31 May, page-56

I said that: "We are now waiting for bulk delivery of modified MEMS wafers from the fabricator so that these can be integrated and packaged. We are told that finished MEMS are expected to be delivered on or before 31/5. Integration and testing should follow quite quickly, and finished and fully tested chips will then be ready to take to market.

Only when all these steps are complete will there be something to demonstrate."

I am not sure if AP gets wafers before or after singulation. I presume that it is after, so these will go either to ICSense or direct to the packager for integration of the two devices into a final package.

ICSense state that: "This ASIC drives a digital MEMS speaker which produces sound by moving 1024 pixels. The High-voltage driver ASIC main goal is to generate the high voltage supply levels and to drive the individual rows and columns of the MEMS device. The ASIC is co-packaged together with the 8mmx8mm MEMS element and protected by a coating to prevent intrusion of dust particles. The ASIC contains 2 independent DC-DC converters to upconvert a low-voltage battery supply to the required actuation voltage. The driving supply levels go up to 90V and are individually programmable with 1V steps. The ASIC contains an integrated temperature sensor, PoR (Power On Reset) and various test features (short detect, pixel test)."

We were told that the dud MEMS devices were used to prove out the integration and packaging, so there will be no development involved, they just go through the proven process and get the finished chips in final form. This cannot take more than a couple of weeks surely, all things being equal and given the pressure on the packagers to get the chip out. So if the MEMS were received by 31/5 it will still take a few weeks to get finished chips ready to demo to anyone. If the earliest versions come out sooner than the bulk run there may be some that get rushed through the process. We will soon know.