Sand 9

Pritiraj Mohanty, a Boston University physicist, and Matt Crowley, former director of Boston University's technology development fund, co-founded Sand 9 in 2007.^[1] The company aimed to produce timing products with a better price-to-performance ratio than quartz in core markets.^[1]

Sand 9 introduced their first two products, TM061 and TM361, on September 3, 2013.^[9] TM061 and TM361 are precision MEMS timing products for the Internet of Things and mobile devices.^[9][10][11] On November 18, 2013, the TM651 was introduced for communications infrastructure, industrial and military applications.^[9][10] According to EE Times, a trade publication, the TM651 is the first high-precision temperature compensated MEMS oscillator (TCMO) to meet the noise and stability demands of communication, industrial and military applications.^[10][12] TM061 started sampling to lead customers in November and the TM361 in December 2013.^[13]

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a semiconductor foundry, is Sand 9's foundry partner.^[4] GLOBALFOUNDRIES produces approximately one thousand 200 mm wafers per month.^[4]

Flybridge Capital led Sand 9's series A funding round in 2008.^[8] Their Series B funding raised $12 million and was reported in May 2010.^[14] In June 2012, Sand 9 raised $23 million in its series C funding round, led by Intel with participation from Vulcan capital^[15] and Analog Devices. Ericsson contributed $3 million in September 2012.^[8]

Sand 9 developed its piezoelectric MEMS resonator technology as an alternative to quartz timing devices.^[16] Sand 9 uses aluminum nitride, a thin film that is deposited using standard semiconductor/MEMS fabrication technology, for the piezoelectric layer. The silicon MEMS products are smaller than comparable quartz devices and currently operate at fundamental frequencies up to 125 MHz.^[4] Silicon-based MEMS products can simplify system design, reduce part counts, simplify the supply chain, and improve manufacturing yields when compared to quartz.^[4] Sand 9 MEMS products can be co-packaged and overmolded with standard semiconductor ICs to eliminate the need for external timing.