As far as 200mm goes (this includes MEMS as one of many emerging technologies at this wafer size), we are one of the few companies continuing to develop new and innovative technologies at this wafer size to support the growing markets such as MEMS, Power Devices, Analog Devices, etc, etc. I guess it’s a matter of relative market size. When the world speaks of 450mm they think in terms of 10′s of $M and up, per tool prices…. When they think of 200mm technologies its still in the $1M+ range. This obviously has significant impact on who gets all the attention.

That being said, technologies such as MEMS continue to evolve and become more complex in their fabrication requirements. This is driving continued development in all our areas of fabrication DRIE, CVD, PVD, etc, etc. We’re at a point (even just for MEMS) where I can list HW or process advances needed on each tool that are driven by the design of more complex MEMS or the integration of several types of MEMS onto one chip, etc. Give me a device and I’ll show you all the processes and/or advanced films required to enable it – every device has a secret sauce that enables its funcionality – a process or film that is key to its high yield fabrication.

So, while it may seem from the outside looking in that big Semi is focused on everything else – there are groups within tool vendor industry that continue to invest heavily in 200mm and for us at least that means a significant support for the growing MEMS industry.

@Bryon thanks for your note as well – yes I think it’s a basic human tendency to follow the next new shiny bright thing (reminds me of a scene from Finding Nemo). I saw a recent twitter post from @Ira_Feldman linking to this report: http://j.mp/PEOXrs that referenced the impact of a switch from 300 to 450mm on the IC supply chain. Clearly this is an issue that folks are discussing; but for MEMS it’s just not relevant. I especially love your sentence “um, yeah, I’d like one wafer please?” that is brilliant – thanks guys!

But, in fact, just as there are still lots of takers for older technology nodes like 90 nm or even larger, my guess is that there will be plenty of non-MEMS semiconductor guys that will resist the push to 450 mm. After all, for some folks, a 450-mm wafer may hold more than a year’s supply of dice. It’s probably humiliating to go to a foundry and say, “Um, yeah, I’d like one wafer please?”

So MEMS folks may have plenty of company in using 200- and 300-mm wafers.