May 10, 2011 — For the MEMS industry in general and for Japan’s MEMS sector in particular, the damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami was not as severe as initially feared due to a fortuitous accident of geography.

Most MEMS fabs and foundries are located in southern Honshu, away from the disaster-devastated northern section of Japan, notes Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst for MEMS at IHS. MEMS and compass suppliers had been employing multiple fabrication plants for manufacturing before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami occurred, reducing the impact of supply disruptions caused by damage to a specific factory.

"To date, the supply of MEMS sensors and actuators remains only slightly affected by the Japan catastrophe," said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst for MEMS at IHS. "In fact, the main effect of the earthquake on the world MEMS industry is on the demand side, not on supply. Manufacturers of finished electronic products have been more severely impacted than the component suppliers."

9 of the top 50 MEMS manufacturers worldwide are Japanese companies (Canon, Panasonic, Epson and Denso all rank among the Top 20 in the global MEMS space), and Japan is a strong manufacturing base for MEMS companies headquartered in western countries. Japanese companies sold some $1.38 billion worth of MEMS in 2010, representing 21.3% of the global market.

Approximately 32.5% of MEMS sensors and actuators in value were processed — partly or entirely — in Japanese facilities in 2010, corresponding to revenues from both Japanese MEMS companies and from foreign companies that have their MEMS processed in Japan. Western companies with MEMS facilities in Japan include Freescale Semiconductor, Knowles Electronics, Goodrich Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. for the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry of its digital light processing (DLP) chipsets.

Japan makes nearly all of the world’s digital compasses. Compasses rapidly are becoming a standard feature in tablets and cell phones equipped with global positioning system (GPS) functionality. Worldwide shipments of digital compasses reached 263 million units in 2010, up 354% from 58 million the earlier year, with shipments expected to rocket to 1.28 billion units by 2015, IHS iSuppli research indicates. Four Japanese firms — AKM Semiconductor, Yamaha Corp., Aichi Steel and Alps Electric — accounted for 97% of the global supply of digital compasses.

Only three of the 22 most important MEMS and compass fabrication plants in Japan suffered direct damage, IHS iSuppli research shows, although 19 fabs potentially could be affected by the same logistical and power issues impacting all Japanese industries in the calamity’s aftermath. The three damaged facilities belonged to Freescale, Canon Corp. and Texas Instruments, shown in the attached figure pinpointing the location of MEMS and digital compass fabrication facilities throughout Japan.

• According to Freescale, the company has decided to close its 150mm fab in Sendai, near the quake’s epicenter, and focus efforts on accelerating the transfer of MEMS production to its 200mm Oak III fab in Texas. Freescale was lucky in that the Sendai fab had been scheduled for shutdown by the end of 2011, and the company already had built buffer inventories. Had it not made this decision in 2009, Freescale and its customers would have been severely hurt, IHS believes.
• For Canon, which makes printers and MEMS print heads in the city of Fukushima, site of the nuclear meltdown, production was halted after significant damage to the company’s plant. However, Canon managed to repair the damage very quickly, with the plant completely operational again by the first week of April. As a result, the impact of the disaster on Canon’s MEMS revenue for 2011 is expected to be very modest, IHS iSuppli data indicate.
• For its part, Texas Instruments’ Miho fab northeast of Tokyo has undergone the repair of various infrastructure systems for water, gases and chemicals. Full production will resume by the middle of July, with full shipment capacity to commence before September, the company said. Prior to the catastrophe, Texas Instruments already was using multiple fabs for the fabrication of CMOS wafers for DLP MEMS chips, and the company is in a fortunate position to rapidly increase production at its other fabs to compensate for the disruption at Miho.

To learn more about this topic, see the new IHS iSuppli report "The Japanese Disaster and Its Impact on the MEMS and Compass Industry" http://www.isuppli.com/MEMS-and-Sensors/Pages/The-Japanese-Disaster-and-Its-Impact-on-the-MEMS-and-Compass-Industry.aspx?PRX

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May 9, 2011 — The Dolomite Centre Ltd, designer and manufacturer of microfluidic devices, signed a collaboration agreement with Sphere Fluidics, a leading company in commercializing picodroplet technology that performs thousands of simultaneous analyses on single cells and small populations of molecules.

Sphere Fluidics is commercializing new lab-on-a-chip and picodroplet technology developed at Cambridge University by company founders Professor Chris Abell and Professor Wilhelm Huck. Sphere Fluidics offers expertise in miniaturized discovery systems and services based on microfluidics and picodroplets.

Focusing on storing and retrieving individual picodroplets containing a unique sample, Sphere Fluidics’ technology benefits rapid antibody discovery, identification of novel algal strains, generation of new biocatalysts, etc.

The agreement between Sphere Fluidics and Dolomite establishes core areas where the two companies will collaborate:

• Dolomite will become the exclusive worldwide distributor for Sphere Fluidics’ standard products, including a range of PDMS picodroplet handling chips and surfactants;
• Dolomite will develop and sell new products in picodroplet technology, based on Sphere Fluidics’ expertise.

Dolomite expects to add further functionality, such as droplet merging, via the collaboration. Sphere Fluidics expects the cooperation to bring its technologies to market faster.

"Microdroplets are a fascinating and fast growing area of research, especially useful where tests need to be conducted on only a few nanolitres of sample containing, for example, cells or DNA," commented Dr. Andrew Lovatt, CEO of Dolomite.

Sphere Fluidics is commercializing new lab-on-a-chip and picodroplet technology from Cambridge University that can perform thousands of simultaneous reactions on single cells and small populations of molecules contained within aqueous droplets, fractions of a millimetre in size. For more information please visit www.spherefluidics.com

A Microfluidic Application Centre, Dolomite focused on working with customers to turn their concepts for microfluidic applications into reality. For more information please visit www.dolomite-microfluidics.com

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May 6, 2011 – PRNewswire — STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) supplier, launched a complete hardware solution for advanced sensing applications with 10 degrees of freedom (DoF). A set of 3 thin, high-performance MEMS sensors provides accurate and comprehensive information on linear, angular, and magnetic motion together with altitude readings, enabling enhanced navigation and smarter user interface in mobile phones and other portable consumer devices.

An emerging new class of mobile consumer applications, such as location-based services and pedestrian dead-reckoning for indoor and multi-floor navigation, require rather complex sensing capabilities. By using three ST MEMS sensors — a geo-magnetic module, a gyroscope, and a pressure sensor — a consumer device can have a complete indication of its linear acceleration, angular velocity, earth gravity, heading and altitude. With this information, mobile users will be able to identify their direction and precise location in all three dimensions everywhere they go, including in places with no or low GPS signal: inside buildings in urban canyons, or in mountainous and forested terrain.

Facilitating the fusion of complex motion-sensor data in smart consumer devices, ST has also recently introduced an advanced filtering and predictive software engine, which integrates the outputs from 3-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetic sensors. Fusing these sensors’ data through sophisticated algorithms, the iNEMO Engine delivers more accurate and reliable sensor performance.

"Multi-sensor capabilities enhance the mobile user experience with previously unseen realism and accuracy in next-generation motion- and location-based applications," said Benedetto Vigna, group VP and GM of ST’s MEMS, Sensors and High Performance Analog Division.

Designed and produced using the same micromachining technology process that the company applies to its more than 1.2 billion sensors, ST’s MEMS chips boast ultra-small size and minimized current consumption coupled with superior accuracy and reliability. The three-chip 10-DoF sensor solution comprises the following components:

• The LSM303DLHC geo-magnetic module integrates high-resolution, three-axis sensing of linear and magnetic motion in a 3 x 5 x 1mm package, with operating current consumption as low as 110 microamps. The device delivers extremely accurate output across full-scale extended ranges up to +16g (linear acceleration) and +8 Gauss (magnetic field), with excellent stability over time and temperature.  In addition to that, it comes with a host of advanced features, including 4D/6D orientation detection and two programmable interrupt signals that enable immediate notification of motion detection, free fall and other conditions.
• Housed inside a 4 x 4 x 1mm package, the L3G4200D 3-axis digital gyroscope provides state-of–the-art performance in terms of output accuracy and stability over temperature and time. The device couples a 16-bit data output with a wide set of user-programmable full-scale ranges from +250dps up to +2000dps. An embedded FIFO (first-in first-out) memory block removes the need for continuous communication of between the sensor and the host processor, decreasing dramatically the overall power consumption.
• ST’s soon-to-be-announced silicon pressure sensor uses an innovative technology to provide extremely high resolution measurements of pressure — and therefore also of altitude — in a 3 x 3 x 1mm package. The device has an operating pressure range of 260-1260 millibars, corresponding to the atmospheric pressures between -700 and +10000m relative to sea level, and can detect height variations as small as 0.3m.

ST’s 10-DoF sensor solution is now available for evaluation, with mass production scheduled for the end of Q3 2011.

STMicroelectronics creates innovative semiconductor solutions for multimedia convergence and power applications. For further information on ST’s MEMS solutions, go to www.st.com/mems.

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May 5, 2011 — Crystals and MEMS are used in electronic components as the basis of oscillators. Both are popular in consumer electronics devices like smartphones. Crystal growth was significantly interupted by the major March 11 earthquake off the coast of Sendai, Japan. MEMS, on the other hand, seem to have escaped the disaster largely unscathed, show 2 new reports from IHS iSuppli.

"Numerous Japanese crystal products are manufactured in factories located near the epicenter of the earthquake or are situated close to the coastal regions impacted by the tsunami," Rick Pierson, senior analyst for CPT and semiconductors at IHS, said. Most MEMS fabs and foundries are located in southern Honshu, away from the disaster-devastated northern section of the island, noted Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst for MEMS at IHS. Moreover, MEMS and compass suppliers had been employing multiple fabrication plants for manufacturing before the quake and tsunami occurred, reducing the impact of supply disruptions caused by damage to a specific factory.

6 2010 7 2010 8 2010 9 2010 10 2010 11 2010 12 2010 1 2011 2 2011 3 2011 4 2011 Q3 2011 Q4 2011 KHz and MHz Crystals 13 14 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 8 12 12 10

Disruptions spurred by the Japan earthquake and tsunami caused shipments of crystals to be delayed by four weeks in April compared to March, impacting the supply of a critical component employed in products including cell phones and PCs, new IHS iSuppli research indicates. The average lead time for megahertz and kilohertz crystals rose to 12 weeks in April, up 50% from eight weeks in March (figure). Unusually long lead times can lead to delivery delays and short supplies, which could threaten price increases.

"Because Japan is the world’s leading producer of crystals — major suppliers include Epson, NDK and Citizen — the quake crisis will cause pricing for crystals from major Japanese suppliers to climb during the next few weeks," said Rick Pierson.

Among the facilities damaged in the disaster is a supplier’s location in northern Japan that produces crystals for oscillator products. Damage was also sustained by two oscillator suppliers in Fukurawa and Kanagawa, as well as at NDK, which produces crystal oscillator products in its Furukawa, Osaki-city manufacturing site.

On a positive note, status reports from one leading manufacturer of quartz crystals and oscillators that are sold in cylindrical, plastic, metal and ceramic packages show production has restarted at that manufacturer’s Yamanashi, Funehiki-cho, Tamura-shi and Fukushima-ken plants. However, aftershocks and recurring disruptions to the local power grid continue to delay the resumption of normal operations.

For the MEMS industry in general and for Japan’s MEMS sector in particular, the damage was not as severe as initially feared due to a fortuitous accident of geography.  Bouchaud pointed out.

Only three of the 22 most important MEMS and compass fabrication plants in Japan suffered direct damage, IHS iSuppli research shows, although 19 fabs potentially could be affected by the same logistical and power issues impacting all Japanese industries in the calamity’s aftermath. The three damaged facilities belonged to Freescale, Canon Corp. and Texas Instruments (map) pinpointing the location of MEMS and digital compass fabrication facilities throughout Japan.

According to Freescale, the company has decided to close its 150mm fab in Sendai, near the quake’s epicenter, and focus efforts on accelerating the transfer of MEMS production to its 200mm Oak III fab in Texas. Freescale was lucky in that the Sendai fab had been scheduled for shutdown by the end of 2011, and the company already had built buffer inventories. Had it not made this decision in 2009, Freescale and its customers would have been severely hurt, IHS believes.

For Canon, which makes printers and MEMS print heads in the city of Fukushima, site of the nuclear meltdown, production was halted after significant damage to the company’s plant. However, Canon managed to repair the damage very quickly, with the plant completely operational again by the first week of April. As a result, the impact of the disaster on Canon’s MEMS revenue for 2011 is expected to be very modest, IHS iSuppli data indicate.

For its part, Texas Instruments’ Miho fab northeast of Tokyo has undergone the repair of various infrastructure systems for water, gases and chemicals. Full production will resume by the middle of July, with full shipment capacity to commence before September, the company said. Prior to the catastrophe, Texas Instruments already was using multiple fabs for the fabrication of CMOS wafers for DLP MEMS chips, and the company is in a fortunate position to rapidly increase production at its other fabs to compensate for the disruption at Miho.

To learn more about this topic, see the new IHS iSuppli report: The Japanese Disaster and Its Impact on the MEMS and Compass Industry

Also read: MEMS producers in Japan: Facility updates after earthquake