air Semiconductor

New Enterprise Success Story for Swindon

(and impact of the 2008 / 2009 venture investment crisis)

David Tester
Founder & CTO
New Enterprise Success Story for Swindon
… and impact of the 2008 / 2009 venture investment crisis …

- The Market Opportunity

- Why Swindon?
- UK semiconductor technology clusters
- Swindon Innovation Centre & Silicon South West
- The M4

- Air Semiconductor
- Founders, Investors and the Air Team
- Journey from initial idea to prototype and customers
- GPS 2.0 and the digital camera market
- Follow-on markets for proactive GPS
- Development Costs and Investment

- Impact of the 2008 / 2009 semiconductor venture investment crisis

- Summary and Q&A

The Average (Good) Working Day in a High-Tech Start-Up
The Average (Bad) Working Day in a High-Tech Start-Up
Sell Tesco’s car park to Sainsbury’s

Car park
Special offers at
Sainsbury’s today!

Press # for directions

1_.@ 3
DEF
2ABC
Location
4GHI targeted
6 advertising is only possible with
MNO
5
7
‘Always-ON’
PQRS
JKL

9
positioning in mobile phones
WXYZ
8TUV
#
* 0+
 ‘Always-ON’ GPS
The Key to Proactive Location Based Services

Nokia 6233 Motorola RAZR V3i Samsung E900 SEMC K610im LG KG800 Chocolate BenQ-Siemens SL91

Minimum standby Minimum standby Minimum standby Minimum standby Minimum standby Minimum standby
current: current: current: current: current: current:
2.1 mA 2.4 mA 3.6 mA 2.6 mA 4.0 mA 3.1 mA
Average current*: Average current*: Average current*: Average current*: Average current*: Average current*:
7.3 mA 7.8 mA 8.3 mA 9.4 mA 8.3 mA 9.9 mA
* Current draw based on “average” use assuming battery recharge once every 4 days

How often does phone battery needs to be recharged if GPS active?

GPS must be limited to 1-2mA (or 10% of phone power)
 GPS 101
Receive Power is -130dBm to -160dBm … 20dB to 50dB below the Thermal Noise Floor!

Earth radius 86 k
m
35,7
6,378 km

km Geo-stationary
100
19, Regional geo-stationary
augmentation satellites

0 km
20,20 WAAS
Wide Area Augmentation System – USA

EGNOS
23,222 km European Geostationary Navigation Overlay
System – Europe

GPS
6 orbital planes; 55° to equator Galileo
Moon
Galileo Approx. 400,000 km
3 orbital planes; 56° to equator

GLONASS
GPS
3 orbital planes; 65° to equator Orbit 11 hours 58 minutes
13,900 km/h

GLONASS
Air Invents Continuous Adaptive GPS
… offers both Low-Power & Position Accuracy

Accuracy

Low-Power

Competitor

Air
 Summary of UK Semiconductor ‘Hot Spots’

Silicon Glen Silicon Alley Silicon Fen

UK Semiconductor Locations Semiconductor Locations around the M4

Sources: NMI Design Survey Report 2006

NMI Members Map: http://www.nmi.org.uk/about-us/members/members-map
Location, Location, Location:
US 12/039,865 and USSwindon
99/999,999and the M4
Tracking Loops for Always-ON GPS Receiver
Silicon South West and Swindon Innovation Centre
Overview of Air Semiconductor
Investors, Awards and Founders
 The Air Team
David Tester Hugh Thomas
Founder & CTO CEO

Steve Graham Andy Heaton Hank Izumi

Co-Founder & VP Marketing VP Operations VP Sales Asia

RFIC Design System Design ASIC Design Software Design

Staff Staff Staff Staff
Employee #1 (20 years experience) Employee #3 (20 years experience) Employee #4 (10 years experience) Employee #7 (20 years experience)
Employee #2 (20 years experience) Employee #1 (20 years experience) Employee #5 (15 years experience) Employee #8 (15 years experience)
Employee #6 (15 years experience)

Contract Contract Contract

Contract #1 (15 years experience) Contract #3 (20 years experience) Contract #8 (20 years experience)
Contract #2 (15 years experience) Contract #4 (20 years experience) Contract #9 (15 years experience)
Contract #5 (20 years experience)
2x Synopsys IC layout contractors

Board of Directors
Support Staff
Hugh Thomas CEO ex-CEO TapRoot 1x General Admin
1x Finance Manager
David Tester CTO
ex-CEO Andromedia (acquired Macromedia ‘99)
Kent Godfrey Pond Ventures
ex-CEO Frictionless Commerce (acquired SAP ‘06)
Michael Gera Pond Ventures
ex-CEO PortalPlayer (NASDAQ: PLAY)
Gary Johnson Independent ex-CEO S3 (NASDAQ: SIII)
Initial Idea (in 2005) to Prototype Silicon (in 2009)
Dual-Mode GPS
system design

Dual-Mode GPS
software design

Acquisition DSP
Tracking DSP Architecture
Architecture
Tracking DSP
Tracking DSP Implementation
Implementation
Acquisition DSP
Implementation

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Radio IC Radio IC A1250

A1250 silicon evaluation
Implementation Implementation IC design
Air tracks GPS satellites with RFIC
Tracking DSP
March ‘08
Architecture
RFIC + FGPA platform
PVT & May ‘08
Kalman Filter
Air tracks GPS satellites with RFIC + FPGA
A1225 RFIC (v1) June ‘08
April ‘07 Air first PVT, confirms lab in Swindon
June ‘08
A1225 RFIC (v2)
A1250 single die GPS receiver
February ‘08
January ‘09

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

2006 2007 2008 2009

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Electra Start-Up of the Year 2008

November ‘08
Gary Johnson joins Board of Directors
2x NASDAQ CEO (PortalPlayer & S3) IET Start-Up of the Year 2008
May ‘07 November '08

Prof Izzet Kale joins Technical Advisory Board

October ‘08
Engage with TSMC for silicon
Sept ‘06
Demonstrate GPS technology
July ‘08
Development starts!
June ‘06 Recruit external CEO
May ‘08
Air Inc + Ltd incorporated
May ‘06 Red Herring 100 Europe 2008
April ‘08
Series-A Termsheet
April ‘06 Exit stealth mode
Announce 1st product
January ‘08
airwave1 system development platform
and prototype sample silicon module
 Prototype Product Performance
Unfiltered CEP50 position accuracy is 2.8 metres

Push-to-Fix TTF @ -130dBm: 2.5s

Push-to-Fix TTF @ -150dBm: 2.5s
(Future push-to-fix TTF will be <1s)

Unaided cold start: -140dBm

Unaided hot start -150dBm
(Future hot start sensitivity -154dBm)

Tracking sensitivity: -152dBm

(Future tracking sensitivity -160dBm)

Plot shows 20m (x axis) by 20m (z axis)

Positions grouped into 20cm x 20cm bins
Stationary receiver over 12 hour period
Air Technical Demonstration Platform … in Japan
Air Technical Demonstration Platform … in USA
GPS with airwave1 silicon
 Initial Market: Digital Camera Market and Geotagging

GPS enabled DSC's DSC shipments

160 M 164 M
150 M 155 M
146 M

62 M
38 M
22 M
9M

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

GPS modules developed by DSC partners

Customer Status: 174 Active Customer Leads
Markets:
Camera, Cellphone, Laptop PC, Netbook, Digital Watch, Asset Tracking
37 active leads generated proactively by Air
Including: Ability; Apple; Canon; Casio; DoCoMo; Foxconn; Fujifilm; LG; NEC; Nikon;
Nokia; Olympus; Panasonic; Pentax; Ricoh; Samsung Electronics; Samsung Techwin;
Sanyo Digital Imaging; Sony Ericsson; Softbank; Sony
20 active leads from VC introductions
Including: Google; Motorola; O2; Spreadtrum; Swatch; Vodafone
117 unsolicited enquiries resulting from PR activity
Including: Mediatek; Microsoft; RIM; Altek; Fujitsu; Hitachi; HTC; Mitac; Compal
Proactive

VC Introductions
Unsolicited enquiries
CSR / SiRF follow Air Semiconductor Always-ON
 Monthly Burn ($K)

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Success = Vision + Market + Money + Timing + Execution + Luck