Chirp Microsystems: A University, Industry, Government, Spouse Collaboration
Company founded: 2013
Founders: David Horsley (UC Berkeley BS, 1992, MS, 1994, PhD, 1998, mechanical engineering), Michelle Kiang (UC Berkeley MS, PhD, electrical engineering), UC Berkeley Professor Bernhard Boser, Richard Przybyla (UC Berkeley, PhD, 2013, electrical and electronic engineering), Stefon Shelton (Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center student researcher), André Guedes
In 2018, the Tokyo-based electronics giant TDK Corporation acquired the UC Berkeley startup Chirp Microsystem, enabling the Berkeley-based company’s fifteen employees to scale up its ultrasonic sensor technology for a wide range of applications.
That acquisition highlighted the story of a husband and wife cofounding duo. It was also exemplary of how a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) helped create an industry sector, an innovative technology, and a successful startup. The I/UCRC is called the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center (BSAC). It was organized in 1986, to develop a science, engineering, and technology base for microsensors, microactuators, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).1
The story of Chirp starts in 2012, with the invention of a MEMS ultrasonic sensor by a team of BSAC researchers that included UC Davis mechanical engineering professor David Horsely. Horsely received his BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley. He had held several R&D positions in industry before joining, in 2003, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis, about sixty miles east of Berkeley. BSAC expanded to include the Davis campus in 1998, and Horsley became a BSAC faculty co-director in 2004. The BSAC research that led to the ultrasonic invention was funded by DARPA and Analog Devices Inc., which was a BSAC corporate member.
To commercialize the ultrasonic sensor, Horsley cofounded Chirp Microsystems with his spouse, Michelle Kiang. Kiang was the company’s CEO and Horsley its CTO. Kiang received her MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley, where the couple had met. Before Chirp, Kiang had a career in industry, including cofounding two hard tech startups with successful exits.
Chirp licensed the ultrasonic sensor’s patent rights from the university, and in addition to BSAC, the startup leveraged several other UC Berkeley I&E resources, such as the SkyDeck startup accelerator, and the campus’s Marvell nanofabrication shared R&D laboratory. Horsely and the team used the Marvell “NanoLab” to produce prototypes of the company’s sensors for demonstrations to potential customers and investors.
Chirp raised $3.2 million in 2015, in a seed round of financing with institutional investors, and in 2017, the company raised another $1.5 million. That year Chirp launched its first product, a millimeter-size, ultra-low power, single-chip sensor that functions like sonar or echolocation, sending ultrasonic sound waves and then measuring how long it takes for the returning echo. The product enables precise sensing, ranging from several centimeters to several meters. It has many applications—for example, it can enable users to interact with a device without touching the device or even interact with a device that doesn’t have a screen (such as a wristband or ring). In comparison to alternative sensor technologies, such as IR sensors, Chirp’s ultrasonic sensor is more compact, less costly, requires less power, and works under any lighting conditions, including direct sunlight.
In a 2018 interview with EE Times, Kiang said, “Of course, we founded Chirp, not to sell, but to grow our own business. But last fall, when we were raising money for our series A—which was oversubscribed—we also heard of TDK’s interest.” She added, “We were open to the idea of becoming a part of a larger organization because the opportunity appears to give us the chance to live in the same ecosystem they are already in, and it could become a way for us to scale our business at a much faster pace.”
One of the interesting aspects of the Chirp story is the success of the husband and wife cofounding duo. “It worked well for us,” Kiang remarked. “Dave is the leading expert in his field and also experienced in managing technical teams. Whereas I brought the business experience from founding and running two hard tech startups prior to Chirp as well as working at large companies in corporate development and strategy.” She added, “We have complementary skills and deep respect for one another. We’d worked together prior to Chirp, first at the company we both joined right after graduating from UC Berkeley, and then at my first startup, where Dave led the system engineering team. So we knew we could work well together. Also, we felt fortunate that we could spend more time together than a typical couple with separate careers.”
However, Kiang also observed some not-so-positive aspects. “The flip side of the advantages was that there was little separation between family and work time, meaning we were constantly talking shop even at home (and our daughter can attest to that). Finally, we had to deal with certain negative perceptions that some investors had about a husband and wife team, especially when the wife is the CEO (not the CFO or something like that). In any case, we are happy to be in good company with the likes of Marvell and VMWare husband and wife cofounders.”
1 BSAC researchers at UC Berkeley developed other MEMS technology that led to the successful startups Berkeley Lights, Iota Biosciences, Discera, and Silicon Clocks.
Published in Startup Campus: How UC Berkeley Became an Unexpected Leader in Entrepreneurship and Startups, August 2025
