Contact Information: Media Contacts: Venkat Bahl Discera, Inc. 408-432-8600 x228 venkat@discera.com Emilie Harris Lois Paul & Partners 512-638-5321 emilie_harris@lpp.com
Discera Names New Executives
Leader in MEMS Resonators Names CTO, Vice President of Engineering
| Source: Discera
SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- January 30, 2007 -- Discera, Inc., a world leader in CMOS MEMS
resonator technology and provider of next-generation timing solutions,
today appointed MEMS expert, Wan-Thai Hsu, Ph.D. to chief technology
officer and semiconductor veteran, Rob Sneddon to vice president of
engineering. These executive appointments will enable the company to
continue to extend its leadership in CMOS MEMS resonator technology and
next-generation timing solutions.
"I am very happy to make these appointments as they will enable Discera to
continue to build the market for its next generation timing devices," said
Tom Willey, president and CEO, Discera. "Market reception to our timing
components has been amazingly strong and we anticipate great growth over
the coming year. Each appointment is a vital part of our growth plan and we
are pleased to honor Wan-Thai with his promotion and welcome Rob to the
Discera family."
Wan-Thai Hsu, who previously served as the company's chief science officer,
is one of the pioneer researchers and inventors in the area of silicon and
metal resonators. Part of his doctoral work led to the birth of Discera in
2001. Since then, he has built a strong technical team at Discera focusing
on making silicon resonator oscillators a reliable commercial product. In
his role as CTO, Hsu leads Discera's R&D team on resonator, filter, and
system developments. He also serves as a principal investigator for
multiple government-supported research programs on MEMS filters, system
integration and MEMS reliability. Hsu received his bachelor's of science
and master's of science degrees from National Tsing-Hua University and
doctorate from University of Michigan, all in electrical engineering. Hsu
has published more than 20 technical papers and spoken at multiple
international conferences. He was recently named an "Innovator of the Year"
finalist in the 2007 EE Times ACE Awards.
Rob Sneddon is a 30-year veteran of the electronics industry, leading
several development programs to high volume commercial success. His early
career was focused on semiconductor technology and analog mixed signal IC
design with Plessey, National Semiconductor and Dialog. Subsequently,
Sneddon went on to establish a successful IC design center for Ericsson in
the UK, which was instrumental in development of early Bluetooth
transceivers as well as other radio and mobile phone ASICs. Sneddon also
served as director of Design Services EDA for Chartered Semiconductor. At
Discera, Sneddon is responsible for design, development and qualification
of products with a particular focus on the company's programmable clock
synthesizer products. Sneddon earned a degree in theoretical physics and
materials physics from the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow.
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, 3i, and Qualcomm Ventures. More information is available
at www.discera.com.