A founder and former CEO of the electronics pioneer Plessey Semiconductors, with more than 25 years of industry experience on commercialising technology, Mr LeGoff’s aim is to take the company to production at scale.
A University of Cambridge spin-out, the sensor technology company based at Botanic House in Hills Road raised £1.2million in seed funding last year from Cambridge Enterprise, the Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.
It has created a novel mass sensor based on film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology.
As thin as a human hair, the sensor can be arranged into arrays on the same chip to measure different targets simultaneously.
Its high mass sensitivity goes down to one femtogram – the weight of the average virus particle - giving the technology initial applications that including 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, a key element in the fabrication of semiconductor devices.
Its power source can be a coin cell battery, a mobile phone or even energy harvesting devices.
Mr LeGoff said: “Sorex Sensors is poised to transform a whole range of industries with its innovative sensor technology.
“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.”
Mr LeGoff takes up his new appointment with immediate effect, with former Sorex Sensors CEO John Pritchard supporting the business in an advisory role until mid-April.
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.”
