MIRAE CGS, which is a subsidiary of MNtech Co., Ltd., is supplying its microphones to Amazon. It is expected that its microphone business will grow quickly by attracting a global business as its customer.
According to industries on the 22nd, MIRAE CGS (CEO Cho Min-ki) is currently mass-producing a first batch of 500,000 piezoelectric MEMS microphones that will be supplied to Amazon for its Smart Speaker called Echo. Delivery of these microphones will take place starting from next month and it is going to supply additional microphones in fourth quarter of this year as well.
Besides Amazon, other global companies are also verifying quality of MIRAE CGS’ piezoelectric MEMS microphones.
Piezoelectric MEMS microphones are ultra-thin and ultra-small microphones with waterproof and dustproof functions. Because they create their own energy, they greatly reduce electricity consumption. Their SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) is about 65dB which is at a level of premium microphones. Vesper, which is an American startup company, has implemented such technology by combining its own solution with aluminum light instead of silicon.
MNtech Co., Ltd., and Vesper co-established their joint-corporation called Mirae Vesper during second half of last year. Vesper has an original technology in piezoelectric MEMS microphone. And it once attracted an investment worth $500,000 in December of last year from The Alexa Fund which is operated by Amazon. While Vesper supplies MEMS dies and ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), MIRAE CGS will be in charge of manufacturing completed microphones.
MIRAE CGS’ newly-established facility with 2,000 pyeong can mass-produce about 2 million piezoelectric MEMS microphones per month. Since last month, it has been producing 3 million microphones that will be used for Amazon’s Echo and IoT devices from a home appliance manufacturer located in North America. MIRAE CGS is going to finish constructing facilities that can correspond to mobile applications during third quarter of this year.
MNtech Co., Ltd. has been working hard for long period of time. It took over CGS in October of last year in order to mass-produce piezoelectric MEMS microphones with Vesper. Manufacturing method of piezoelectric MEMS microphone is similar to mass-production method of semiconductors. It is possible to mass-produce these microphones if one has foundry facility.
“It took a year and half just to persuade Vesper to establish a joint-corporation so that we can mass-produce piezoelectric MEMS microphones.” said CEO Cho Min-ki Mirae CGS.
MIRAE CGS is planning to focus on small and medium fabless companies in South Korea within its current semiconductor packaging business. It currently has facilities that can produce about 20 million semiconductors per month and its strategy is to penetrate South Korean semiconductor foundry industries that are based on large corporations. It is expecting growth in sales of its semiconductor business from having MNtech Co., Ltd., purchasing other companies. It is looking to make a quantum-jump through new business such as piezoelectric MEMS microphone as well as making steady performance in its semiconductor business.
“We are going to secure medium and long-term driving forces by expanding our business on piezoelectric MEMS microphone, which will be mass-produced starting from September, and our semiconductor packaging business.” said CEO Cho. “Our goal is to make $17.9 million (20.0 billion KRW) in sales within two years.”
Staff Reporter Lee, Youngho | youngtiger@etnews.com