The News

Supertex and Varioptic partner to provide advanced low-footprint, auto-focus, liquid lens solutions

18/03/2008

HV895 Utilizes Supertex’s Patented Charge Pump Technology To Drive Varioptic’s Liquid Lens
 
SUNNYVALE, Calif., & LYON, France, March 18, 2008 – Supertex (NasdaqGS: SUPX), a recognized leader in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs) and Varioptic, a privately held pioneer in the development of auto-focus liquid lenses, have announced their partnership in the production of a driver and liquid lens to add auto-focus capability in cellular phone and PDA cameras, bar code readers, web and laptop cameras, biometric scanners, and ultracompact cameras. 

This partnership is part of Varioptic’s ongoing development of small and low cost auto-focus systems.  Varioptic’s Arctic Series of liquid lenses offer several advantages over competing auto-focus solutions in terms of cost, size, power consumption, silent operation and speed.   With no moving parts, they are extremely robust and offer very high reliability and extremely long lifetimes in auto-focus optical systems. 

To control the lens, Varioptic chose to collaborate with Supertex and use the HV895 inductorless liquid lens driver IC and its derivative follow-on ICs.  The HV895 incorporates a fully integrated charge pump boost converter to drive lenses of up to 200pF with a 1.5kHz waveform at amplitudes up to 60VRMS.  The entire lens driver circuit is contained in a single flip chip die and can be encapsulated within the camera module.

“By partnering with Supertex, we are able to provide OEMs with a complete lens and driver solution,” said John Barber, Vice President of Marketing for Varioptic. “Supertex’s charge pump technology, combined with Varioptic’s novel, rugged liquid lenses, form an auto-focus lens system that has no moving parts, requires very little power, and has a very fast response time.”
“Customers can now obtain the small footprint they require in auto-focus lens modules for next generation optics systems,” said Ahmed Masood, Vice President of Marketing for Supertex, Inc. “The HV895 utilizes Supertex’s patented, fully integrated charge pump technology to drive Varioptic’s robust family of liquid lenses, resulting in a small, self-contained lens module that delivers high performance, long life and durability.”

Supertex’s HV895 is available now in a RoHS compliant solder-bumped die package (HV895BD).  Lead-time for production quantities is 4-6 weeks ARO.  Varioptic’s Arctic 314 and Arctic 416 liquid lenses are available now and are RoHS compliant. 

About Supertex
Supertex, Inc. is a publicly held mixed signal semiconductor manufacturer, focused on high voltage analog and mixed signal products for use in the medical, imaging, automotive, industrial, telecommunication, networking, and consumer electronics industries. Supertex product, corporate and financial information is readily available at www.supertex.com.

About Varioptic
Varioptic develops and manufatures auto focus liquid lenses for the camera phone industry. Liquid lenses feature a number of advantages over competing technologies critical for camera-phone applications such as video auto-focus and bar-code reading. These include fast and close response, very low power consumption, low cost and size, good for millions of cycles, and with ni moving parts liquid lenses are extremely robuts. Varioptic is located in France with a subsidiary in Taiwan and representation in China, Japan, Korea, Europe and USA.