Cavendish Kinetics is a privately held embedded MEMS company that is changing the way IC designers view MEMS devices.  The proprietary NanoMech™ MEMS platform dramatically reduces the cost of incorporating MEMS components into semiconductors by eliminating expensive MEMS packaging.

The foundation of the NanoMech™ platform is the creation of sealed cavities between the metal layers in the metal interconnect system of standard IC processes without requiring special materials or equipment. The Nanomech™ MEMS platform does not impact transistor characteristics or any other characteristics of the process.

Since the MEMS functions are fully encapsulated in the metal stack of the IC, no special handling or packaging is required after processing. This enables the integration of one MEMS function, or multiple MEMS functions, in an IC at an extraordinarily low cost.

The first application using the NanoMech™ platform is non-volatile memory which benefits from the technology by having a wide temperature operating range, ultra-low power write and native voltage operation.   Other functions being developed include variable capacitors, I/V switches, resonators, temperature sensors, inertial measurement, and image sensors.