July 21, 2011 — In a podcast interview at SEMICON West 2011, Tony McKie, GM of MEMSSTAR, tackled the question of how to make micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) truly manufacturable. "Nobody builds a MEMS manufacturing line anymore," said McKie. Instead, what people do is take a CMOS line (either an outdated one or a 6" or 8" line) and revitalize it and make it into a MEMS production line, which is fine for about 70% of the processes required for MEMS. But for the remaining 30% MEMS-specific processes, one has to integrate technologies into the rest of the line with a good level of productivity, he said.
"In the past, MEMS processes have been more R&D type [processes] and few companies have made the leap from R&D to manufacturing," noted McKie. He explained that what one ends up with is 70% well-understood equipment and processes, but the 30% remaining may result in lower productivity, less reliability, and slower throughput. The challenge for both MEMS manufacturers and their equipment suppliers is to raise the standard of performance that is expected of any silicon manufacturer, whether CMOS or MEMS. "Everyone now expects 95% uptime, a level of throughput, a level of productivity — it all comes back to [return on investment] ROI," he said. "MEMS processes need to come to the level of ROI that CMOS manufacturers have enjoyed for the last 20 years."
On the topic of standardization of MEMS processes, McKie is hopeful, but realistic. "MEMS is very IP-protected — everybody is doing their own thing and nobody wants to share what they’re doing with anyone else," said McKie. But he believes that MEMS will have to go the way of standardization just as the CMOS industry did. "As more and more MEMS devices come to market and as the quantity of MEMS that is manufactured increases, the larger MEMS manufacturers will have to be willing to share their technology."
July 14, 2011 – Roaming the show floor is always a mix of nostalgia (old friends are still in the business), reassurance that a new generation has taken an interest in the industry, and just a touch of melancholy that great halls that used to have to turn away semiconductor suppliers due to over-subscription are now shared with other industries like MEMS, LEDs and other lighting, displays, and of course the sprawling PV infrastructure (Intersolar this year actually encroached into a section of the North Hall of Moscone, with the West Hall across the way full to bursting.)