World MEMS Equipment & Materials Market

MEMS: A Healthy Business

The MEMS sector will see strong growth for the coming years because of many new products enabled by MEMS devices.
Consumer applications (such as Wii, iPhone, PicoP picoprojector ...) will be major contributors to the 17% average growth for the next five years.

The automotive market will have modest growth of a few % while wireless telecommunications and bio medical will experience double digit growth. This healthy business will drive the need for production tools (etching, litho ...) and materials (wafers, chemistry ...) as more and more MEMS makers will ramp up production.

Among the most dramatic MEMS developments, the US regulation for tire pressure sensors will boost the production to 7 million in unit shipments. In 2008, production for Si microphones will begin in earnest. Consumer demand will boost accelerometers and gyroscopes (motion sensing in game controllers, optical stabilization systems ...).
Cost decreases for micro bolometers should open the way to new markets (thermography, automotive). Micro displays for pico projectors should reach millions of units over the next years.

A Unique Report On MEMS Devices, Equipement And Materials

The "World MEMS Equipment & Materials Market 2008" ("WMEM 08") is the new Yole report describing the trends and opportunities for equipment and materials for MEMS production.

This report provides an analysis of the different MEMS devices: IJ heads, pressure sensors, Si microphones, accelerometers, gyroscopes, MOEMS, microbolometers, microdisplays, microfluidics for research, diagnostics and drug delivery, RF MEMS, micro tips & probes, micro fuel cells and emerging MEMS devices.
For every MEMS device, a description is given for market outlook, key players, new applications and manufacturing trends.

WMEM 08 is giving precise market data for MEMS devices but also for wafers, production tools and MEMS specific chemistry for MEMS manufacturing.

Market share and competitive analysis for mems vendors is presented.

Equipment For MEMS: A $680M BY 2012

The MEMS production tool market will reach $680M by 2012 with most of the market value being for Front End equipment (see Fig. 1). MEMS equipment sales will undergo a 17% average annual growth until 2012. The WMEM 08 report provides in-depth analysis for the different types of tools for MEMS production:

• Etching
• Wafer bonding
• Inspection & Measurement
• Lithography
• Deposition
• Thermal processing
• Cleaning
• Testing
• Thinning
• Assembly
• Dicing
• Wafer level testing

Although MEMS processing uses standard IC processes, there are very specific steps which are covered in the WMEM 08 report.

For example, they are:

• Deep Reactive Ion Etching: mostly used for inertial MEMS, but now also for IJ heads and micro actuators. Deep etching tools are one of the most promising opportunities for MEMS production.
• Sacrificial Layer Etching: usually, wet etching is used, but dry etch technologies are gaining momentum (XeF2, vapor HF).
• Dual-side alignment: back-side etching of pressure sensors, wafer level packaging.
• Thick resist coating.

Materials For MEMS: A $603M BY 2012

Materials for MEMS will be a $603M market in 2012. Regarding wafer processing, 4.5M 6" eq wafers will be processed in 2008 and more than 6M by 2012. MEMS production will mostly shift to 6" wafers with increasing use of 8", despite smaller and smaller MEMS dies. SOI wafer demand will experience high growth (14% over 2007-2012), mostly for accelerometers, MOEMS, gyros and pressure sensors.