CMOSIS Gets New CEO, New Funding and New Office

I got this press release by mail and it's supposed to appear on CMOSIS site too. Since it's not there yet, I'm posting it below in full:

Antwerp, Belgium, 08 May 2009 -- CMOSIS NV has successfully concluded its second round of financing by raising € 1.11 m from present shareholders, new personnel and management. The new investment is earmarked for the ongoing development of new CMOS image sensor technologies and further business expansion. The second round of financing coincides with the appointment of Luc De Mey as CMOSIS CEO and President. Guy Meynants will become VP R&D.

“CMOSIS’s first 18 months of operation have confirmed to all of us that there are tremendous, still untapped, business opportunities for CMOS image sensors, especially in those areas that, until recently, were considered to be CCD strongholds", De Mey says. "We are convinced that CMOSIS, with its first-class seasoned management team, experienced engineering staff and exceptionally strong IP portfolio is well positioned to gain a significant share of future industrial and professional CMOS image sensor markets." In De Mey's view, it is obvious that recent progress of CMOS image sensor technology, especially in terms of dark current and noise performance, will cause conventional CCD technology to lose application areas and market share. "CMOSIS's focus will be on machine vision, medical , scientific and space applications."

Luc De Mey joins CMOSIS as a widely known industry expert and a veteran of the former FillFactory where he served, from 1999 until 2004, as CEO and President. After the acquisition of FillFactory by Cypress Semiconductor in August 2004, he stayed in charge of the Mechelen operation until leaving in October 2005. Luc De Mey holds an MS in Engineering and an MBA from FBS/Northwestern University, Chicago.

CMOSIS received its initial round of financing by its founders and by Capital-E, an early-stage venture fund focused on microelectronics start-ups in Europe. The CMOSIS technology portfolio is based upon crucial IP related to various advanced aspects of image sensors – among them high pixel counts at a high fill factor, high-speed functionality, large bit-depth of column ADCs, high
dynamic range, TDI (time-delay and integration) implementation in CMOS, very low noise pixel and readout circuits and novel rad-hard pixel concepts.

In June 2009 CMOSIS will move to an 800 m2 industrial facility in Antwerp, Belgium, where it operates development labs, device qualification and a 100 m2, Class 100, clean room for wafer and device production testing. The enlarged premises are to support the launch of a suite of standard machine-vision CMOS imagers as well as the manufacture of the company's first custom image sensor products. In addition to Andre Alaerts, who was recently appointed Director of Manufacturing, CMOSIS continues expanding its staff by hiring senior personnel for product qualification and manufacturing, as well as quality and customer support operations.

CMOSIS principals, besides Luc De Mey and Andre Alaerts, are Guy Meynants and Lou Hermans – all former FillFactory founders. Together they establish a team of image sensor experts with more than 50 person-years of highly significant experience in CMOS imaging technology. In March of 2009 the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT) granted to CMOSIS a substantial subsidy supporting its R&D activities that lead to the development of the new suite of standard image sensor products. The IWT is the only Flemish organization stimulating and supporting innovation.

About CMOSIS
CMOSIS is a pure-play supplier of standard off-the-shelf and application-specific CMOS image sensors for the industrial and professional market covering applications such as machine vision, scientific, medical, automatic data capture and space. CMOSIS was conceived as a fabless CMOS image sensor vendor providing in-house design, characterization and qualification facilities for research, development and volume production. CMOSIS currently employs 14 people and is headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium. More information: www.CMOSIS.com.

CMOSIS Media Contact:
Lou Hermans
Mobile: +32 478 299 758
E-mail: lou.hermans@cmosis.com