A Universal CMOS MEMS Process?

Unlike the semiconductor industry, MEMS devices have been traditionally manufactured using a variety of highly-specialized processes geared for each specific device.   This variety of MEMS fabrication processes has contributed to higher commercialization costs and longer times to market.  While there are established MEMS processes such as Sandia’s SUMMiT and Microfabrica’s EFAB,  a startup company Akustica is now promoting its CMOS MEMS process as a possible industry standard for monolithic CMOS MEMS devices.  Akustica has focused on MEMS based microphones thus far, but the company claims that its process is versatile and can also be used to make monolithic RF and inertial MEMS products.  We recently spoke with Akustica’s CTO Ken Gabriel.