BY Richard Comerford, Senior Technical Editor, Electronic Products
I met Alex Everke, the CEO of the billion-dollar-plus corporation ams AG, for the first time at a dinner in New York City this past summer. I found him to be warm and engaging, easily approachable, and technically very knowledgeable. And so, based on that encounter, I asked if I could formally interview him in the near future, in a way that would allow me to fully capture our discussion. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the resulting recorded interview.
Comerford: Alex, you’ve been very busy in the last eight months. You became CEO on March 1st of this year, and things started changing in pretty short order after that. In April, ams began construction of a new fab in Utica, NY, and in June, it acquired the gas and IR sensing company Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCMOSS). Then in July, ams acquired color and spectral sensing company MAZeT and also sold its NFC and RFID reader product lines business to STMicroelectronics to fully concentrate on its sensor business. Can you tell us where ams will be going in the next few years with regard to sensing?
Everke : As you’ve correctly described, we’ve made quite a few changes this year and managed our portfolio in a very straightforward way. The whole intention is to make ams the leading sensor solution company in the industry. To make that happen, the company is working on strengthening and broadening our portfolio around our core competencies by focusing on sensors and sensor solutions and making choices where we believe we can achieve a leading position. We have a solid roadmap in place to achieve this.
You brought up a few examples already, and I’ll elaborate on them. For example, last November, we acquired Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCMOSS), which is a leading company, technology-wise, in gas sensing. They have a very interesting IP, called micro hotplates. These are, to our knowledge, the most competitive micro hotplates in the industry because you can integrate it into the CMOS process. You can manufacture this in high volume at very low cost compared to all other solutions in the market.
Cambridge CMOS Sensors expertise in this area is also highly synergistic with ams’s technology leadership in MOX gas-sensing materials to detect gases like CO, NOx, and VOCs. The combination of both companies brings us to technology leadership in gas sensing.
Comerford : You talked about the micro hotplate technology. That ability gives MEMS sensors the ability to have their temperature well controlled so that you can do high precision, correct?
Everke : Exactly. They can bear up to even 600°C in a very short timeframe with a very low power consumption and measure very accurately the gas in the chamber. It’s also usable as a thermopile for IR detection and IR transmitting. This enables us also to use it for human presence detection.
The current technology in the market today, like PZT, requires objects or humans in a room to move to be detected. With MEMS, you can detect IR or heat just by being in the room, which is actually very useful. People don’t need to move in a room to be detected. This technology helps us to create a leading technology in gas sensing as mentioned, but also support our spectral sensing in the IR domain.
Comerford : I see. This talks to new levels and actually new types of sensing as well. Although IR and gas sensing are well established, it opens some doors to new types of sensing technologies as well.
Everke : That’s correct. I’ll use the gas example again. Because of this small form factor and its more competitive cost structure, we believe we can expand our market significantly by addressing the consumer market as well.
Comerford : Addressing the consumer market with gas sensing is not an area that’s really been attacked before, to the best of my knowledge. Very little gas sensing goes on right now. There’s some being done in the medical markets and in industrial markets. How do you envision it being done in the consumer marketplace?
Everke : We have, for instance, inquiries from mobile phone manufacturers in China for the ability to measure gas or air quality so users will know whether the air quality outdoors is poor. A good example is our recent announcement with our customer HiCling that demonstrated how innovative gas sensors can be used in applications such as wearables that measure indoor air quality or alcohol in breath. HiCling is using one of our slim, ultra low-power gas sensors in its fitness wristband to do just that, in what is being touted as the world’s smallest and lowest-power MOX gas sensor on the market. This device is on the market already today.
Comerford : This sensing, I assume, would be essentially an add-on to a smart device?
Everke : Correct.
Comerford : It can be done externally or it can actually be integrated into the device itself?
Everke : Exactly.
Comerford : It would provide a gas analysis of breath, and that gas analysis could be used to detect the presence of alcohol. I’m curious if it can detect other things as well. Do you think it’s possible to detect things like marijuana? In the United States, many states have legalized the use of marijuana, and at present, there is no good way to detect whether a driver is under the influence of that.
Everke : That’s an interesting case. I’m not an expert in this domain, but the technology can detect any kind of VOC gas component. Every component has its specific wavelengths, and depending on the customer and application with additional filters or modifying the filters, we can detect those different gases. The next step, of course, is spectral sensing, where we can very accurately sense multiple different components at the same time.
That’s also an example of why we acquired the German company MAZeT, a color and spectral-sensing systems specialist. This new addition extends our market leadership in advanced optical sensors and strengthens our position in emerging optical-sensing applications. Also, a very interesting point for both acquisitions is that Jena is the center in Germany for optical companies and Cambridge CMOS Sensors LTD, as the name says, is located in Cambridge in the UK, which holds one of the most famous universities worldwide specialized in the research of leading-edge sensing technologies. Having access to leading experts in multiple countries give us an additional edge to always be at the forefront of new ideas and leading technologies.
Comerford : Let’s look at the various markets. What markets does ams want to focus on with its technology? What do you see as the best opportunities for the future?
Everke : In terms of strategy, the company is laser-focused on its core sensor solutions expertise and concentrates its efforts where it can offer true differentiation and claim leadership positions. The differentiation comes from being able to provide sensor modalities in vertical segments and thereby being able to address more market segments.
The four most important applications for us are optical sensing, image sensing, environmental, and audio. For each of those, we will address every single market opportunity. For obvious reasons, the consumer mobile market is a very large market for us, but we are also active in automotive and industrial. We see more and more markets where sensors play a pivotal role. ams is basically in the very core of the whole world of Internet of Things.
When you ask people what is the next mega trend or next killer application, it’s always hard to answer because no one really knows. The unique situation we are in is that we know that every single application which will come up in the future is, to a certain extent, related to sensors. The whole market is developing, in essence, the interface between the analog and the digital world. Sensing becomes more and more important. For us, it’s less important which application it is. It’s more important to create leadership in sensor modalities so that we’re always ready for any new application that comes up to provide the best technical solution.
For example, if you look in the medical space, what you will see is that most of the medical equipment is getting more mobile so that people can use these devices in their homes. You don’t need to go to a doctor anymore to measure your heart rate or your blood pressure. To a certain extent, you can analyze your blood at home. You can then bring the lab — electronically — to the sample.
With sensors, for example, it will be more convenient for aging people to check their vital signs and to make a decision: Shall I go to a doctor? Yes or no? Over time, you will see the solutions become more accurate, and doctors will use the vital signs measured by those sensors and tools and can make their diagnoses remotely. We see a big trend there with this aging population to make their lives easier, safer, and allow them to extend their independence.
Comerford : Yes, you are absolutely correct there. There are a lot of new opportunities coming up. Medical is a very good example of an area that seems ripe for growth with, as you say, an aging population. You said now that you want to concentrate in four areas for sensing. If I have this correct, it’s optical, spectral, audio, and environmental?
Everke : Yes. Optical also includes biosensing spectral sensing. Everything around optical where we have a leadership position today.
With imaging, last December, we acquired a company called CMOSIS, for very high-end image sensing, for machine vision, for radar systems and toll systems on the street. Also for applications requiring a very small camera called Naneye, which is less than 12 millimeters, for disposable endoscopy. This goes also into a massive arena. Imaging is an important one and then, of course, environmental and also audio related to Active Noise Cancellation and everything around that.
Comerford : Optical including biosensing, then imaging, audio, and environmental are the four areas of sensing you are focused on?
Everke : Yes. These are our key pillars. We also have position sensors, and have a stronghold with them in the automotive business. The four I mentioned are, we believe, the fastest-growing and the most important in the future.
Comerford : I would say that you’ve picked some very challenging technologies, but some very key technologies for many of the things we talked about in terms of health, quality of life, environment, and in terms of many of the end markets — consumer, audio, medical.
Let me ask, the trend today seems to be to take sensor technologies and integrate them, in a way that they call sensor fusion, so that the information coming out is more than certainly data and numbers, but is hard facts about the condition of things. For example, combining imaging with a GPS sensor, an accelerometer, or sensors like that tells us where we’re headed and what we see ahead of us for a simple example. How do you plan to go to market within the world of sensor fusion and working with other types of sensors that may be needed in the end application?
Everke : For sensor fusion, which is certainly part of our sensor solution strategy, there are two aspects. One is the integration of different sensor modalities, and that’s why all the acquisitions we have done are so consistent. Last summer, we acquired the NXP CMOS sensor business where you have relative humidity, temperature, and pressure sensors integrated into one CMOS process and one chip. Basically, we are able now to put relative humidity, temperature, pressure, gas sensing — everything on one CMOS chip — so we can integrate all the sensor abilities in one chip. We are working on solutions to integrate it in one package. With this, we have all the sensors as a sensor fusion in one device, and then we can add analog to digital.
An example of that is biosensing. We have the analog part of the biosensor for customers that want to do their data processing with their own microcontrollers in the system. We also have devices where we’re including a microprocessor — a controller where the data processing is done on our chip. In addition, we have a long history in developing interface products or ASIC products very strongly in audio. We have all of the capabilities to ensure that we can support our customers with any kind of sensor solutions or sensor fusion that is required.
The key ingredients are integratable modalities on one chip, sophisticated packaging, and then the interfaces, whether it’s power or a standard interface, or if it’s a microcontroller or wireless connectivity. That’s why we also kept the wireless competencies in our company even though we sold the NFC booster and readers.
Comerford : You’re maintaining the wireless capabilities to have these devices talk to each other in the integration process?
Everke : Exactly, to be ready. There are many different protocols, whether it’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, or NFC RF. We kept the capabilities within ams to ensure a complete solution for our customers. The rest we sold because it’s not core to the company. We are very focused in our portfolio management. What is not part of our core, we are going to divest or reduce. That’s why we made this divestiture and sold it to STMicroelectronics.
Comerford : If we can blue-sky a little bit and look to the future, where do you think development is needed and ams wants to spearhead in sensor technology? Where does it want to take sensor technology in terms of maybe new types of sensors or new capabilities for sensors?
Everke : That’s a good question. First, we continue to strengthen the sensor modalities I mentioned already. We are not finished yet. We are also looking to strengthen them in our own package development to offer complete solutions. Then, obviously, we are looking for new sensor modalities. There are a few sensors we have to cover, whether it’s smell, vision, or audio. We haven’t addressed all of them yet and we are continuously looking at where it makes sense to further invest to ensure that we have a complete portfolio, but also to ensure that we support new megatrends coming up and create profitable growth for the company.
We have not decided on all the areas we’ll enter, but we constantly look into what will be the future trends and then act accordingly.
Comerford : Do you think there will be more acquisitions in the future or in the near future, or do you think that you acquired the key technologies that you want and you’ll rest on your laurels for a while?
Everke : I would never exclude M&A, and it can be small or large. It’s always a part of the strategy. The decision is always a matter if it is cheaper and more efficient to acquire a technology or a company to accelerate our roadmap, or, if we have time, to develop it ourselves. This is a case-by-case decision, but I can assure you that M&A is a key pillar to accelerate our strategy.
Comerford : Is there anything else you’d like to add or say about ams and where it’s going?
Everke : Well, as I mentioned in the beginning, the most important part is to execute and accelerate our strategy to become the leading supplier in sensors and sensor solutions. For us, it’s very important to be a thought leader. We are not interested in providing me-too products. We are very interested in shaping the market with our sensor solutions, offering differentiated products and helping our customers to differentiate from their competitors. We want to create an environment for the industry and for everyone by making the devices we all rely on every day to be smarter, safer, more intuitive, convenient, and energy-efficient. That’s basically what we are doing, and everything which is needed to accomplish this, we will do.
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