August 11, 2008 — Yole Developpement, a French market research and development company has released a report stating that the MEMS switch and varicaps markets will reach $700 million in sales by 2012. Growth is driven by handset applications.
The potential market for switches and varicaps is large because MEMS-based switches can enable new applications for handsets where reduced weight and size are important. These new products will also require increased RF switching performance at a constant size and cost.
Price erosion is expected to be a concern for MEMS manufacturers giving the current market leaders, such as ATE, an advantage during the upcoming production ramp.
There are more than 20 companies currently working in technology for this market, including ATE, RadantMEMS, MEW, Advantest, XCOMwireless, MEMtronics, Wispry.