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Oct. 18, 2004 – After several years of helping others bring MEMS to market, a Tokyo-based fabrication facility is launching its own line.
Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. has developed a tri-axis accelerometer module designed for mobile phones as well as other consumer electronic and entertainment products. Oki expects to send sample shipments in October to Japanese and North American customers, and ramp up to high volume by April.
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The ML8950, which the company said is the thinnest of its kind, is a sensor chip combined with an integrated circuit. It can detect acceleration, inclination and vibration in three axes, and send the signal in a digital format.
Oki said pairing the accelerometer with a digital interface omits the need for an analog-to-digital signal converter and allows the module to be embedded into digital equipment. The company also said its assembling expertise enabled it to produce a thinner sensor chip than its competitors. That makes it easier to put into phones that keep shrinking as functions keep growing.
Company spokeswoman Naomi Takeuchi said the module could provide global positioning system-based data even if the phone is tilted. If the phone or other device is dropped, the sensor also can detect acceleration and save data before the hard-disk drive is damaged.
Oki, which has offered MEMS production services since 1999, anticipates sales of $90 million by 2007 for the ML8950.
The company doesn’t exactly have the consumer sensor market to itself. Analog Devices Inc., MEMSIC, Freescale Semiconductor and Bosch are among several making single or dual-axis accelerometers, which can detect three axes when more than one sensor is integrated into a package. A much smaller group, including ST Microelectronics and Kionix Inc., has begun selling single-chip, tri-axis sensors.
“They’re coming up with a completely different approach with the tri-axis,” said Marlene Bourne, MEMS analyst for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based In-Stat/MDR.
“If a company was entering the market with single or dual, you’d question why. There are so many players. … But entering the accelerometer market with tri-axis — that’s a completely different angle, so to speak.”
Bourne said that before the availability of tri-axis accelerometers, people talked about integrating gyroscopes into cell phones. Gyros primarily are being developed to provide rotational detection for numerous military, aviation, industrial and biomedical applications.
The tri-axis accelerometer raises new product possibilities because it can offer similar functions as the gyro but more affordably. For now, she doesn’t see a strong market demand for rotational detection in mobile phones but that could change.
“So why put it in a cell phone? It’s a cool thing. It gives you an added degree of motion sensing capability. It’s that much more refined,” she said. “Ten years from now, we won’t even be asking these questions. We’ll just be used to it.”