Discera

Reinventing the Heartbeat

Smaller Is Better

Tom Willey scans the horizon of the multibillion dollar timing control market and likes what he sees. While quartz crystal currently supplies the heartbeat for nearly all electronic devices, Willey envisions his company’s resonator technology replacing those crystals.

“ Qualcomm has played an instrumental role in helping us develop our product roadmap and overall corporate strategy. ”

- Tom Willey

CEO of Discera

CEO of Discera, a semiconductor company offering micron-size, silicon-based resonators, Willey has reason to be confident.

In the ongoing trend toward miniaturization of devices, quartz crystal components can’t get much smaller. Discera offers a MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) solution that can.

Fundamental Building Block

Discera’s PureSilicon Resonator™ technology is a fundamental building block for creating next-generation electronic devices.

“Discera’s MEMS oscillators deliver significantly higher performance in a much smaller size and for much lower cost than quartz crystal,” explains Willey. “Depending on the application, you get higher performance for the same price point or the same performance for less cost.”

The technology can be used inside everything from cell phones, cameras, and MP3 players to specialized military equipment.

Long-Range Promise

Drawn to Discera’s industry-leading products, Qualcomm invested in the company in 2004.

Here’s why. Today if you open a Qualcomm-powered cell phone, you’ll see a quartz crystal alongside the Qualcomm chipset. Discera plans on bonding a MEMS oscillator to the chipset during packaging. The result? A single, embedded solution that costs less to produce and requires less space inside the phone.

Driving to Market

Qualcomm is helping Discera drive its products to market.

“Qualcomm’s strategic investment in Discera has brought us multiple layers of value,” notes Willey. “We look to Qualcomm as a strategic partner to help us gain insight and perspective of the rapidly changing consumer and wireless marketplace. Qualcomm has played an instrumental role in helping us develop our product roadmap and overall corporate strategy.

“The timing control market is huge,” adds Willey. “Approximately 10 billion quartz crystals are sold every year. We’re trying to dominate the quartz market by replacing it with a MEMS-based solution.”

To learn more about Discera, visit www.discera.com

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