Where is the Love?
Has the romance between the MEMS and semiconductor industries started to fizzle? Or is the real issue that for new equipment vendors, the appeal and shiny/sexy new-ness of MEMS has faded as they salivate in anticipation of a switch from 300 to 450mm (with all of that sexy, new and expensive semiconductor equipment)?
In 2011, I declared that it was the “the year of MEMS” at SEMICON West in my MEMSblog, because last year, MEMS was everywhere! This year, not so much…
Don’t get me wrong; I love going to SEMICON West. I keep coming back because it’s like homecoming. I can’t walk the halls of Moscone without bumping into dozens of colleagues and MEMS Industry Group (MIG) members. This year it was even more fun, because I was armed with hundreds of adorable MIG stickers that I emblazoned/bedazzled on every MIG member (and future member) I saw.
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August 11, 2010 – 4:39 pm
Contributed by St.J. Dixon-Warren and R. Krishnamurthy, Chipworks
Invensense is a leader in the MEMS gyroscope market segment. According to Yole, they experienced nearly 500% growth 2009 over 2008. They now hold the #1 position in the MEMS gyroscope for consumer electronics market.
Chipworks recent had a look inside their new three-axis digital gyroscope, the ITG-3200. The device is built using the Nasiri, single-chip, MEMS process, where the MEMS layer is sandwiched between a fusion-bonded cap wafer and the ASIC. The ASIC and MEMS are bonded using eutectic metal bond. The SEM image in Figure 1 provides a tilt-view of the corner of the MEMS chip, where the MEMS layer can be seen between the cap and ASIC die.
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Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group
My journey through Japan continued with a trip up to Sendai (which is 96 minutes north of Tokyo by Shinkansen), at the invitation of Professor Esashi-sensai at Tohoku University. Takeo Oita-san of NDK accompanied me at my visit to Sendai. We were greeted at the station by Katou Hiroyuki –san and Ms. Emi Ooba, both with the Commercialization Support Sub-section, Industrial-Academic Collaboration Promotion Section, Economic Affairs Bureau, Sendai City. Their focus is to promote Sendai as the “best location” for R&D. Along with their director, Hiroyuki Miyata, I was very humbled and impressed with their hospitality and graciousness. Read More »
Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group
It was my second time in Japan, and this year I was again fortunate enough to attend Exhibition Micromachine/MEMS. This year I put on my “exhibitor cap” and manned the MIG booth – I’m not a big fan of standing around a booth (as anyone who knows me) – so I was very “un-Japanese” and abandoned my booth a lot. It’s way more fun and interesting and entertaining to roam the hall floor and meet/greet new and potentially new MIG members. Thankfully I was parked near the IVAM booth, so my colleagues at IVAM not only supplied me with endless bags of gummy bears, but also had the courtesy to explain where I was. Thank you, Uwe Kleinkes and your staff! Read More »
Contributed by Laurent Robin, MEMS Market Analyst, Yole Développement
Yole Développement released a new report dedicated to MEMS devices and sensors for smarphones applications: MEMS & Sensors for Smartphones Report. Yole Développement’s report provides market data on MEMS & Sensors for mobile phones: key market metrics & dynamics including unit shipments, revenues and average selling price by type of MEMS & Sensors, market shares with detailed breakdown for each player.
This analysis also presents application focus on key sensors that are changing the mobile phone industry: new features, technical roadmap, insight about future technology trends & challenges. Read More »
Contributed by Jérémie Bouchaud, Director & Principal Analyst, MEMS, iSuppli
When a sensor makes it into the cell phone market it can consider itself to be in the “big league.” As iSuppli reports in the news section of this issue, Steve Jobs’ recent announcement of the new Apple iPhone 4G featuring a 3-axis gyroscope is certainly good news for the small pool of suppliers of these devices. And, given its trendsetting nature and the way the company helped establish accelerometers in cell phones, Apple could not be a better champion to establish this device among other phone manufacturers.
This article looks at the reasons why the gyroscope has finally “earned its spurs” for mobile phones, and at the applications that will support its implementation in the coming years. Read More »
Contributed by Monica Takacs, Director of Marketing & Membership, MEMS Industry Group
Last week during SEMICON West, MIG staff and members, EV Group, Acuity Incorporated, and NIST attended the SEMI MEMS standards task force and committee meeting at the Marriott Marquis. This was my first time attending a SEMI standards meeting and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Standards have always been such a controversial subject at MEMS Industry Group meetings. My impression of the general consensus of our members’ view of MEMS standards is that standards may benefit the industry, but no company wants to implement standards if it means that they lose competitive advantage.
SEMI (www.semi.org/standards) has been working hard in development standards for MEMS reliability, microfluidics, micro tubes, materials characterization, wafer bonding, and terminology. They already have a list of published standards for sale. MIG encourages its members to get involved and join the conversation.
This is my forth year attending SEMICON West and each year there seems to be more emphasis on the enabling capabilities of MEMS and less explaining the definition of MEMS. As the MEMS Industry matures, standards are becoming inevitable. MIG’s charter is to advance the global MEMS market, and as an industry group we feel like the conversation about MEMS standards is very important. Standards may demonstrate the maturity of the MEMS industry by proving the reliability of MEMS to new customers in existing and new industries, thus expanding its reach to systems integrators.
What do you think about MEMS standards? Are MEMS standards important to your customers?
Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group
Day two at SEMICON West started off with a BANG – thanks to the impressive breakfast hosted by Pennwell Electronics Media Group at the oh-so-swanky St. Regis. The program featured several impressive speakers: Pete Singer, editorial director
of PennWell’s Electronics Media Group
who presented “Technology Trends in Semiconductor, Packaging & Solar Industries.” Pete’s nice overview was followed by Bill McClean, president
of IC Insights, who gave an overall presentation on the economic outlook for the semiconductor industry. But the piece de resistance was Andrew Thompson, the co-founder and CEO of Proteus (MIG member company) who gave a fantastic keynote on
”Emerging Applications in the Field of Medicine.” Thompson gave one of the best keynotes I’ve heard in a really long time – he eloquently and simply laid out a story on the consumerization/democratization of healthcare. Bravo – well done. Read More »
Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group
“Happy days are here again” is probably too rosy of a theme song for this year’s SEMICON West show, but it sure felt a lot different than last year’s. While overall attendance was higher than SEMI has seen in a while(if you include the mob scene over at the Solar show in Moscone West), I’d say that there were less exhibitors than I saw in 2008 (perhaps this is because many folks had to confirm their 2010 spots during the still-recessionary times of the summer of 2009?). Read More »
Contributed by Mike Stanley
Originally posted on Freescale’s Smart Mobile Devices Embedded Beat Blog
About two years ago, I joined the Freescale sensors team, which focuses on accelerometers, pressure sensors, and touch sensors.
Prior to that, I spent a number of years in the Freescale’s microcontroller solutions group, where I was an architect for several digital signal controller and microcontroller product families. One of the first things I learned when I moved into the sensors group was that certain “rules of the game” that relate to microcontroller design needed to be adapted when dealing with sensors. An example is package selection. With most microcontrollers, package selection is based upon number of functional and power pins required, PCB assembly processes targeted and (sometimes) thermal characteristics. Performance considerations are often secondary, if they exist at all. Sensors interact with the real world. Mechanical stresses introduced during both package assembly and PCB mounting can affect electrical performance of the device; often showing up as additional offset or variation of performance with temperature. Even the compound used for die attach has a demonstrable effect on sensor performance, and must be considered early in the design process. Read More »
