Michael LeGoff to lead sensor technology spin-out Sorex Sensors
27 February, 2019 – University of Cambridge spin-out Sorex Sensors has announced the appointment of Michael LeGoff as chief executive officer (CEO) as it embarks on its next phase of growth. The sensor technology company raised £1.2 million seed funding last year from Cambridge Enterprise, the Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.
Mr LeGoff is the former founder and CEO of the relaunched electronics pioneer Plessey Semiconductors. He has more than 25 years of industry experience focused on commercialising technology and has been the catalyst for innovation and growth in a number of technology companies. He takes up his new appointment with immediate effect. Former Sorex Sensors CEO John Pritchard will continue to support the business in an advisory role until mid-April.
“Sorex Sensors is poised to transform a whole range of industries with its innovative sensor technology,” said Mr LeGoff. “The team has done a fantastic job in bringing its novel sensing technology close to the product launch stage. We are now focusing on a few key industrial applications where the technology will have an immediate and tangible impact, creating real demand. It’s great to be involved in a business where the path to scale production is relatively clear.”
Sorex Sensors has developed a novel mass sensor based on film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology. The new sensor is extremely small – as thin as a human hair – and can be arranged into arrays on the same chip to measure different targets simultaneously. It has high mass sensitivity, down to one femtogram – the weight of the average virus particle.
Initial applications include monitoring vehicle emissions; measuring industrial air quality; the detection of various biomolecular structures in the body; and improving the performance and accuracy of atomic layer deposition tools, which is a key part of the fabrication of semiconductor devices. The sensor can be operated from a coin cell battery, a mobile phone or even from energy harvesting devices.
Prof Andrew Flewitt, co-founder and chairman of Sorex Sensors, said: “We are delighted to have Michael join the team. We are looking forward to this next phase of development, both in terms of products and commercial traction in our early-stage business. John has been hugely influential in getting us to this stage, including putting together the seed round and developing the early-stage strategy for the company. Michael and the team have a great platform to build on.”