MEMS, Microfluidics and Microsystems Executive Review

MEMS and university tech transfer

Kionix was founded in 1993 to commercialize MEMS technology and intellectual property from Cornell University.  We recently spoke with Dr. Greg Galvin, founder and CEO of the company, about his experiences with MEMS tech transfer, acquisitions, as well as Kionix' current status and future plans.

Inertial MEMS sensors for consumer applications

by Richard Dixon and Jérémie Bouchaud, Wicht Technologie Consulting

The market for MEMS  inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) is set to grow from $835 million in 2004 to over $1360 million in 2009 — a CAGR of 10%.  Currently, the main applications are in the automotive industry.  These markets are well established and growth rates range from a stagnant 1% for airbag acceleration sensors up to 8% for gyroscopes used in ESP units and GPS navigation assistance.

Much more exciting for MEMS  inertial sensors is the market opportunity for mobile applications and consumer electronics (see table). Over the next few years, we predict annual growth rates exceeding 30% for accelerometers.  Mobile phones in particular will provide multi-axis accelerometers with interesting opportunities in menu navigation, gaming, image rotation, pedo-meters, GPS navigation and the like. Gyroscopes are largely servicing markets for image stabilization  and HDD protection in camcorders.

Cell Phones and MEMS

Cell phone based games are hot in the Far East.  Samsung, the fifth largest cell phone maker in the world, is now incorporating MEMS accelerometers to allow users enhance their gaming experience with action and sports games.  Our take is that while enhancements allowed by MEMS are not critical to the performance of the phone, they can nevertheless help the manufacturers sell more units by differentiating their products from competition.

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.

Freescale Targets Consumer Applications with Three-Axis Sensor

Freescale put out a press release today about their 3-D accelerometers.  It looks like they are especially pushing consumer applications such as scroll-by-tilt and freefall detection.  Samsung Electronics designed the sensor into two of its newest digital audio players.  It seems that these sensors can indeed offer some competitive advantage and differentiation for manufacturers.