The Sensym Days
In 1982 after I made a presentation to National management
stating it was not realistic to expect the Transducer business to become
at $100 million business in the foreseeable future I was instructed to
sell the business. At the time John Nesheim was treasurer for National
and provided guidance for me during this process. John later formed Ministry
Management with Art Linkletter, of television fame, and has written several
books concerning venture capital financing. At that time my marketing manager
was Manny Naik, now the president of Integrated Sensor Solutions. Manny
and I talked with Joe Mallon and the three of us considered how we might
get into the business ourselves. We decided to invite Janusz Bryzek into
the discussions as well. After many meetings suffice it to say that we
could not agree on a structure for the company the ("Office of the
President" later adopted at Novasensors, did not appeal to me) and
I decided to propose a leveraged buyout of National's operation and
Janusz would join us as Vice President of Engineering.
Manny stayed at National, later to leave and found Integrated
Sensor Solutions. ISS is now active in pressure sensors for automotive
applications and has strategic relationships with companies in Japan, Germany
and Breed Automotive in the United States. Manny is, without doubt, the
best marketing person in the pressure sensor business. I was given one
month by National to arrange financing for the purchase of the Transducer
Group.
Through John Nesheim's referral I was able to arrange
quick financing from Robertson, Coleman and Stephen's, now Robertson,
Stephens & Company in San Francisco through Bob Cummings. Bob also
got Crosspoint Investments to contribute and we developed a business plan
with the help of John Mumford, general partner for Crosspoint. I was very
lucky to have John Nesheim's referral and introduction to the legitimate
financial community. We completed the purchase of the business in October
1982, from this Sensym was born. I had a very good relationship for the
prior five years with our European marketing manager in Germany, Helmut
Gutgesell. He offered to start a company in Germany with mutual exclusivity
for the Sensym products. Thus was born Sensortechnics GmbH. Sensortechnics
is today one of the more successful value added suppliers of pressure sensors
in Europe.
I located Sensym at 1253 Reamwood Avenue, Sunnyvale,
a facility that had been recently vacated by Interdesign. Interdesign had
been sold to Ferranti and they moved to Scotts Valley. This address may
look familiar as it is where I currently reside with Data Instruments ASG.
We put in a four inch semiconductor fabrication facility and had the capability
to build linear IC's as well as silicon micromachined structures.
Some of our notable work at Sensym included disposable blood pressure sensors
for both invasive and non invasive application, including catheter tipped
disposable pressure sensors for multilumen catheters down to a size of
four french (less than 0.023" wide.) We developed a hybrid module
for Michelin including a pressure and temperature sensor with a full custom
IC. (All of which was manufactured in house.) The initial use was for tire
pressure sensing on the BMW model 850. We developed a full custom artillery
shell distance sensor for safe and arm electronics. This included our first
silicon accelerometer. The module performed a double integration of acceleration
to determine distance. And we developed the first, low cost digital tire
pressure gauge. It was, by far, the most sophisticated pressure sensor
of its time for the price. The tire pressure business was a business, within
a business and had a story of its own. In the eighties Sensym was where
a significant portion of the industry research (more correctly, development)
was being done. Novasensors did research, Sensym did development.
Janusz Bryzek stayed with us for about three months and
left to join Don Lynam who had just left Foxboro ICT to start IC Sensors.
In his stead we hired John Gragg from Motorola to manage our engineering
efforts. John had worked at Carnegie Mellon on shear strain in silicon
for the purpose of manufacturing pressure sensors. This technology had
its roots at the Bell Labs in the work of Pfann and Thurston. Three basic
technologies are used to manufacture silicon based pressure sensors; variable
capacitance, uniaxial longitudinal and transverse strain piezoresistance
and shear strain piezoresistance. There are tradeoffs for each rendering
one more suitable than the other for particular applications. John and
Carl Derrington had been instrumental in taking this technology from the
university and commercializing it at Motorola. Motorola is the only company
to employ both piezoresistance and variable capacitance pressure sensing
technologies commercially. Motorola is currently the only United States
non captive supplier of OEM automotive pressure sensors. John stayed with
Sensym less than a year. His wife didn't want to live with his commute
from Phoenix to San Jose and would not move from their home in Phoenix.
John returned to Motorola to pursue interests in another Motorola technology.
Automotive applications have been the catalyst for much
of the silicon sensor development. It first started with the manifold absolute
pressure sensor and more recently has extended to air bag crash sensors
and fuel vapor sensing and has been considered for oil pressure, comfort
seat bladders in memory seats, air conditioning pressure switches, tire
pressure and intelligent shock absorbers. (Not to mention all the off-road
vehicle and truck applications.) Research efforts have been funded in Germany
by Siemens and Fraunhauffer Institute. Siemens acquired the Bendix sensor
research group when Bendix's automotive business was acquired by Siemens.
This group had received over fifty million dollars in funding when part
of Bendix. The research efforts in Germany have been largely funded by
the government (over several hundred million dollars) and the auto industry.
In spite of all this funding the only company that sold
products was one small operation near Munich owned and operated by Texas
Instrument manufacturing only piezoresistive sensors for disposable blood
pressure. This business ended several years ago.
In 1989, seven years after having taken money from the
venture capital folks, as is common in the venture business it was time
for Sensym to provide a return on their investment. At Sensym we raised
money one other time, in 1984, when a note due National secured by my house
was due and I did not have the funds to pay it. To make a long story short,
National voided the note and took an equity position in Sensym thanks to
Charley Sporck and Gary Arnold, Nationals Vice President of Finance at
the time and current member of National Semiconductor's Board of Directors.
In 1989 I retained Bob Harris of Kahn & Harris, now Harris-Roja, for
the purpose of selling Sensym. We received much interest from a large number
of companies interested in acquiring Sensym. After close to twenty visits
we had a short list of less than five companies based upon their management
compatibility and the price they would be willing to pay. In the end we
opted to accept an offer from Hawker Siddeley. Our investors received between
seven and ten times their original investment as a return on their investment.
The return on investment was acceptable.
Hawker Siddeley had a large sensor group in the United
States managed by Dale Bennett in Rhode Island called Fasco Sensors and
Controls. This group included Fasco in North Carolina, Elmwood Sensors
in Rhode Island, Aerospace and Aviation Inc in Long Island, Mason in Southern
California, Laserdata in Florida, Clairostat in New England, and Senisys
a fiber optic module company in Texas. I would become very familiar with
all these companies through group meetings and when I was asked to provide
technical assessment for each of them. We hired Art Zias to consult for
us for a year and to provide a technical inventory of each of the Fasco
businesses. In 1981 Hawker Siddeley attempted to fend off a hostile takeover
by BTR, another British conglomerate. During that time period we came close
to being able to repurchase Sensym from Hawker Siddeley but the deal didn't
get done before BTR acquired control of Hawker and therefore of Sensym.
BTR has a management philosophy totally different from what had been the
norm for Hawker Siddeley. BTR has been very successful with their approach;
acquire a company, raise prices ten percent and cut labor costs by ten
percent. Vale, fifteen percent to the bottom line. Each subsequent year
a BTR plan begins with raising prices by inflation plus one percent and
budgeting labor costs to increase by inflation less one percent. Very simple.
Such is the norm for a BTR company. Suffice it to say that such an operation
takes only an accountant to run and I submitted my resignation at the end
of my contract, March 1992. Prior to leaving Sensym, I offered to BTR that
I would purchase Sensym for a reasonable price rather than allow the fate
of the gradual demise of the business operating under such a system. They
decided to decline my offer. Sensym continues today in the BTR environment.
BTR and Siebe merged in 1997 and with this merger Sensym
and Foxboro/ICT were consolidated under Chris Cartsonas. The ICT facility
was sold and all operations consolidated with Sensym. Sensym's manufacturing
is done primarily in Juarez, Mexico, with silicon processing still in Milpitas.
The Sensym name is being replace by Invensys Sensor Systems.
This is a group name for all companies that were formerly the Sensor Group
of BTR.
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