Category Archives: MEMS

December 30, 2008: MEMS will rack up sales worth $150 billion if its parts can be mass-produced, said the president of Cadence Design Systems’ Asian division, according to a report in Digitimes.

Lung Chu is quoted as saying that the biggest challenge for integrated circuit designers in Taiwan is lack of standardization in MEMS design. Chu told Digitimes that Cadence has developed a customized tool to help MEMS design houses link up with players in the Taiwan MEMS supply chain.

Once the tool has been officially launched, Chu said, more Taiwan IC designers will enter the MEMS market.

December 23, 2008: Volcano Corp., a manufacturer of products for the diagnosis and treatment of coronary and peripheral artery disease, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Axsun Technologies Inc., a privately-held developer and manufacturer of lasers and optical engines based on its MEMS technology platform. Axsun’s technology is used in medicalOptical Coherence Tomography (OCT) imaging systems and advanced photonic components and subsystems used in other industrial applications.

Volcano plans to utilize new integrated versions of Axsun’s advanced tunable laser and optical engine technology in the development of new OCT imaging systems. Axsun’s technology and laser components allow for dramatic imaging performance improvements in equipment form factors as small as 1/1000th the size of current laser components at very low manufacturing costs.

Under terms of the acquisition agreement, Volcano will pay approximately $21.5 million in cash at closing. Axsun will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volcano.

“Axsun is another complementary and important transaction for Volcano as it provides us proprietary OCT technology that we believe will both accelerate our OCT product development efforts and provide us significant and sustainable competitive advantages in the invasive imaging arena. We believe OCT technology will extend Volcano’s reach to clinical indications and research opportunities that represent sizeable market opportunities that are beyond those served by our current offerings,” said Scott Huennekens, president and chief executive officer of Volcano.

The company said that it expects this transaction to be neutral to consolidated earnings per share in fiscal 2009 and that following completion of the transaction it will have more than $145 million in cash, with no debt. The company said it will provide additional details on the financial impact of the transaction when it provides 2009 guidance during its fourth quarter earnings conference call in mid-February.

“The Axsun laser and optical engine technology is a key building block in our strategy to cement our already strong position in invasive imaging,” Huennekens continued. “The company’s core technologies are truly leading-edge and will advance our programs to both enhance system performance and achieve lower manufacturing costs as we seek to remain the innovation leader in medical imaging. In addition to the known applications in the cardiology and dental fields, Axsun’s unique technology has the potential to expand OCT applications into a number of new platforms serving large markets in the healthcare sector, including peripheral vascular, neurovascular, cancer and ophthalmology,” he added.


Axsun OCT tunable laser module. (Source: Volcano Corp.)

“We are thrilled to become a part of the Volcano organization. Axsun has developed an entirely new class of tunable optical engines based upon our unique MEMS based technology platform,” commented Dale Flanders, president/CEO of Axsun, in a statement. “It is clear that medical imaging represents one of the largest growth markets in which to fully exploit this technology. Our capability of precise imaging is delivered with a level of performance and on a scale of miniaturization and at a cost that should enable significant expansion of varied market opportunities in a number of medical specialties. We are also pleased to merge with a company with the resources and managerial strength of Volcano to help us build on our leadership position in the communications and industrial spectroscopy markets.

December 16, 2008: The success of Apple Inc.’s iPhone is spurring competitors to offer products with comparable features, fueling a sales boom for MEMS accelerometers used to detect motion in smart phones, according to the market research firm iSuppli Corp.

“Apple’s visionary use of MEMS accelerometers that support the automatic switch from landscape to portrait view on the iPhone display has prompted a flood of competitors to follow suit,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, principal analyst for MEMS at iSuppli, in a news release.

“Mobile handset makers now are adopting accelerometers for this purpose and for other human-interface or power-savings applications, causing sales growth of MEMS for this application to exceed all expectations.”

By the end of 2008, 10% of the 1.29 billion mobile devices shipped worldwide will include MEMS accelerometers, up from 2% at the end of 2007, Bouchaud said. This will help the global MEMS accelerometer market for mobile phones and other consumer electronics to grow to 900 million units in 2012, up from 65 million in 2007.

Bouchaud also said that video game console controllers represent another bright spot for MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers, with their revenue growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11% to reach $240 million in 2012, up from $28M in 2006, due to their adoption in well-known platforms like the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation 3. Microsoft also is heavily promoting MEMS accelerometer-based accessories for the holidays, like Guitar Hero and Lips.

December 16, 2008: Heidelberg Instruments announced the sale of a μPG101 table top maskless laser patterning system to the Alberta Center for Advanced MNT Products, Canada. The system will be used for prototyping and fabrication of various devices including biosensors and microfluidics.

The μPG101 is an extremely economical and easy to use Micro Pattern Generator for direct write applications as well as low volume mask making. It is also perfectly suitable for rapid prototyping of 2D and 3D microstructures on substrates up to 4-in. × 4-in., and is capable of exposing high resolution features with an address grid of 40nm. The μPG101 is capable of both Vector and Raster scanning exposure strategy.

The Alberta Centre for Advanced MNT Products (ACAMP) is the new Open Innovation Centre for microsystems and nanotechnology enabled new products and industrial applications. With multi-million dollar initial public investment announced by the government of the Province of Alberta in May 2007 as part of its Alberta Nano Strategy, ACAMP is dedicated to building a world class capability that will grow to make Alberta a world-leading locale for the assembly and packaging of Micro-Nano-Technologies (MNT) enabled devices and development of new commercial products and industrial applications.

The Centre and its services will be accessible to Alberta researchers, start-up companies and established companies. Its focus will be on applying technologies to innovating products and new industrial applications where Alberta has either a strategic lead or opportunity or where these will be beneficial to key sectors such as life sciences, energy, and ICT. This it will do in collaboration with provincial, national and international supplier and value chain partners and networks. Core platform technologies include: MEMS, optics, RF-instrumentation, microfluidics and biosensors.

Dec. 15, 2008 – In a paper discussed at this week’s IEDM, researchers from IMEC reveal a monolithically integrated 11-megapixel 10cm2micromirror array, double the pixel density of comparable micromirrors, and a 10e12 cycle mechanical lifetime, also a record, they claim.

Each 8μm × 8μm array, fabricated using a 0.18μm/200mm SiGe-based MEMS process with 6 interconnect levels can be individually tilted by integrated CMOS circuitry beneath the array; poly-SiGe was used instead of Al to solve reliability issues and smooth integration with the CMOS chip below.

The device is part of IMEC’s CMORE initiative that is investigating system scaling not by shrinking CMOS but rather monolithic integration of heterogeneous technology. Potential uses include lithography mask writers and video projection systems. The CMORE technology can be migrated to 300mm based on customer demand, the group said in a statement.


Figure 1: Top view of individual mirrors and hinges. (Source: IMEC)


Figure 2: Cross-section of the integrated micro-mirror array, showing the
mirrors on top of the 6 layers of interconnect. (Source: IMEC)

(December 15, 2008) BROMONT, Canada and MASSY, France, &#151DALSA Semiconductor, supplier of specialized and custom wafer foundry services announced successful tests creating conformal copper seed layers on through-silicon via structures (TSVs) using the eG ViaCoat process from Alchimer S.A. As a result, DALSA reportedly intends to license Alchimer’s technology to enhance its MEMS production capabilities.

This electrochemical coating process for the copper seed metallization of TSVs used in advanced 3D packaging applications reportedly enables over 50% reduction in cost of ownership compared to dry vacuum processes. According to Luc Ouellet, VP of Technology Development at DALSA Semiconductor, Alchimer’s copper-based approach will allow the company to achieve faster operating frequencies and higher power density with lower resistance and higher thermal dissipation when fabricating low-cost MEMS products. “Alchimer’s approach for TSV is a strategic technology allowing us to mass-produce MEMS devices in cost-sensitive markets,” said Ouellet. DALSA has been using via-first processes for TSV in fabricating MEMS for years, he added.

To secure the license agreement with DALSA, Alchimer says it successfully demonstrated the coverage performance of its product on deep reentrant TSVs. A reentrant TSV is one whose diameter is narrower at the surface of the substrate than at the bottom,a nd is characteristic of faster Bosch deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) processes. By demonstrating consistent step coverage on reentrant structures, eG ViaCoat reportedly allows high-etch-rate Bosch processes to be used, cutting the costs of DRIE steps by up to 50%. These cost savings in the faster DRIE steps are in addition to the cost savings made in the copper seed metallization step. Alchimer also reported that is successfully demonstrated subsequent void-free copper fill on these deep reentrant TSV structures.

Steve Lerner, CEO, Alchimer, expressed excitement for working with DALSA, calling it a “leader in the MEMS foundry business” as well as “a company committed to creating innovative technologies and quality products.”

December 11, 2008 Boston Micromachines Corp. (BMC), a provider of MEMS-based deformable mirror products for adaptive optics systems, announced that its deformable mirrors are being widely used by leading astronomers around the world in the historic search for new galaxies and extra-solar planets. Research organizations, including French Aerospace Lab ONERA, University of Florida, the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, and Durham University in England, are implementing the Boston Micromachines deformable mirrors in testbeds and on-sky equipment.

The roots of adaptive optics technology are in the field of astronomy. It was introduced in the 1950s as a concept for improving astronomical imaging by correcting for atmospheric aberration caused by turbulence. Today, ground-based telescopes around the world are equipped with adaptive optic telescope mirrors, successfully and reliably generating high-resolution images of their targets and even rivaling the image clarity of their space-based telescope mirror counterparts. Adaptive optics’ widespread adoption can be attributed to its inclusion of precision optics, sophisticated wavefront sensors, and more recently, MEMS deformable mirrors. BMC deformable mirrors, capable of correcting high resolution aberrations, are integral components in major astronomy research projects worldwide.

“Our scientific goal is to develop technology to directly detect planets orbiting nearby stars, via imaging. Our challenge is that planets, especially those resembling Earth, are factors of millions to tens of billions times fainter than stars and located within close angular proximity,” said Dr. Justin Crepp, formerly a PhD student at University of Florida (currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at California Institute of Technology). “We are using the Multi-DM for both phase and amplitude wavefront correction, which is critical to achieving the required sensitivity.”

Boston Micromachines’ MEMS deformable mirrors are also being used in testbeds for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), a next generation large telescope which aims to have ten times sharper image than the Hubble Telescope. A crucial component of the project is adaptive optics. At the French Aerospace Lab, ONERA, Boston Micromachines’ Multi-DM is being tested for use in Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO). “We are using MEMS mirrors because their low hysteresis, very good reproducibility, and high temporal bandwidth meet our needs,” said Dr. Thierry Fusco of ONERA.

Also conducting testing in MOAO for the E-ELT is Durham University in the UK, using Boston Micromachines’ Kilo-DM. “We find MEMS technology to be a good choice for our research because of the compact size, large number of actuators, and open-loop control characteristics,” said Dr. Richard Myers, Durham University.

“We are happy to be working with these world-class institutions and support their astronomical discoveries,” said Paul Bierden, president and CEO of Boston Micromachines. “Our deformable mirrors, with their high lateral resolution and exceptional wavefront control, have the unique technical capabilities to meet the challenging requirements of astronomy research.”

December 11, 2008: SiTime Corp., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has expanded its portfolio of MEMS-based silicon timing devices with the introduction of high-performance, programmable clock generators.

According to the company, SiTime’s MEMS technology offers 10× the robustness and reliability than existing quartz-based solutions, supporting longer-life electronics.

SiTimes said the new SiT9103 and SiT9104 multi-PLL, multi-output, highly programmable timing solutions are the first such devices to integrate a MEMS resonator, eliminating external quartz completely and conserving up to 66 percent of board space.

SiTime is also introducing the SiT9102, a differential output MEMS oscillator with an ultra-high frequency stability of +/-10 PPM.

December 10, 2008: Tronics Microsystems SA, a custom MEMS components and microsystems manufacturer, has formed a new US business unit to provide prototyping, qualification, and volume-production services for custom MEMS components for the North American market, joining the company’s other operations in the US (MedTech Development LLC) and Europe (Tronics Microsystems).

Operating out of a 140,000-square-foot facility in Richardson, TX, Tronics MEMS Inc. offers innovative, customized MEMS process and production solutions to customers for medical, mobile media, automotive, printer, aerospace, and consumer applications. Customers will benefit from Tronics MEMS Inc.’s US-based MEMS development and manufacturing expertise, production capacity and customer support.

“The Tronics MEMS Inc.’s team has long-standing expertise in MEMS process development and product industrialization. They will significantly strengthen our ability to provide innovative solutions for the manufacturing of custom MEMS products in the important US market,” said Peter Pfluger, CEO of Tronics Microsystems, in a statement, adding that the increased domestic manufacturing capacity “will help us accommodate our growing global customer base.”

Tronics MEMS Inc. will focus on custom MEMS process development and volume MEMS manufacturing. Tronics Microsystems, based in Crolles, France, will remain focused in producing highly differentiated custom MEMS and microsystems for a diverse customer base in the medical, life sciences, instrumentation, transportation and other industries around the world.

December 9, 2008: With car sales plunging, demand for automotive electronics is dropping as well — except for the key area of electronic stability control (ESC) systems, for which sales are expected to continue to rise in the coming years and generate attractive opportunities for suppliers of microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) used in these systems, according to iSuppli Corp.

ESC builds on anti-lock braking system (ABS) technology by correcting vehicle direction to help drivers maintain control of their vehicle during rapid steering and counter-steering changes, which may occur during events like sudden lane changes or swerves to avoid obstacles.

“Based on industry input, iSuppli’s new report on ESC systems and components includes groundbreaking research on factors driving the market, and the competitive positions of suppliers of MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes, and pressure sensors,” said Richard Dixon, senior analyst, MEMS for iSuppli, in a statement. “Among the major findings is that shipments of ESC systems and associated MEMS will continue to rise, despite the current downturn, due to government mandates requiring stability control in the United States and later in Europe. This provides opportunities for at least six players new to the ESC market, either in development or sampling gyroscopes, and likewise four companies developing product for accelerometers. We expect that the new offerings may begin in the truck market before attacking the large automotive OEMs.”

MEMS accelerometers are a key component of ESC systems, measuring lateral slip, i.e., any sideways deviation from a car’s intended trajectory.

In this market, VTI Technologies was the leader in 2007 with a 53% share of industry revenue. VTI supplies all the MEMS accelerometers used by Continental Automotive Systems, the leading supplier of ESC systems. Bosch is in second place, supplying accelerometers for its own systems and to Mobis. It held a 29% share of ESC accelerometer revenue in 2007.

The gyroscope in an ESC system measures a car’s yaw rate. Systron Donner was the market leader with a 44% share of market revenue in 2007. Bosch was second last year with 30% of revenue due to sales of gyroscopes for its own ESC systems.

However, the company to watch in this segment is Panasonic, which held the No. 4 rank for ESC gyroscope revenue in 2007. The company surpassed Silicon Sensing Systems in terms of unit shipments in 2007, giving it the No.-3 ranking based on volume.

“Panasonic is on the rise in the ESC gyroscope market with a robust and inexpensive new gyroscope, and could jump several more places in the next five years,” Dixon said.

The pressure sensor modulates the braking of individual wheels to realize changes in trajectory calculated by the motion sensors of the ESC system. In 2007, Bosch led the market with 54% share of revenue. Sensata, a 2006 spin-off from Texas Instruments Inc., is the second major player with a 34% share of revenue, with Denso a distant third place.