (Source: Rogue Valley Microdevices)
The winner of a CHIPS Act stimulus package flipped a house to start Rogue Valley Microdevices 21 years ago. Establishing the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) maker took grit, a two-year degree and a lot of determination, CEO Jessica Gomez told EE Times.
Two decades ago, Gomez and her husband took $180,000 from the sale of a house in California to start Rogue Valley.
“That money became our 20% equity, allowing us to leverage other financing through banks,” she told EE Times. “We also received a loan through our local economic-development district. The rest we funded with credit card debt. Something like $50,000.”
Fast forward to today. In July, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) and Rogue Valley signed a non-binding agreement to provide up to $6.7 million in direct funding under the CHIPS Act. The investment is aimed at supporting the company’s MEMS and sensor foundry in Palm Bay, Florida, nearly tripling Rogue Valley’s capacity.
The company is one of two MEMS foundries in the U.S. Though small by chip industry standards, Rogue Valley plays an outsized role in military and biomedical supply chains. The company expects to become the world’s first MEMS foundry to offer manufacturing capability on 300-millimeter wafers.
“Rogue Valley is one of the few remaining pure-play MEMS foundries in the U.S. and was the first MEMS company selected to receive CHIPS Act funding,” Tim Brosnihan, executive director of MEMS & Sensors at industry association SEMI, told EE Times. “I believe the company was chosen because they are viewed as a leading U.S. MEMS foundry, and the company’s expansion helps to ensure the U.S. has a robust MEMS supply chain.”
The MEMS market, worth $14.6 billion in 2023, is forecast to grow to $20 billion by 2029, according to researcher Yole Intelligence.
Atomica is the only other MEMS foundry in the U.S. Large tech companies like Bosch, Broadcom, STMicroelectronics, Qorvo and Texas Instruments make the tiny machines on chips as a sideline. Megatrends like national security, 5G and autonomous driving are growth drivers for MEMS.
Bad idea
Gomez says she and her husband did not realize that starting Rogue Valley was a bad idea until they got halfway through the startup process.
They had a very small cleanroom for thin-film deposition. Their first equipment included a wet bench, a furnace for oxide and low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) nitride, a semiconductor tool and some basic metrology equipment. The company provided thermal oxidation and LPCVD nitride services.
“We built and ran that facility with just the two of us for a couple of years before we could afford to hire anyone,” she said. “We took every bit of our revenue and reinvested it back into the company because at that time—this is back in the 2003-2004 timeframe—there wasn’t anyone investing in manufacturing, let alone MEMS manufacturing. Most fabs were being built overseas, in places like Taiwan.”
After four years, Rogue Valley started to make money.
“We were able to take a day off once in a while,” Gomez said. “Then, 2008 hit and that was a disaster. We ended up laying off almost everyone, including ourselves. It took four to six months to restructure our business model and adjust to the reality of that recession, but we were able to get back to cash positive pretty quickly.”
Rogue Valley today has 30 workers with an annual revenue of about $10 million. With the ramp of the new fab in Florida, revenues may reach as much as $50 million, Gomez said.
The Florida expansion will allow the company to upgrade its original 20-year-old facility in Medford, Oregon, which has been running at full capacity.
“There are a lot of things that I want to do in order to modernize the Medford facility, but I can’t because we can’t afford any planned downtime for upgrades,” she said. “Lead times are longer than they should be. Customers have been frustrated.”
About 20% of the company’s business is in aerospace and defense, 10% in biotech, 10% in telecommunications, and the rest in a variety of other markets, according to Gomez, who declines to name specific customers.
Standout
Gomez said being a standout in an industry dominated by men is an advantage.
“I was 26 when we started the company. People look at you like you have no idea what you’re doing. I can look back and say that they were accurate. Being different was also an advantage because people remember you. That can make it easier to connect with mentors and people who are willing to teach you and invest their time into helping you be successful, even if it’s by kicking your butt a little bit when you need it.”
Rogue Valley stands out as a company with women comprising five of the six people on the management team.
“Promoting gender balance has been challenging in our industry,” Gomez said. “Our universities are graduating more women in engineering fields now. The problem is that many women self-select out of engineering after a few years. We see women leaving engineering careers and not coming back.”
Unfortunately, many women still feel they must choose between engineering or starting a family, according to Gomez.
“Our plan is to add on-site childcare to our facility so that new parents can remain close to their children during those early years. I want them to have some of the same opportunities that I had. I brought both of my babies to work with me for the first three years.”
300-millimeter move
Rogue Valley expects its industry-leading shift to 300-mm wafers to help cut costs.
Metals like gold, platinum and silver used in the MEMS process can easily contaminate a dedicated CMOS foundry, limiting the number of manufacturers capable of working with the precious metals. Rogue Valley’s 300-mm MEMS foundry will provide a cost-effective option for wafer-level CMOS/MEMS integration, according to Gomez.
“Right now, if you wanted to add platinum or gold electrodes to a CMOS device manufactured on a 300-mm wafer, you would have to cut down the CMOS wafer to a 200-mm size before it could continue being processed by a MEMS foundry,” she said.
Gomez, who has a two-year degree from Suffolk County Community College in New York, does not aim to get a more advanced diploma even though she’s thought about it.
“I got appointed to a university board of trustees. When they first approached me to be on the board, I said, ‘Listen, you don’t want me. I don’t even have a real college degree.’ They were like, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ After that, I was ‘Okay, maybe it’s okay.’”
Gomez will speak at SEMI’s MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress (MSEC), from October 7-9 in Quebec, Canada.