Type Public Headquarters Horten, Norway Number of employees 60 | Industry MEMS Founded 1985 | |
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Products Gyros, IMUs, pressure sensors Website | ||
Sensonor exhibits mems based inertial products at auvsi s xponential 2016
Sensonor AS is a Norwegian producer and developer of MEMS gyros and IMUs. Since 2009 the company has focused on MEMS gyros, and the main product line has been the gyros STIM202, STIM210 and the IMU STIM300. The company has 60 employees and is localised in Vestfold, Norway, with offices and fabs in Horten (front end) and at Skoppum (back end). The CEO is Jørgen Bredesen.
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Darron collins of sensonor at microtech conference expo 2010 anaheim ca
Business
The main product of Sensonor has long been MEMS manufactured pressure sensors, gyros and inertial measurement systems. The main products are the inertial measurement units STIM210 and STIM300.
History
The company was first established in Horten in 1985, and was founded on knowledge and research from Akers Electronics.
In the 1990s Sensonor had international success with SA20, a sensor for airbag systems. It was made up of a piezoresistive beam of silicon. Around 35 million sensors were sold all over the world, and the company had an estimated 60-70% of the European market for airbag sensors.
However, Sensonor failed in developing their next generation of the crash sensor, SA30, which was eventually given up. This led to a decrease in the revenues from 170m NOK in 1997 to 50m NOK in 1999. Thus, the early 2000s (decade) were economically difficult years for the business and stock market speculation increased the instabilities.
Eventually, Sensonor was purchased in full by the large German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies. Sensonor was owned by them from June 2003 until February 2009, under the name Infineon Technologies SensoNor. In this period, the company was world leading in the TPMS market. In parallel with the development of the SA30 sensor, Sensonor had also been working on a pressure sensor, named SP12. It was designed for usage in TPMS applications, i.e. monitoring of the air pressure in car tires. As with earlier products, SP12 was also based on piezoresistive elements implanted in a silicon crystal, but additionally, the silicon wafer was encapsulated between two Pyrex glass wafers. It was this technology which made the Norwegian company an interesting investment for Infineon.
Later, Sensonor developed improved versions, SP30 and SP35. Today, these are still sold to producers of TPMS-systems through cooperation with Infineon. In February 2009, Infineon announced that Sensonor were to be sold to Norwegian private investors, in a move that would "benefit both SensoNor and Infineon".
In February 2012, the company filed for bankruptcy, and in April 2012, new owners purchased the estate and reestablished the company.