MEMS Activity at Analog Devices

Bill Giudice is vice president and general manager of the Micromachined Products Division at Analog Devices.  We recently spoke with Bill about current MEMS related activities at ADI as well as plans for the future.

MEMS Investor Journal: Analog Devices is considered a pioneering MEMS company and a leader in commercialization of MEMS devices.  What is the current status of your MEMS business and what are your plans for the future?

Bill Giudice: Analog Device's micromachining business is both profitable and growing.  Over the past ten years, we have built a leadership position in the automotive safety market, providing inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) for crash sensors, roll detection and vehicle stability control.  With this competence, we have started to broaden our business into other markets, such as the consumer and industrial markets, where interest for inertial sensors continues to grow.  Looking forward, we remain enthusiastic about the ability of our MEMS business to be a long-term contributor to ADI's success.    

MIJ: What fraction of your overall business is contributed by MEMS?

BG: Over the past forty years, Analog Devices has proven itself a pioneer in the industry by investing in new and breakthrough technologies.  In the case of micromachining, ADI's management team demonstrated the patience required to nurture MEMS into a successful and profitable business, which today contributes approximately 5% of ADI's total revenue.  With our past and current success in the automotive market, and the many opportunities ahead in the consumer and industrial spaces, we expect our MEMS business to continue to grow and become a significant part of ADI's business in the future.

MIJ: Which MEMS devices do you think will be commercialized for mass production in 2005/2006 by Analog Devices or other companies?   

BG: At ADI, we are continuing to invest in inertial MEMS technologies and expand our product offering, as new and existing markets are moving toward ADI's technology.  One such application is the SmartSwing™ golf club, in which ADI's iMEMS® accelerometers are used to measure the acceleration and swing plane of the user’s golf swing while the iMEMS®  gyroscopes measure the twist of the hands.  Another application currently designing in ADI's iMEMS® accelerometers is Healthcare Business Company, Omron Corporation's portable digital blood pressure monitoring devices.  In this particular application, ADI's iMEMS® ADXL202E accelerometer enables an exclusive wrist-height guiding function to improve measurement accuracy. 

There are many other applications for MEMS technology; for instance, MEMS are currently being designed into notebook PCs for active disk drive protection, digital still cameras for portrait and landscape orientation as well as image stabilization, and automobile navigation systems for location-information accuracy.  As applications for MEMS technology emerge and broaden, ADI continues to explore a variety of areas where we can bring our MEMS products to the marketplace.