Villeneuve d’Ascq & Paris, France -- 26 May, 2014 -- DelfMEMS, a leading player in the field of RF components and developer of innovative RF MEMS switching solutions, announces that the company has secured 5.4M€ ($7.4M) in round C funding.

FSN PME - Ambition Numérique fund, managed by bpifrance Investissement – in the context of the Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir, together with Iris Capital, VIVES, Capitalaria and early investors of the company, announces an investment in DelfMEMS, a developer of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) switching solutions for applications in the RadioFrequency (RF) communication field. The funding will enable DelfMEMS to accelerate the industrialization of its products.

bpifrance Investissement, Iris Capital, Capitalaria, VIVES as well as previous investors (A2D Invest, Finovam, Rhône-Alpes-Création, Eurekap!, Helea Financiere and business angels) have participated to this C round of funding. The new investment will be used to support the company’s growth in the next generation, wireless front-end modules for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets that need multi-standard, multi-mode mobile telephony.

The move to multiple wireless standards to meet the requirement of always on data access creates the need for high speed RF switching. DelfMEMS technology uses a new, integrated, micro-mechanical building block that is based on a strong, totally new, IP portfolio that includes seven key patents. The switch is an anchorless and push-pull mechanical device that is deflected by electrostatic forces to switch RF signals based on the principle of current electro-mechanical relays/switches. It solves past issues and substantially improves insertion loss, linearity, integration, hot switching behavior, switching time and power consumption to simplify RF architectures.

The benefits of DelfMEMS RF MEMS switches include improved receiver sensitivity leading to fewer dropped calls and better call quality together with optimal carrier aggregation switching for massively improved data rates. Combined with high levels of RF integration, this also results in a lower bill of materials cost for the RF Front-End module, and significantly longer battery life by reducing the power consumption of the RF module by up to 20%.

Guillaume d'Eyssautier, DelfMEMS CEO, said, “The progress that we have made in turning RF MEMS switches into reality has really impressed our investors. The test silicon has shown that we have cracked the problems that have caused many MEMS companies to fall by the roadside. This is creating a lot of interest in the industry especially as we will have samples for customers to evaluate in a few weeks. This latest round of financing will be used to consolidate the organization and be ready for production ramp-up by the end of 2014.”