Menlo Micro

Menlo Micro (formally Menlo Microsystems Inc.) is an Irvine, California-based technology company that uses advances in material science to develop Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches. The company was spun off in 2016 from GE Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of General Electric. 
History.
Menlo Micro was founded in December 2016 as a spinoff by General Electric's GE Ventures venture subsidiary. The company had been part of GE's Global Research Center, based on MEMS switching technology GE engineers had been developing for more than a decade. As part of the spinoff, the company announced a Series A round of $18.7M, with participants including Microsemi, Corning Inc., Paladin Capital Group, and GE Ventures. 
In November 2018, the company announced its MEMS technology had transitioned from a research environment to capable of being produced at a Semiconductor fabrication plant (fab). It began working with Järfälla Municipality, Sweden-based Silex Microsystems, reportedly the world's largest MEMS fab.
Products.
Menlo Micro uses material science technology to develop advanced MEMS switches, which it calls Ideal Switches. The switches are similar to mechanical transistors, and can be used to build power switches. The switches are made from custom metal alloys plated onto glass wafers with through-glass via (TGVs), technology developed in conjunction with partner Corning. The technology is an alternative to traditional mechanical relays, which tend to be larger, slower and more prone to failure from metal fatigue. 
Applications.
MEMS switches can be used for communication equipment, battery management, electric vehicles and medical instrumentation. The chip has been designed into GE's medical systems. Their low loss and low resistance makes them useful for handling the high power required for RF tuning of 5G networks. The switches' ability to remotely control circuit breakers without drawing a lot of power makes them also suitable for home automation and industrial Internet of things (IoT) applications.