June 30, 2004 – After a lackluster start in 2003, the MEMS industry experienced increases in customer and investor interest during the past several months. A new report finds the trend is expected to continue during the next several years.

“Step-by-Step to Success: 2004 MEMS Industry Overview and Forecast,” published by In-Stat/MDR, found that venture capital funding in the first half of 2004 was more than $150 million, which exceeded all of 2003 by more than a third. Product shipments were up 8.2 percent from 2002 to 2003, and revenues rose 35.7 percent.

“For all of the talk, and the anticipation, it’s finally starting to happen — slowly,” said Marlene Bourne, the report’s author and a senior analyst with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based research firm. “We finally have things to point to. It’s not, ‘(MEMS) could be used for this, it could be used for that.’ Now it’s, ‘it is used for this, it is used for that.'”

The report forecasts a compound annual growth rate for the industry of 13.1 percent during the next five years.