Jan. 14, 2008 – Freescale Semiconductor has established a new 200mm MEMS line at its Oak Hill fab in Austin, TX, complementing an existing 150mm MEMS line in Japan. The company said in a statement that the added capacity will enable it to “explore and integrate new MEMS capabilities and address major competitive challenges, such as power consumption, cost effectiveness and form factors.”

“As customers continue to demand low-cost, robust and highly functional sensors in smaller form factors, Freescale’s additional 200mm MEMS manufacturing line will certainly help to satisfy the upsurge of application opportunities in the price-sensitive automotive, industrial, medical and consumer markets,” stated Demetre Kondylis, VP and GM of Freescale’s sensor and actuator solutions division.

Illustrating growing demand for MEMS sensors, particularly consumer applications such as pressure sensors and accelerometers, “top semiconductor companies are now looking at MEMS applications as great growth areas,” added Jean-Christophe Eloy of MEMS market research firm Yole Developpement. He cited data forecasting a 14% CAGR growth for the global MEMS industry, from $6B in 2006 to $9.7B by 2010.