MEMS, Microfluidics and Microsystems Executive Review

MEMS industry overview: the past, the present and the future

As the MEMS marketplace continues to evolve at a rapid pace, many new and exciting trends are taking shape.  To provide some perspective, we recently spoke with Dr. Kurt Petersen, a MEMS industry veteran and highly successful entrepreneur who founded such companies as NovaSensor, Cepheid and SiTime.  In this detailed interview, Dr. Petersen provides unique insights on the main current trends in the MEMS marketplace, venture capital, most promising MEMS startups as well as potential future “killer apps” for MEMS and energy harvesting technologies.

iPhone 4 carries bill of materials of $187.51, according to iSuppli

The iPhone 4’s design may be radically different -- but the strategy remains the same, with the latest member of the product line carrying a bill of materials (BOM) that should continue to generate high profit margins for Apple Inc., according to iSuppli.  The 16Gbyte version of the iPhone 4 carries a BOM of $187.51, based on a preliminary cost estimate derived from a physical teardown of the product.

MEMS automotive sensors to recover in 2010

Following its toughest year in recent memory, the market for MEMS automotive sensors will rebound sharply in 2010, but continued high sales might lead to an overheated market that could push the industry back into depression, according to new research from iSuppli Corp.  Global shipments of automotive MEMS sensors are projected to reach 591.2 million units in 2010, up a resounding 17.8 percent from 502.0 million.

Top MEMS chip suppliers survive recession intact

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Despite a slowdown from the global recession, there were no major reshuffles in the ranking of top semiconductor Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM) and fabless makers of MEMS chips in 2009, according to iSuppli Corp.

MEMS innovation at MIT's Deshpande Center Ideastream Conference

by Paul Pyzowski, Guest Contributor

MIT's Deshpande Center was established in 2002 to "accelerate the migration of ideas from the lab to practical commercial application".  The Deshpande Center provides MIT faculty and students with small cash grants along with systematic mentoring, resulting in the creation of twenty new start-ups to date.  Many of these projects and start-ups are highlighted at the Deshpande’s annual Ideastream Conference.  Unsurprisingly, these can involve MEMS and microfabrication -- at this year’s conference, held in Boston on April 13, the plenary session alone had three separate presentations involving MEMS and microfabrication.

MEMS becomes the new Moore's Law

by Shahin Farshchi, Ph.D.
Senior Associate, Lux Capital Management, LLC

Not long ago, the MEMS community borrowed lithography and batch fabrication techniques from IC manufacturing to build precise and inexpensive mechanical devices.  Today, MEMS devices have found their way into our phones, automobiles, and televisions, as well as the path of the bits and bytes being streamed for voice, video, and data communications.  MEMS has greatly benefited the systems we use on a daily basis, and the experience gained from mass production has led to a greater understanding of materials and packaging techniques that are otherwise unpopular in microelectronics.

Will clean energy drive harsh environment MEMS?

by Paul Pyzowski, Guest Contributor

The case for “harsh environment MEMS” -- devices that can operate at extreme pressures, temperatures, and in corrosive backgrounds -- is that they can be deployed in potentially lucrative applications and markets that cannot be served with traditional silicon-based MEMS.  Over two years ago here in the MEMS Investor Journal,   Professor Roya Maboudian of the University of California Berkeley gave an excellent overview of research efforts in silicon carbide MEMS and the technical challenges in their development.  However, since that article was published there has been little progress in their commercial deployment.

MEMS, energy harvesting and RF communications

As there are increasingly more MEMS, sensors and energy harvesting technologies on the market, it is important to understand newly available communications technologies to transmit data wirelessly.  We recently spoke with Cees Links, founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies.  His company is based in the Netherlands and raised $19 million in October 2009 in a venture capital funding round led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital and supported by DFJ Esprit, Motorola Ventures and Allegro Investment Fund.

MEMS business to double by 2013?

With traditional IC categories seeing a slowdown in annual growth rates since the late 1990s, more major semiconductor companies, pure-play IC foundries, and wafer fab equipment suppliers are shifting attention to the MEMS arena in order to boost revenues.

 

The entry of large device suppliers into market segments pioneered by MEMS startup companies is radically changing the dynamics of many emerging niches. In many cases, the increased competition is intensifying pricing pressure in product categories that have promised substantial annual revenue growth rates.

MEMS and semiconductors IP strategies

We recently spoke with Marius Domokos, an IP attorney specializing in strategic counseling for technology companies, who also worked as an in-house IP attorney for KLA-Tencor and Intel. Here Marius shares some thoughts on how the MEMS industry should approach IP protection.