Category Archives: MEMS

May 14, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — TechNavio predicts 22% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) microphones from 2011 to 2015, mainly due to the shrinking form factor of these devices. The global MEMS microphone market is also reaching emerging applications in the healthcare segment, outside of its core application area in consumer electronics.

MEMS microphones are smaller in size with more functionality than traditional electret condenser microphones (ECMs). MEMS microphone vendors are focusing on reducing the size even more with improved manufacturing and packaging technologies. Key vendors dominating this market space include AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., Akustica Inc., Analog devices Inc., and Knowles electronics Inc.

In addition to size, MEMS microphones offer robustness and low power consumption, enabling high-quality output at a more efficient operation.

MEMS microphones still carry a high cost, prohibiting growth in cost-sensitive areas, or applications where the increase in microphone performance is not enough of a differentiator to justify the higher bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Also read: Digital MEMS microphones to overtake analog

MEMS microphones are being designed into healthcare applications from blood flow monitors to heartbeat and lung function monitors, thanks to improvements in MEMS microphones, TechNavio reports.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global MEMS Microphone Market 2011-2015" report from TechNavio to their offering. Access the report here: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5l9lzt/global_mems_microp

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May 11, 2012 — Mixed-signal semiconductor supplier Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT, NASDAQ: IDTI), introduced a piezoelectric micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) resonator technology that does not use crystals. IDT has branded the components CrystalFree pMEMS (piezoelectric MEMS).

The crystal-free low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) and low-voltage positive emitter-coupled logic (LVPECL) oscillators suit high-performance communications, consumer, cloud, and industrial applications. They operate with well below 1 picosecond of phase jitter. The IDT 4M oscillators operate with ±50 ppm frequency accuracy from -40° to +85°C and support frequencies of up to 625 MHz. IDT’s pMEMS oscillators are available in industry-standard 7 x 5mm (7050) and 5 x 3.2mm (5032) standard plastic packages. They are designed to replace traditional 6-pin crystal oscillators (XOs).

Also read: MEMS resonators vs. crystal oscillators for IC timing circuits

Thanks to the CrystalFree pMEMS resonator technology, IDT can rapidly factory-program the desired output frequency for the IDT 4M series oscillators without fine-tuning crystals. The nominal resonator frequency of pMEMS is much higher than quartz crystal, enabling 4M oscillators to achieve higher frequencies at lower cost without lower performance. Crystals are also expensive.

IDT expanded its pMEMS technology into high-performance applications like communications to provide a cost-effective XO replacement, said Fred Zust, VP and GM, Timing and Synchronization Division at IDT. “IDT’s patented pMEMS resonator technology combines the strong electromechanical coupling of the piezoelectric material with the stability and low damping of single-crystal silicon.”

IDT also offers solid-state oscillators in its frequency control portfolio.

The IDT 4M oscillators are currently sampling to qualified customers and are available in hundreds of configurations based on frequency, voltage, output types and industry standard packages.

Integrated Device Technology, Inc., the Analog and Digital Company, develops system-level solutions that optimize its customers’ applications. IDT stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Stock Market under the symbol IDTI. Additional information about IDT is accessible at www.IDT.com.

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May 10, 2012 — MEPTEC will host its 10th Annual MEMS Technology Symposium, May 23, in San Jose, CA. Keynotes cover “sensory swarms” and motion interfaces, and sessions will cover the micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) roadmap; design, manufacturing, and test of MEMS; MEMS architectures and uses, and more.

Professor Krisofer Pister, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the morning keynote, titled, “Sensory Swarms.” In the afternoon, Steve Nasiri, founder, president, CEO and chairman, InvenSense, will present “Motion Interface the Next Large Market Opportunity.”

Sessions and session chairs:

  • The MEMS Revolution: from Billions to Trillions?
        Jérémie Bouchaud, Director and Senior Principal Analyst MEMS and Sensors, IHS iSuppli
  • Realizing the Full Potential of MEMS Design Automation Software 
        Stephen Breit, Ph.D., Vice President Engineering, Coventor, Inc.
  • Roadmap to a $Trillion MEMS Market 
        Janusz Bryzek, Ph.D., VP MEMS Development, Fairchild Semiconductor
  • Integration of the Accelerometer — the First Step of the MEMS Revolution
        JC Eloy, President and CEO, Yole Développement
  • CeNSE: Awareness through A Trillion MEMS Sensors 
        Rich Friedrich, Director of the CeNSE program, Hewlett-Packard Labs
  • On the Road to $1T?
        Gregory J. Galvin, Ph.D., President/CEO, Kionix, Inc.
  • Implementing the Trillion Dollar MEMS Roadmap
        Robert Haak, Managing Director, Insight interAsia Pte Ltd., Vice President – Asia/Pacific, Executive Board of Directors, MANCEF
  • Fusing Sensors into Mobile Operating Systems & Innovative Use Cases
        Tristan Joo, Board Director & Co-Chair of Mobile SIG, Wireless Communications Alliance
  • High Volume Assembly & Test Solutions to Meet the Rapidly Growing MEMS Market
        Russell Shumway – Sr. Manager, MEMS & Sensor Packaging, Amkor Technology

Register for the symposium at http://meptec.org/meptectenthannuc.html.

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May 9, 2012 — SEMI presented US Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI) with its 2012 North American Government Leadership Award at the annual SEMI Washington Forum. SEMI’s award recognizes policymakers who show leadership and support for the US microelectronics and photovoltaic manufacturing value chain.

Congressman Camp represents the 4th District of Michigan and has served in the House of Representatives since 1991. In 2009, Representative Camp became the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which oversees all tax legislation in the House of Representatives.

SEMI cited Camp’s leadership in extending the research and development tax credit, and efforts to make that credit permanent; support for free trade agreements, including the passage of the U.S-Korea Free Trade agreement; and support of domestic solar energy and solar energy manufacturing.

The SEMI North American Government Leadership Award was established in 2004 to recognize policymakers in the United States that promote pro-innovation policies. Recipients of the award are selected by the SEMI North American Advisory Board, and the award is presented in conjunction with the SEMI Washington Forum, one of the organization’s annual executive meetings with elected legislators and Federal officials in Washington, D.C.

SEMI is a global industry association serving the nano- and microelectronics manufacturing supply chains. For more information, visit www.semi.org.

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May 9, 2012 — Texas Instruments Inc. (TI, TXN) remained the top manufacturer of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) in 2011 with $779.0 million in MEMS revenues, fending off runners-up Hewlett Packard Co. and Bosch in tough competition for market share, according to an IHS iSuppli MEMS Market Brief report.

The top 10 MEMS players had combined revenue of $4.7 billion, up 12% from $4.2 billion in 2010. TI was followed by Hewlett-Packard (HP), Bosch, STMicroelectronics (ST, STM), Canon, Panasonic, Denso, Knowles Electronics, Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), and Epson.

Table. Worldwide revenue forecast for MEMS IDM and fabless manufacturers, excluding foundries ($M). SOURCE: IHS iSuppli Research, May 2012.

Rank Company 2011
Revenue		 2010
Revenue		 Y/Y Growth
(Decline) %
1 Texas Instruments 779.0 810.5 -4%
2 HP 748.4 782.1 -4%
3 Bosch 742.2 643.0 15%
4 STMicroelectronics 651.6 357.5 82%
5 Canon 368.7 354.7 4%
6 Panasonic 310.1 285.7 9%
7 Denso  286.4 262.5 9%
8 Knowles 270.9 191.5 41%
9 Analog Devices 250.2 204.2 22%
10 Epson 247.7 264.7 -6%
Total for Top 10   4,655.1 4,156.4 12.0%
Share of Total MEMS market   59.0% 58.5%  

Bosch and ST had much larger revenue jumps than the 2 top suppliers, which could indicate more competition for #1 in the near future.

Freescale Semiconductor, a former member of the top 10 MEMS makers, fell out of the rankings to #11.

TI’s MEMS revenue fell 4% from 2010 to 2011, owing in part to supply chain disruptions caused by the 3/11 Japan earthquake. Sales of digital light processing (DLP) MEMS chips kept TI on top in 2011, said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS & sensors at IHS. The DLP business was what helped propel TI to the top spot in 2010, rebounding in the business and education front-projector segment. “Sales are especially strong in China and India,” Bouchard notes, where DLP-based projectors have taken market share from liquid crystal displays (LCD). While front-projection designs are growing, rear-projection DLP TVs have virtually disappeared. From 2004 to 2009, this trend erased 31% of TI’s MEMS revenue.

TI also found success in pico-projectors, a still relatively small portion of its MEMS business at <$50 million of MEMS revenues. The company is the top supplier of pico-projectors for both accessory and embedded projectors such as those found in the Beam handset from Samsung Electronics. The product segment will be a main growth driver at TI over the next 5 years.

TI also introduced a MEMS temperature sensor, or thermopile, in 2011, targeting new handsets and tablets. Thermopiles monitor the temperature of the case to help optimize processor operation. Thermopiles will start to contribute to TI’s MEMS business in 2012 or 2013.

Hewlett-Packard also lost 4% of revenues from 2010 to 2011, coming in with $748.4 million from its MEMS business. HP held the #1 rank from 2005 to 2009, but suffers from price erosion in its MEMS thermal actuators, used in inkjet printheads. HP has lower shipments of disposable printheads as well, since it started migrating to permanent ones in 2005.

The Bosch Group GmbH held onto #3 with revenue of $742.2 million, shooting up 15% from 2010. Bosch saw growth in automotive MEMS as new vehicle safety products ramp up with inertial and pressure sensors. The vehicle airbag market grew rapidly in China as well, and side airbag applications rose in the United States.

STMicroelectronics saw 82% revenue growth in MEMS — the largest of any in the rankings — to $651.6 million. ST maintained its historical lead in accelerometers, with 50% of all consumer accelerometer revenue in 2011 for such applications as handsets, tablets, laptops and gaming. As consumer accelerometers start to slow, STMicroelectronics is expected to focus on other MEMS devices, including 3-axis gyroscopes, MEMS microphones, and pressure sensors. In 2011, gyroscopes accounted for 55% of MEMS revenue at STM, up from 32% in 2010 and <1% in 2009.

Canon saw a 4% increase in revenues with $368.7 million, the only major inkjet head manufacturer to see a revenue increase in 2011.

Access the IHS iSuppli MEMS Market Brief report.

IHS (NYSE: IHS) provides information, insight and analytics in critical areas that shape today’s business landscape. For more information, visit www.ihs.com.

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May 8, 2012 – PRWEB — Si-Ware Systems (SWS), provider of integrated circuit (IC)– and micro electro mechanical system (MEMS)-based solutions for industrial and consumer applications, launched its Inertial Sensor Development Platform, the SWS61111 (formerly SWP210), a tool that can be used to evaluate an inertial sensor, such as a gyroscope or accelerometer, to understand sensor behavior and performance with complete interface electronics.

The SWS61111 utilizes SWS’s high performance inertial sensor interface ASIC, the SWS1110 (formerly SWI210). The SWS1110 is a configurable ASIC that has been successfully interfaced to multiple accelerometers and gyroscopes achieving best-in-class performance that exceeds that of competing MEMS sensor modules in the market today. With its ultra-low noise front-end, highly configurable open- and closed-loop (force-feedback) operation and high voltage capabilities, the SWS1110 is a perfect MEMS interface for high-end inertial sensing devices.

SWS’s SWS61111 is designed to allow for the quick and easy interfacing of almost all capacitive MEMS devices to comprehensive and high performance electronics. Rapid and detailed evaluation of issues such as parasitic modes of oscillation, electrical and mechanical coupling, high-volt effects and temperature behaviours provide crucial insight to MEMS and ASIC designers. This enables rapid time-to-market and concurrent optimization of MEMS and electronics. The SWS6111 also serves as a tool to evaluate SWS’s SWS1110 high performance ASIC, which is offered in die format with optional customization, for product targeting the high-end segment.

“For a number of years now we have been developing and utilizing development platforms internally that allow us to quickly and accurately understand and model the behavior of our partners’ MEMS devices,” said Ayman Elsayed, ASIC solutions division manager at Si-Ware Systems. “With a thorough understanding of the MEMS device and its behavior with interface electronics, potential pitfalls can be avoided and an interface ASIC can be developed much more efficiently.”

The SWS61111 consists of a programming board, an ASIC daughter board with a sensor placeholder, a USB interface, and associated PC software. SWS provides options for mounting the sensor to the daughter board, including creating custom daughter boards to match a particular sensor. Through an easy to use software interface, the MEMS sensor can be interrogated and the ASIC parameters configured to best match the sensor. If desired, the ASIC parameters can then be burned into the memory of the ASIC and the sensor-ASIC daughter board can be removed and utilized for system level measurements.

In addition to its experience with MEMS inertial sensors, SWS has worked with piezoelectric sensors, MEMS resonators, and MEMS optics. The company has developed an extensive IP library of electronics for MEMS and piezoelectric devices that can be utilized in the development of interface ASICs. The SWS61111 is the first development platform that SWS is making available to developers, but the company has many other internal development tools for the evaluation of MEMS or piezoelectric devices.

Si-Ware Systems is an independent fabless semiconductor company providing product design and development solutions, custom ASIC development and supply as well as standard products. For more information, please visit http://www.si-ware.com.

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May 8, 2012 — Baolab Microsystems will modify the structures of its 3D NanoCompass to build a range of other motion sensors, with the end-goal of low-cost, smart, reconfigurable inertial measurement units (IMUs). Baolab creates nano electro mechanical systems (NEMS) within standard CMOS wafer metal structures via its NanoEMS technology, an order of magnitude smaller than MEMS built on the surface of the wafer and also at a fraction of the cost made via high-volume manufacturing.

Baolab has designed ways to modify its NEMS structures to create gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers, said Dave Doyle, Baolab’s CEO. Baolab can build combinations of these sensors on the same chip, simultaneously with associated electronics. These multi-sensor IMUs could be activated and configured dynamically as required by the application.

By building MEMS on standard CMOS production techniques, Baolab can “make as many as we like of whatever mix of sensors that are required at the same time, integrated with the analog and digital electronics running fusion software to make them smart,” said Doyle. The traditional way of making MEMS sensors requires a different production process to make each type of sensor.

"We will be introducing a series of nanosensor products as we work our way through the roadmap towards our goal of ultra low cost, smart, multi-sensor NanoIMUs," he concluded.

Baolab’s NanoEMS technology enables MEMS to be created inside the CMOS wafer using standard manufacturing techniques. To learn more, visit www.baolab.com.

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May 8, 2012 — memsstar Limited, deposition and etch equipment supplier to the micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and semiconductor industries, named Mike Thompson as chief executive officer (CEO). He brings experience from STMicroelectronics, Replisaurus, and other microelectronics companies.

Interim CEO Peter Connock will remain with memsstar as chairman of the board.

Thompson will lead the company — which recently consolidated its semiconductor and MEMS manufacturing products under one brand — in organic growth, new product/services introductions, and strategic partnerships for both markets. "memsstar is extremely well positioned at the high end of the semiconductor refurbishment market in Europe with a great deal of market opportunity existing for revenue expansion,” said Thompson, adding that “the company has developed tremendous etch and coating technology for the global MEMS market.” In 2011, memsstar expanded in "Silicon Glen," doubling its cleanroom manufacturing space in Livingston, Scotland.

Thompson comes to memsstar from a technical and operational consultancy role in Europe’s high technology sector. He was CTO of Replisaurus Technologies, which develops copper wire bonding for IC packaging, from 2008 to 2011. Before that, he served as deputy CTO and VP of STMicroelectronics (STM, ST), responsible for the development of CMOS and derived technologies, as well as the French VLSI manufacturing operations in Rousset and Crolles. He led the factory start-ups of Crolles 1 (200mm) and Crolles 2 (300mm) and served as operations manager of those facilities, overseeing approximately 5000 employees and a production output value of around $1 billion per year.

Thompson holds a BSc in astronomy with advanced mathematics from the University of Glasgow.

memsstar Limited provides deposition and etch equipment and technology solutions to manufacturers of micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) and semiconductors. Website: www.memsstar.com.

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May 7, 2012 – Marketwire — Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC), which makes deformable mirror (DM) products and adaptive optics systems based on micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), won a Phase II contract for $750,000 from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) to support NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration program.

The Phase 1 contract was for $125,000. As NASA searches for earth-sized planets outside of our solar system, deformable mirrors are used to correct residual aberrations in space telescope optics. Boston Micromachines developing processes and manufacturing innovations that will improve the ability of DMs to correct for residual aberrations, reducing glare in the imaging systems. Phase 1 covered development and demonstration of an innovative microfabrication process to substantially improve the surface quality achievable in high-resolution continuous-membrane MEMS DMs. The project goals include at least twofold improvement in small-scale surface flatness in comparison to the current state-of-the-art, and corresponding reductions in diffraction. Learn more about Phase I here.

DMs are subject to ionizing radiation, which can cause instability in the voltages that drive the DM. This Phase II grant will enable Boston Micromachines to construct a 2048-actuator, continuous-facesheet MEMS DM with enhanced reliability to handle harsh environments.

“Boston Micromachines’ MEMS DMs have enabled great performance and operation in high contrast imaging testbeds,” said Paul Bierden, president and co-founder of BMC, noting that the new funding will help simulate the conditions of space.

This Phase II award was offered based on NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program criteria, including technical merit and innovation, Phase I results, value to NASA, commercial potential and company capabilities.

Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC) provides advanced micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) mirror products and adaptive optics systems. For more information on BMC, please visit www.bostonmicromachines.com.

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May 7, 2012 — Western Michigan University developed a device combining a laser and diamond cutting system, enabling users to process hard, brittle materials that are difficult to machine. Initial applications include micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) manufacturing, and other fabrication on semiconductor and ceramic materials.

The technology, developed by John Patten and Deepak Ravindra, combines a fiber laser (typically near-IR) with an optically transparent diamond cutting tool. Essentially, the laser source’s high temperature (1,000°C+) and pressure (>100 GPa at the cutting point) thermally heats and softens the material’s surface to make it more ductile and easier to machine with the high-stress diamond tool.

It does not create cracks like existing manufacturing processes do with diamond tools, which require subsequent polishing. This technique softens the material before processing so no cracks or fractures are ever introduced, eliminating those costs and time, explains Ravindra.

A spinoff company, Micro-Laser Assisted Machining Technologies (μ-LAM), has been formed to commercialize the technology. Their work has been backed by more than $2.3 million in funding since 1999, mostly from the National Science Foundation (NSF). A description of their work will be presented at next month’s North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) at Notre Dame in South Bend, IL (paper 7777). They received a SMA Innovation award in 2009.

Learn more about lasers for device fabrication from Industrial Laser Solutions at http://www.industrial-lasers.com/index.html, which provided this news story.

Schematic illustrating the concept of the μ-LAM process. (Source: μ-LAM)