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Integrated Device Technology (IDT), has recently released its new piezoelectric MEMS, or pMEMS, based oscillators. According to the company, crystal oscillators are complicated to manufacture and unreliable compared to pMEMS. IDT's new devices are more convenient, accurate and feature low-jitter timing references – perfect, IDT says, for communications, consumer, cloud computing and industrial applications. We recently spoke with Harmeet Bhugra, Managing Director of the MEMS division of IDT. In this interview, Harmeet compares pMEMS technology to crystal oscillators, as well as other types of MEMS based timing solutions.
Sand 9, a MEMS technology company developing precision timing products for wireless and wired applications, announced this week that it has raised a total of $23 million in its Series C financing round led by Intel Capital with significant participation from Vulcan Capital. Intel Capital and Vulcan Capital join existing investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures and CSR. Sand 9 will use funds to ramp volume production as they go to market and to rapidly expand their product portfolio.
Bosch GmbH Automotive Electronics of Germany retained its position as the world's top supplier of automotive MEMS in 2011, according to an IHS iSuppli report. Booking $625 million in revenue last year, Bosch's 19 percent expansion from $524 million in 2010 outpaced the 14 percent growth of the automotive MEMS industry as a whole. It was also $339 million ahead of its nearest rival, No. 2 provider of MEMS, Denso Corp. of Japan, which grew 9 percent to post revenue of $286 million. Bosch, Denso and the rest of the automotive MEMS Top 10 enjoyed combined revenues in 2011 of more than $2.0 billion, up 11 percent from $1.8 billion the year before, as shown in the table below.
Si-Ware Systems (SWS), a provider of IC and MEMS based solutions for industrial and consumer applications, announced this week that it has launched its inertial sensor development platform. According to the company, the platform is a tool for sensor developers that can be used to evaluate an inertial sensor, such as a gyroscope or accelerometer, to understand the behavior of the sensor and its performance with complete interface electronics. The platform utilizes SWS's inertial sensor interface ASIC which is configurable and reportedly has already been used in conjunction with multiple accelerometers and gyroscopes. Si-Ware said that the ASIC features an ultra-low noise front-end, and a highly configurable open and closed loop operation, as well as high voltage capabilities.
Silex Microsystems, recently ranked by Yole Développement as the world's largest pure-play MEMS foundry, announced this week that it has been awarded a nearly $450,000 research grant from VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, to develop cutting-edge ferromagnetic materials for use in MEMS devices powering next-generation smart phone applications. Silex reportedly was one of the companies chosen out of 340 applicants for this award. "Magnetic MEMS is a key material for future MEMS products because it enables multi-axis sensor integration," said Dr. Thorbjörn Ebefors, Chief Technologist at Silex Microsystems.
As smartphones and tablets continue to drive the sales of MEMS devices for consumer electronics, most of the focus thus far has been on inertial sensors – MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes. Additionally, MEMS based microphones and pressure sensors are seeing continually increasing adoption. RF MEMS technologies, on the other hand, have not been incorporated in any smartphone or tablet device in high volume until very recently. WiSpry, a leading RF MEMS component maker, is the first company ever to ship RF MEMS in volume for a smartphone OEM – the company’s first customer is Samsung and shipments began in September 2011. We recently spoke with Jeff Hilbert, WiSpry’s President and Founder, about the ongoing RF MEMS developments and opportunities for smartphone applications. In this detailed interview, Mr. Hilbert discusses the key business drivers for RF MEMS use in consumer electronics, current “pain points” for smartphone OEMs, most viable insertion points, competing technology alternatives, bill-of-material impacts, as well as the competitive landscape.
Driven by their widespread use in top-selling mobile devices like Apple's new iPad and iPad 2, market revenue for digital MEMS microphones is set to overtake the analog segment next year for the first time ever. Revenue for digital MEMS microphones will reach $315 million in 2013, compared to $261 million for the analog MEMS equivalents, according to IHS iSuppli. The market this year still will favor analog MEMS microphones, which are projected to achieve revenue of $267.4 million compared to $226.1 million for digital. However, digital MEMS will gain the upper hand in 2013 when analog's share dips below 50 percent.
Tronics is reporting that it is growing strongly again. After an uninspiring 2009 and 2010, business started picking up in late 2010, and remained very healthy throughout 2011. The company had a revenue of $15.2 million in 2011, with a net profit of $1.24 million. Tronics said that it secured important new foundry and custom MEMS contracts during the year and its revenues grew significantly in its three key regions: Europe, United States, and China. With a strong balance sheet that includes more than $4 million cash and a debt-to-equity ratio below 30 percent, Tronics said it is well positioned to continue its expansion in 2012 and beyond. A 20-30% growth is expected in 2012 with further improvement of the company's profitability. According to Tronics, a very substantial portion of the 2012 revenues is already firmly secured.
by Xavier Rottenberg, Ph.D. Research Engineer, IMEC
Much of the future growth in the MEMS market is expected to come from products that are still in the early stages of development, or are yet to be invented. There is a considerable potential for new products in which innovative MEMS are integrated with highly miniaturized electronics. In small packages that miniaturize existing larger tools and extend their use and functionality, or that bring a totally new functionality that cannot be implemented otherwise. Some of the many domains where MEMS will become prevalent are sensing, localization, and visualization applications for personal consumer electronics, optical switching and processing chips, or sensors and actuators for medical and wellness applications.
Gyroscopes were the top revenue generator in 2011 in the dominant consumer and mobile segment of the MEMS market, thanks to record sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad devices from during the final quarter of last year. Gyroscopes netted $655.4 million in 2011, up a notable 66 percent from $394.5 million in 2010, according to an IHS iSuppli report. Long a runner-up in its category, gyroscopes finally displaced accelerometers last year to become the revenue champion in consumer and mobile MEMS. Gyroscopes will continue to reap top revenue honors in the next few years, projected to take in $1.1 billion by 2015, well ahead of accelerometers at $705 million.
