SiGeas Technology Attracts a New CEO

Electronic News, May 8, 2000

Jim Derbyshire, a 25-year veteran in the wireless area, recently joined SiGe Microsystems Inc. as the company's chief executive officer.

The fabless semiconductor company, which is based in Ottawa, Canada, utilizes silicon germanium to design and produce ICs used for the broadband and Internet communications markets. Its clientele, which is primarily based in the United States or in Japan, includes companies such as Ericsson and Panasonic.

"Silicon germanium is a key technology which is absolutely essential to high growth in the communications market, both broadband and wireless," Derbyshire said. "These markets are being fueled by Internet access, which drives a huge growth in the products market and chips are needed for these products. Silicon germanium has cost and performance advantages for those chips."

SiGe, a spin-off from the National Research Council of Canada, was incorporated in 1996. Initially an epitaxy service and process provider, it transformed itself into an RF semiconductor company two years later. As a result of its spin off from the parent company, SiGe was warranted the right to commercially exploit the silicon germanium knowledge and processing capabilities that were built up over a 15-year period.

"We use our knowledge of silicon germanium to produce cost-effective ICs. Our competitors are companies that provide ICs for radio transceivers, but they frequently use gallium arsenide, which is more expensive," Derbyshire said. "We use the technology to get cost-performance advantages in products. Gradually, the market will move to use silicon germanium but at the moment we are early providers of silicon germanium integrated circuits." Derbyshire has already hired a number of experts in IC operations, people who understand packaging, fabrication, and test, in order to move SiGe's sample products into the high volumes customers are requesting. "We expect to see high growth over the next two years as our IC products enter a high-volume production," he said.

Derbyshire, who has been involved in fabless chip activities beforeanotably with companies using CMOSahas not before worked directly with silicon germanium. But Derbyshire's past accomplishments hint that he has a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed in the market place.

He formerly was co-founder and chief operating officer of Symbionics, a U.K.-based company designing wireless and digital video equipment for customers such as Samsung, Lucent, Hewlett-Packard, and Alcatel. In 1998 Symbionics was acquired by Cadence Design Systems Inc. "I was driving the strategy and the growth of the company, therefore I understand the worldwide product companies have a good contact base and a thorough knowledge of the industry, which is directly applicable to making SiGe Microsystems succeed in its business," Derbyshire explained.

His other successful missions would include helping start-up companies make it in the market. To achieve his goals, he convinced venture capitalists to fund the companies and was a seed investor in several of these start-ups, assisting with IPO preparation.

SiGe, which is itself preparing for an IPO in 2002, has such an impressive technology and savoir-faire, Derbyshire admits, that he decided to go back to a full-time involvement in the company. The move from his homeland to Canada was not difficult to make, he confided. "When I was director of Accelerix, the company had some problems so I came to Canada a year ago to resolve them. I eventually sold the company to MOSAID Technologies Inc.," Derbyshire explained. "Ottawa provides a very dynamic environment, there is an excellent technical skill base and there is an availability of venture capital, all of which are rather hard to find in the United Kingdom," he said.