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A couple weeks ago, SuVolta, a semiconductor startup out of Los Gatos, CA emerged from stealth mode and announced their PowerShrink technology. The blogosphere and newswires went ablaze with the claims put forth by the company including the 50% reduction in active power while maintaining performance and the 5x reduction in leakage. The reputableVCs backing the company, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), August Capital and NEA, which helped the company raise $22M in funding last year, only added fuel to the fire. Further, the fact that semiconductor startup funding has been rather on the decline recently, funding for device and circuit technology specific startups has been virtually non-existent with the exception of a few specialized analog startups, further upped the hype surrounding the company. Now that the hype has passed, it is time to dig a little deeper and explore whether all this press attention has been warranted.

Over the last few years we have seen many new ways of interactive with our electronic gadgets, be it through gaming controllers such as can be found on the Nintendo Wii and the XBox Kinect, or through touchscreen interfaces which have been popularized through smartphones. Ident Technology, a startup out of Wessling, Germany is betting on the fact that what we have witnessed thus far is just a prelude of what’s  to come. The company itself has been around for quite a while now, having been founded back in 2002 by Peter Rosenbeck, Stefan Donat and Wolfgang Richter. Up to this point the company seems to have been generating revenue by licensing its intellectual properly, including Ultra Low Power Proximity (ULPP) technology to semiconductor partners. Last year the company demonstrated some interesting concept including the GestureRemote and the GestureCube shown in the video below.

Attempt to do wireless HD video streaming - get funding; At least this seems to be the cause and effect relationship as of late. Back in November we wrote about Celeno Communications which raised $12 million for attempting to stream HD video via Beam Forming MIMO over 802.11n. A month before that we covered Quantenna Communications which raised $14 million the last time around also for MIMO Wi-Fi chipset development for 1080p HD streaming. This time around we have Amimon, a semiconductor startup out of Herzlia, Isreal which about a week ago raised $15 million in funding.

Touchstone is a more popular name than might appear at first, having been utilized by software companies, health companies, a file format, rock bands, and even a Shakespearean character. This time around though, we’re talking about an analog semiconductor startup out of Milpitas, CA which recently celebrated its first anniversary as a funded company by announcing their first product, namely an operational amplifier for ultra-lower power applications.