Discera Names Bruce W. Diamond as Chief Executive Officer
25-Year Industry Veteran Joins Team to Lead Growth for Groundbreaking MEMS Timing Technology
| Source: Discera
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - December 11, 2008) - Discera, a leader in CMOS MEMS oscillators,
resonators, and provider of next-generation timing solutions, today
announced that it has appointed Bruce W. Diamond as president and chief
executive officer. Diamond brings more than 25 years of semiconductor
industry experience in management and operations.
"Bruce's experience, leadership, and business skills will bring Discera's
award-winning MEMS technology to its next phase of development and growth,"
said Jim Jones, managing director, Scale Venture Partners, and Discera
board member. "The maturity of Discera's technology, its partner network,
and clear cost benefits to electronic manufacturers put it in a strong
position for leadership in this growing market."
"I'm very impressed by the rapid progress and unique achievements that
Discera has shown with its groundbreaking MEMS technology," said Diamond.
"I am excited to join the company at this stage as MEMS timing devices have
been anticipated for a long time, and Discera is the leading company in the
market."
Discera offers a proven and scalable alternative to Quartz crystal for
timing applications. Discera's CMOS-compatible MEMS-based resonators
overcome the challenges posed by quartz crystal technology and offers
electronics manufacturers a more flexible, scalable alternative. Based on a
recent study by Wicht Technologie Consulting, the market for MEMS-based
oscillators is expected to grow more than 120 percent each year,
penetrating today's $3.8 billion quartz timing market.
"We are very pleased with the addition of Bruce Diamond to Discera's
executive team," said Wan-Thai Hsu, chief technology officer, Discera. "Our
team will be working closely with him to build upon our successes to date,
and we are confident that Bruce will be a strong leader with the vision,
semiconductor experience, and industry knowledge to continue to build
Discera's strength in the market."
Diamond comes to Discera from WJ Communications, a leading supplier of
radio frequency (RF) solutions for wireless infrastructure, where he served
as chief executive officer. Diamond helped turn the company and managed it
through its recent acquisition by TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ : TQNT ) in
May 2008. Prior to this, he served as chief operating officer and executive
vice president at Zilog Corporation, a San Jose, California-based publicly
traded provider of integrated 8-bit microcontrollers (MCU) and universal
remote control solutions. Additionally, Diamond held management positions
at Sipex, ANADIGICS, and National Semiconductor Corporation. He holds a
bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
About Discera
Discera is a fabless analog semiconductor company that offers tiny, high
performance silicon resonators for the frequency and timing control
markets. These resonators act as the heartbeat or pulse for a variety of
devices from consumer products such as cameras and MP3 players to
specialized equipment for the military. The company's PureSilicon™
resonator technology is a fundamental building block that offers, according
to Semico Research, "a better mousetrap" for creating fully integrated, low
cost, small form factor wireline and wireless products, such as
oscillators, filters, and RF components. Unlike crystal based oscillators,
Discera's PureSilicon™ based CMOS oscillators can be integrated into
other CMOS based circuits. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose,
California, Discera is a privately held company with investments from
Ardesta, Partech, Scale Venture Partners, 3i, Horizon, and Qualcomm
Ventures. More information is available at www.discera.com.