The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced a preliminary memorandum of terms with Rogue Valley Microdevices for up to $6.7 million in proposed funding under the CHIPS and Science Act, supporting a new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensor foundry in Palm Bay, Florida.
The award is non-binding and proposes direct funding toward construction of a pure play MEMS and sensor foundry designed around 300mm wafers. It sits alongside state support: a $5 million loan from the Florida Department of Commerce and $3.2 million in other state incentives and grants. The project is expected to create more than 75 jobs in Florida, and the investment is estimated to nearly triple our manufacturing capacity.
As the first MEMS foundry to secure proposed CHIPS and Science Act funding, Rogue Valley Microdevices is deeply committed to the onshore manufacturing of advanced microelectronics.
Jessica Gomez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Why a pure play MEMS foundry
MEMS are microscale devices that combine electrical and mechanical components on a single substrate. They are what lets a semiconductor system sense and act on the physical world: pressure, motion, flow, chemistry, light. A pure play foundry builds them for other companies rather than for its own product line.
In its award documentation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology describes Rogue Valley Microdevices as one of the only U.S.-based pure play MEMS foundries, and notes that the company specializes in the high-mix, low-volume wafer and MEMS foundry services that matter to the defense industrial base and to the biomedical industry.
That profile is a large part of why the project drew federal support. High-mix, low-volume work is exactly what large-volume fabs are least suited to, and it is where a great deal of U.S. sensor and medical device development actually begins.
- Biomedical and life sciences. Diagnostics, lab-on-chip and implantable sensing.
- Aerospace and defense. Domestic, ITAR-registered supply for programs that require it.
- Industrial and environmental sensing. Pressure, gas and flow devices built at production repeatability.
About Rogue Valley Microdevices
Rogue Valley Microdevices is a U.S.-based MEMS and thin-film foundry founded in 2003 in Medford, Oregon by Jessica Gomez and Patrick Kayatta. The company processes customer-supplied wafers from prototype through pilot and mid-volume production, and is registered under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Its Medford fab runs 100mm through 200mm wafers in a Class 100 cleanroom. The second fab, in Palm Bay, Florida, will add 200mm and 300mm capacity as it comes online.
Learn more about our MEMS foundry and wafer services, or request a quote.