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MEPTEC Illuminates MEMS Glowing Perspectives
June 27, 2008 |Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
The sixth annual MEPTEC MEMS Symposium took place May 22, 2008 and gathered together industry participants, suppliers and customers for learning and networking. It is now the world MEMS event of the year as the scope of applications grows.
Bance Hom, of Consultech, deserves credit for the series inspiration; Bette Cooper, of MEPTEC, for making the symposium a success. The conference co chairs did a wonderful job in selecting the presentations.
This column is my attempt to do justice to MEMS' increasing range of applications that will drive new electronics industry markets in a very major way. The market figures included were not derived directly from the symposium--just a sample. The best is yet to come.
Gartner projects a 2008 Semiconductor market value of approximately $280 billion. This total supports a global electronics industry estimated at $1.2 trillion at factory level. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), by comparison, are only $7 billion in 2008, according to SEMI and research partner, Yole Developpement (www.yole.fr/).
The three examples to follow will show why these similar and complementary components have very different market sizes and why MEMS are disproportionately small compared to the equipment markets they make possible. One has to look beyond MEMS' component/subsystem market value to appreciate their true economic importance as a large and growing electronic industry driver.
- The inkjet MEMS, enabler of the inkjet printer, was invented at Hewlett-Packard in 1988. Today, printer industry sources estimate that inkjet printers are a $50 billion industry. Inkjet MEMS are valued over $1.6 billion based on Yole figures for major MEMS players. (H-P has about half the inkjet MEMS market, not including royalties. Inkjet technology is now finding new applications for circuit deposition.)
- The digital light processing (DLP) MEMS was developed at Texas Instruments (TI) in 1987. According to Wikipedia(R), "In DLP projectors, the image is created by microscopically small mirrors laid out in a matrix on a semiconductor chip known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Each mirror represents one or more pixels in the projected image...DLP is rapidly becoming a major player in the rear-projection TV market, having sold two million systems and achieved a 10% market share." Yore cites TI's 2008 DLP MEMS market at about a billion dollars for projection displays including games and HDTV.
- Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) pioneered accelerometer MEMS beginning in 1989 and has contributed over half a billion dollars (my inference from Tufts business case study, mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2002-2-0018.pdf, into its development. Not until 2003 did the product turn a profit on sales, at about $200 million, with 35% of the market share. The vehicle air bag industry, which uses most accelerometer MEMS, is estimated at over $14 billion, shared among Bosch, Freescale Semiconductor and Analog Devices Inc.
ADI's courage is going to pay off big time as its 3-D accelerometer MEMS find their way into motion-sensing games such as Nintendo's Wii Fit. The game application is just a beginning that will lead to interactive training in a myriad of settings. Another potentially giant market for accelerometers--precise cell phone location, a price-sensitive feature offering application. This application may become a mandated feature because of security and safety advantages.
Analog Devices, Inc. participated in the MEPTEC MEMS Symposium--one of ten companies that described new MEMS that uniquely address new applications or perform old functions better. Most of these new products also have enormous end-market generating potential.
MEMS and Semiconductors Sales Comparison is Not Apples to Apples
Semiconductors represent close to 20% of electronics equipment manufacturing bill of materials (BOM) costs. A close coupling exists between electronic hardware and semiconductor market sizes. By comparison, MEMS are a very key, enabling component whose functional value is gained in partnership with an IC. Value is expressed at system level and dwarves MEMS component contribution by itself.
Because MEMS are still a young technology, the industry is still finding new applications in a wide variety of young markets--a fact that automatically translates to high growth.
MEMS' Dual Relationship to ICs
MEMS are both a technology derivative and a market adjunct to semiconductor integrated circuits. The emergence of MEMS was made easier by obsolete wafer fab equipment available, as the following 2007 Gartner quote attests, "Over 40 state-of-the-art 200 mm memory fabs (are) becoming obsolete in the next few years...Some (will) likely move to MEMS... (That) corresponds well with the increasing adoption of 200 mm from 150 mm wafer processing occurring in MEMS (www.semiconductor.net/article/CA6452167.html)."
Note that the reason for wafer equipment obsolescence by larger wafer sizes is the competitive drive for lower-cost ICs. MEMS' economics are based on their unique proprietary mechanical constructions.
MEMS do not use the bulk semiconductor characteristics of silicon or other materials. Micro-machining processes used to make MEMS include semiconductor lithography and materials, much like chemical machining shares processes with print-and-etch printed circuit fabrication. Chemical machining works for mechanical dimensions in the two digit micron range. But, if dimensions in single digit microns down to nanometers are required with 3-D features, then semiconductor lithography and etching are the only way to go--the reason why another name for MEMS is micro-machining.
MEMS, besides sharing fabrication tools and material sets with semiconductor ICs, are usually closely associated with ICs in applications such as sensors and actuators.
Generally, MEMS devices have an accompanying IC, analog or DSP chip for signal processing for sensing or actuating functions. So, it's not surprising that Analog Devices, TI and Freescale are market leaders in MEMS as they focus on analog and A to D conversion ICs.
Symposium Sessions Dedicated to Emerging MEMS Applications
In less than 20 years, MEMS have grown from infancy to a $7 billion (Yole, 2008) component industry--driving over $100 billion of electronic equipment into existence.New MEMS constructions create new equipment markets and, at the MEPTEC MEMS Symposium, eight new, high-growth MEMS were described.
Moore's Law, for 43 years the main driver for electronic industry growth, cannot increase IC density indefinitely.What will take its place as generator of markets? Put MEMS at the top of list.
MEPTEC MEMS Symposium Sessions
Four sessions were dedicated to consumer, automotive, biomedical and packaging MEMS. Each session featured four speakers, including the chair. In addition, Dr. Luke Lee of UC Berkeley, in his keynote address, described novel biomedical MEMS.
Lee said, "My BioPOETS group focuses on fundamental cellular biophysics, innovative biology, quantitative medicine and personalized medicine. Quantum nanoplasmonic spectroscopy, biophotonics, systems nanobiology, Biological Application Specific Integrated Circuits (BASICs), soft-state biological devices and Biomolecular Polymeric Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (BioPOEMS) are being developed by BioPOETS for the digitalization of quantitative cell biology, molecular medicine and personalized medicine".
MEMS continue to serve valuable applications not expressed in mass markets, but the "killer apps" are our theme here. Four MEMS technologies from the consumer and automotive sessions are contributing to the creation of very large electronic equipment markets.
"Consumer MEMS Becoming a Dominant Market Force in 2008" was the topic of Session One. Joseph R. Mallon, Jr., Session Chair and CEO of axept, a firm that helps companies enter the business by putting all the pieces together, recounted some history.
In 1965, when Mallon entered the industry, MEMS served defense and process control, a small emerging technology with high ASPs. MEMS are now moving into the consumer segment in a very big way--the reason why price points under a dollar per MEMS device is mentioned. Three consumer and automotive MEMS will serve as examples, including the example from Analog Devices, Inc.
- Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems make sense and, thereby, a lot of money, according to Janusz Bryzck, PhD, CTO and CEO of LV Sensors, a MEMS venture. The company is not ready to discuss the technology, but the market presentation provides another classic case of MEMS' potential to create market values many times greater than their own. Benefits include: savings from full inflation exceed cost of tire set--from fuel and wear; global reduction of CO2 at 327 billion pounds per year; potential market value, assuming TPMS government mandate of a $35 system price at manufacturer level; 100 million new car sales per year; product: $3.5 billion system market (estimates before considering truck fleets or aftermarket).
Note on automotive sales pressures: The industry has a way of forcing prices and vendor margins down. Do these factors prove the superiority of the vertical integration model of Bosch--from MEMS enabler to system--that has worked to the disadvantage of Analog Devices in the case of the air bag sensor?
- Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR): Avago Technologies has brought a piezo-electric MEMS filter to market that will replace Surface Acoustic Wave filters in cell phones. Benefits include: 1/3d area, height; higher Q; lower cost to manufacture; 1.2 billion, and growing, unit market. Longer term multiple filters will be used in muti-protocol phones. If I were an Agilent stockholder, I would wonder why this jewel was spun off and taken private.
MEMS packaging has not been discussed here. An entire four speaker session on the topic closed an exciting program with a session on this crucially important and difficult issue. Another article would be required to fully discuss the topic. MEMS, unlike ICs, require package techniques that are individualized for function and to fit their varied micro-machined structures. MEMS do borrow from IC packaging as in the use of wafer scale.
Also, biomedical MEMS were not included because of space and time.
Supplement (from Analog Devices, Inc. Product Literature)
Accelerometer--Principle of Operation
The motion sensors typically employed in the newest games are 3-axis accelerometers--three-dimensional motion sensors with electrical outputs corresponding to acceleration components in the x, y, and z directions. The sensor is a polysilicon surface-micromachined structure built on top of a silicon wafer. Polysilicon springs suspend the structure over the surface of the wafer and tend to resist accelerating forces. The structure's deflection is measured using a differential capacitor that consists of plates--attached to the moving mass--moving between paired independent fixed plates, at voltages driven by out-of-phase square waves. Acceleration deflects the moving mass and unbalances the differential capacitor, resulting in a square-wave output with amplitude proportional to acceleration. Phase-sensitive demodulation techniques are used to read the magnitude and polarity of acceleration.
Each demodulated output is amplified and brought off-chip through a 32-kV resistor. External capacitors, chosen by the user, provide filtering and set the bandwidth. The device also has a self-test facility to detect malfunctions.
Harvey Miller has been watching the printed circuit industry for over 30 years as an economist at the University of Michigan, analyst and database creator. Prior to that, he built economic input-output models of the electronics industry for 10 years. Harvey began his electronics career as a components engineer for computer and telecom OEMs--Burroughs and GTE among them. At present, he's putting it all together, generating powerful marketing database tools for the global printed circuit board industry at www.FabfileOnline.com.