Waterloo firm guides Mars rover
What do Canada Post and the Mars Rover have in common with mammograms and video games? All use image sensors designed and made by Waterloo-based DALSA Corp.
After Dr. Willard Boyle and Dr. George Smith invented the charge-coupled device (CCD) in 1969, their published research inspired a generation of engineers to create the digital imaging components we use everywhere today. One of those innovators was DALSA Corp.'s founder, Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, who set up the first microelectronics lab at the University of Waterloo.
Forty years later, the inventors received their kudos – Canadian-born Boyle and Smith were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics last month. Meanwhile, Chamberlain has built his company into a global leader in high-performance imaging, with 1,000 employees worldwide and revenues of more than $200 million annually.
Founded in 1980, DALSA is an example of what is possible when scientific innovation shakes hands with solid business and marketing prowess. Chamberlain successfully transformed himself from a scientist into an entrepreneur and ended up gaining the attention of the world.
DALSA has thrived due to several wise choices by management. "Our real key success factor is we're based on high performance," said CEO Brian Doody, who has been with the company since 1985. Rather than settle for the high-volume, low-price model, the company aimed to produce the most advanced components. As a result, the company's digital imaging division (accounting for over half of DALSA's revenues) dominates the industry at the high end.
"It's all about the highest resolution, highest speed of capture and the highest light sensitivity," said Patrick Myles, vice-president of corporate communications. "We are the world leader in those three things."
The company has pushed the limits of image sensor chips. A good digital camera today might have 12 megapixels. Back in 1993, DALSA was the first company to have a 25-megapixel imaging chip. By 2006, the company had developed a 111-megapixel chip as well as an image sensor that can capture 200 million frames per second.
The uses for this kind of superchip are varied. In China, DALSA cameras are mounted on trains and used to inspect the rail beds. Canada Post uses the cameras to read bar codes in the mail sorting process. The Mars Rover carries DALSA's cameras into space.
Flat panel televisions are manufactured using DALSA's technology. "When they make these huge panels, they have to make sure there aren't any dead pixels," said Myles.
"There are different processing steps and each one needs a camera. Probably seven out of 10 (flat panel) televisions in the world were inspected using DALSA cameras."
To maintain the lead in innovation requires massive research funding, but as one of the few "open" CCD manufacturers in the world, DALSA developed advanced products on demand for clients – and kept the intellectual property. As a result, the company has close to 200 patents in active use.
"We spend about 20 per cent of our revenue on R&D and a good portion of that is customer-funded," said Myles.
Another reason for the company's strength is that it retains its own expertise. "We have increased the level of what we do in house rather than following the trend of outsourcing," said Doody, who points out that he would rather retain that extra revenue than share the "margin upon margin" that is built into the final selling price.
The second revenue stream comes from the company's foundry. While the word conjures up images of soot, sweat and molten metal, DALSA's foundry specializes in semiconductor wafer manufacturing.
The area that has seen explosive growth – 30 per cent in 2008 and another 30 per cent in the first half of this year alone – is in manufacturing microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
These hybrid devices can be found in ink jet printer heads, automotive sensors and cellphones.
The recession hit the electronics manufacturing sector hard, and DALSA saw its revenues plunge in 2009, though it maintained profitability because it has so many diverse customers.
"We managed the costs to keep staff on and working," said Doody, adding that the company has continued to invest in R&D "so we would be prepared for the economic recovery."
The company continues to support Canada's supremacy in the semiconductor field.
Meanwhile, this month, Chamberlain, who received the Order of Canada last summer, eased out of his active role with the company to assume the non-managerial title of chairman.
DALSA is a founding partner (with IBM Canada and Universite de Sherbrooke) of a new microelectronics innovation centre to be located in Bromont, Que., 70 kilometres east of Montreal.
The planned facility, announced last month, will receive $178 million in federal and provincial funding.
"What makes this one unique is that it is completely focused on technology transfer," said Myles. "It's not like fundamental research that stays in the lab and no one ever sees it.
"It's actually focused on how you get the stuff out and commercialize it."
