Discera is Exporting Sensitive Military-Grade Technology ...
Discera is Exporting Sensitive Military-Grade Technology to China?
Discera is a technology start up company based upon research conducted at the University fo Michigan, which was funded by the venture capital firm of Governor Rick Snyder known as Ardesta. Discera, Inc. specializes in the development, production, marketing and sales of a cutting edge technology known as MEMS oscillators. MEMS – microelectromechanical systems – refers to the extreme miniaturization of a variety of electromechanical components so they can be embedded in a silicon chip as part of an integrated circuit.
One of those components is an oscillator, a device that generates a continuous electronic wave at a specified frequency that can be used in a wide range of commercial, industrial and military applications. MEMS oscillators are incredibly small, extremely accurate and highly shock resistant. These characteristics make them particularly useful in advanced timing applications.
Because oscillators are used in both commercial products and military products like missiles and smart munitions, they are classified and regulated by the federal government as a “dual use” technology. Tight restrictions are placed on the export of military-grade technologies to China that could be used to improve their missile technology and space programs.
Discera’s MEMS oscillator technology was developed at the University of Michigan, with the assistance/subsidy of public funds (Defense Advanced Research Administration), and exclusively licensed to Discera, Inc. The license agreement between U-M and Discera provides for royalty payments, stock options and reimbursement of patent-related expenses to the university, which means U-M has a financial interest in the successful commercialization of the technology.1
Military Application of Discera Oscillator Technology
Discera has partnerships with several companies to market their oscillator technology to different end users. One such partner is Vectron International, a subsidiary of Dover Corporation. Under the terms of their partnership, Discera offers commercial market applications of their MEMS oscillator technology, while Vectron offers military applications.
“Our respective markets are clearly demarcated," he added, "with Discera targeting consumer electronics, etc., and Vectron producing high-end consumer goods and primarily high-precision military and aerospace components."2
In 2007 the two companies announced the first product of their joint venture – a highly-shock resistant MEMS oscillator for use in guidance systems for missiles and other “smart munitions:”
“Our latest breakthrough, the VMEM5Q, clearly demonstrates our commitment to bring leading-edge technology to our customers who are manufacturing guidance systems for small munitions, projectile electronics, missiles, and high-shock vibration applications." Greg Smolka, vice president of Vectron's Industrial Military and Space Business unit, adds: "This MEMS-based oscillator addresses a strong need for high-shock resistant timing components in the Precision Guided Munitions (PGM) market." The Vectron oscillator makes use of a PureSilicon MEMS resonator from Discera.”3
Another industry trade publication reported that “the Vectron VMEM5Q has passed the company’s qualification testing, including MIL-PRF-55310, and has been qualified, approved, and installed by a top-level military customer for a gun-hardened munitions guidance system.”4
Discera’s military-grade oscillators are also embedded in defense industry hardware by M/A-COM, a division of Tyco, Inc. The DIscera MOS-1 oscillator is a key component in M/A-COM’s telemetry systems for missiles:
“The world's first design win for microelectromechanical-system oscillators is a high-reliability military application--a wireless transmitter that streams real-time telemetry data back from smart munitions to remotely guide them to their target. Discera Inc. will announce Monday (April 9) that Tyco Electronics' subsidiary M/A-COM (Lowell, Mass.) will use its MOS-1 MEMS oscillator in a wireless transmitter built for smart munitions. During testing, M/A-COM removed some warheads, allowing munitions to be retrieved after impact--and Discera's oscillators were still ticking.
"Our MEMS oscillator will be used in telemetry transmitters that must endure the shock of being fired with all the various different types of smart munitions in the U.S. arsenal," said Venkat Bahl, vice president of marketing at Discera (San Jose, Calif.). "Military observers present during M/A-COM's rigorous shock-testing procedures were at first skeptical of MEMS, but 100 percent of our MOS-1 chips passed [the tests]."5
New Export Controls on Military-Grade Oscillators
In December 2009 the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) – the federal agency responsible for the enforcement of “dual use” export controls – classified certain oscillators as a technology subject to export controls in the categories of national security (NS), missile technology (MT), nuclear non-proliferation (NP) and anti-terrorism (AT). According to BIS:
“The purpose of the control is to ensure that these items do not make a contribution to the military potential of countries in Country Group D:1 [ed.note: this group includes China] that would prove detrimental to the national security of the United States.6
According to the Commerce Control List (CCL) maintained by BIS and adopted by several international conventions, oscillator technology is designated with the Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 3A001.b.10. Exporting this technology to China is prohibited by federal law and international convention without an export license. Because export licenses are considered proprietary business information, there is no publicly available database to verify if Discera has obtained an export license to sell military-grade oscillators in China.
Additional restrictions apply to the export of missile technology to China. According to the BIS:
“Section 1512 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
requires a Presidential certification to Congress prior to the export to China of missile
technology controlled items, except for certain items used in manned aircraft.” 7
It should be noted that President Obama in 2009 delegated certification authority under this section to the U.S. Department of Commerce, a move that raised significant concerns in the national security community that certification authority for the export of sensitive missile technology should be vested in the Department of Defense.8
Missile technologies are also proscribed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a voluntary association of governments around the world that aims to reduce the proliferation of missiles. Not surprisingly, China is not a member of the organization. The MTCR maintains a detailed list of missile technologies subject to export controls. The list includes telemetry systems like those described in the Vectron and M/A-COM product announcements cited above.9
Concerns Over “Dual Use” Technology Transfer to China
In July, Discera opened a new business operation in Shenzhen, China. The company press release touted the new venture as a “state-of-the-art China applications center:”
“As the heart of the company’s permanent investment plan in China, the new office features engineers, equipment, and researchers to support sophisticated chip and module integration, high definition and 3D video technology, and radio frequency and smart grid design.”10
Company officials have since backtracked, describing the scope and scale of the Shenzhen operation as merely a “small sales office with five employees” who work with commercial end-users to incorporate Discera oscillators into Chinese consumer products.
Meanwhile, Vectron and M/A-COM are selling Discera oscillators to military end-users here in the US and abroad. Discera’s concurrent sale of their oscillator technology for use in U.S. missile guidance and telemetry systems as well as for commercial uses in China raises legitimate questions about the export of such “dual use” technologies to China. Once this technology is made available to China for commercial applications, it is difficult if not impossible to prevent the technology from being transferred to China’s military agencies.
Experts in the field of “dual use” technology transfer warn that the export of these technologies to China has serious implications for US national security.
“the acquisition of advanced dual-use technology by Chinese military and defense-industrial companies in the United States as well as technology ‘leakage’ through US joint ventures with companies in China pose the most serious national security concerns for the United States….”11
“In a 2005 exchange regarding U.S. exports of dual use technologies to China, former Department of Defense official Lawrence Korb (then with the Center for American Progress) told Peter Lichtenbaum, then Acting Undersecretary for Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce, that "…the United States exports equipment and technology to China that actively contributes to Beijing's ability to wage war." Korb noted that U.S. exports were not "…being used in a manner consistent with our national security and nonproliferation interests."12
Even the US government agency responsible for export controls on “dual use” technologies expresses concern about the long-term impact of high technology transfers to China on US national security. According to the BIS:
“Although it is not possible to make a clear determination of the US national security implications of commercial US technology transfers to China, the continuation of the trends identified in this study could pose long-term challenges to US national security interests. This study does not identify any specific Chinese military advances made as a result of US commercial technology transfers, but does suggest that continued pressures on foreign high-tech firms to transfer advanced commercial technologies, if successful, could indirectly benefit China’s efforts to modernize its military.”13
Further, a partially declassified Interagency Review of U.S. Export Controls for China (January 2007) conducted by the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, Energy, Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that “export control regulations and policies related to China should be strengthened” and that the Chinese government continues to pursue an “aggressive program of domestic industrial reform and acquisition of key weapons and technologies from foreign sources.” The report notes that the primary technologies sought by China include microelectronics, nanotechnology, space systems and missile systems.14
More recently, President Barack Obama called for a complete overhaul of the U.S. export control regime, according to a presidential directive signed Dec. 21, 2009.15
Conclusion
In sum, serious concerns can be raised that Discera’s Chinese sales activities may be tantamount to the transfer of military-grade technology to China under the auspices of selling it to commercial rather than military end-users. Unanswered questions include:
• Does Discera hold the appropriate export licenses needed to transfer their technology to commercial end-users in China? How do they prevent the technology from being obtained by military end-users in China?
• Do Vectron International and M/A-COM comply with appropriate export controls on military products that use Discera’s oscillator technology?
Even if all three companies currently hold valid export licenses for commercial or military products based on Discera oscillators, it remains possible that the federal authorities responsible for the enforcement of export controls are not aware that Discera may be exporting technology to China, ostensibly to commercial end-users, that is virtually identical to the technology used by Vectron and M/A-COM in guidance and telemetry systems for missiles.
NOTES
1) Amendments to Discera Licensing Agreement, University of Michigan Board of Regents, Meeting Minutes for December 2002, page 171; October 2003, page 110; April 2004, page 251; July 2005, page 34. The original licensing agreement between U-M and Discera, Inc. does not appear in meeting minutes available through an online search.
2) “Discera and Vectron formalized partnership”, EuroAsia Semiconductor, February 19, 2007
3) “Tracking The Technologies That Are Forging Future Systems”, by Jack Browne, Technical Editor, SECTION: DEFENSE ELECTRONICS: SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. 36 Vol. 47 No. 9 ISSN: 0745-2993
4) “Military Clock Oscillator Rides MEMS Technology”, by Jack Browne, Penton’s Military Electronics, September 2008, p. 8.
5) “M/A-COM qualifies MEMS oscillator for smart munitions”, by R Colin Johnson, EETimes, 4/9/2007
6) Final Rule, Docket No. 0908041218-91220-01, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Wassenaar Arrangement 2008 Plenary Agreements Implementation: Categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Parts I and II, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Commerce Control List, Definitions, Reports; Federal Register: December 11, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 237).
7) U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, Missile Technology Controls Questions and Answers.
8) “Obama loosens missile technology controls to China,” by Bill Gertz, Washington Times, October 15, 2009
9) Missile Technology Control Regime, Equipment, Software and Technology Annex, 10 Nov 2009.
10) Discera Press Release, July 19, 2010, “Discera Establishes State-of-the-Art China Applications Center in Shenzhen”
11) James Mulvenon in Chinese Military Commerce and US National Security, Center for Asia Pacific Policy, RAND Corporation, MR-907.0-CAPP (draft) July 1997
12) RESEARCH REPORT ON CHINESE HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES, U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, Prepared by NSD Bio Group, LLC, January 2009, 'Sunrise'%20Report%2002June2009.pdf
13) U.S. Commercial Technology Transfers to the People’s Republic of China, Defense Industrial Base Program, Defense Market Research Reports, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (undated)
14) Interagency Review of U.S. Export Controls for China - Report No. D-2007-050 (PDF) - Project No. D2005-D000LG-0220.001, January 31, 2007
15) “Obama Memo Puts Export Reform on Front Burner”, by Amy Klamper, Space News, January 15, 2010
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