Planet A.T.E.
Region
Southern California
Fund
Anthem Venture Partners I
Industry
Semiconductor
Contributing Partners
Brian Mesic
William Woodward
About the Company
Planet A.T.E. is a fabless semiconductor company that develops and sells highly integrated mixed signal "System on a Chip" (SoC) components to the manufacturers of Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). Planet ATE focuses on the analog and pin electronics portion of the tester, and the company's mission is to enable ATE manufacturers to dramatically reduce the cost of test by integrating all per-pin analog circuitry into a single IC. The company's products target high-growth semiconductor markets such as flash memory chips.
Company Heritage
Planet A.T.E. was formed by an ATE "dream team". Jeff King spent 22 years in the industry making ICs for ATE manufacturers. Will Creek spent 15 years at a leading ATE maker and was one of only a handful of engineers with direct knowledge of the analog portion of the tester. Will Bohannon had spent the past 5 years selling analog ICs to ATE manufacturers. This group came together to capitalize on an opportunity they saw to enable a new class of low-cost, power-efficient test equipment.
