May 31, 2007 — In a just-released update to its MEMS Foundry Ranking, the highly respected French market research firm Yole Developpement reports that global MEMS foundry and contract manufacturing grew at a rate of 35% in 2006 — and the firm predicts similar growth for the next 3 years. The top 10 MEMS foundries/contract manufacturers reached cumulative sales of $157m in 2006, up from $120m in 2005, the study reveals.

“The MEMS foundry activities are just starting. While the MEMS foundry business accounts for a limited part of the global MEMS business today, these companies are at the very heart of the next MEMS developments,” says Jean Christophe Eloy, managing director and founder at Yole.

Worldwide, more than 30 companies based in various countries (US, Japan, Sweden, Canada, and France) are involved in MEMS foundry or contract manufacturing, the report says. And unlike the very integrated IC foundry business, where the four top players (TSMC, UMC, Chartered Semiconductor, and SMIC) have a cumulative market share of 84% (2006 results), in the MEMS realm roughly the same total market share is distributed among 10 foundries.

The findings corroborate some of what the recent rankings by WTC put forth, but differs in some key respects. For instance, Yole places Sony in the #2 position under IMT, which is now roundly acknowledged as the top dedicated MEMS producer in the world. And, Yole’s study includes in its top 10 list some foundries (ELMOS SMI and Memestech) not mentioned by WTC.

Yole ranks top producing MEMS foundries in this order:
1 IMT
2 Sony
3 APM
4 Micralyne
5 DALSA Semiconductor
6 ELMOS SMI
7 Memstech
8 Colibrys
9 Silex
10 Memscap
11 Tronic’s Microsystems