Jean-Christophe Eloy
President & CEO,

Yole Développement

MEMS Everywhere? How MEMS will Contribute to a More Sensitive World

Abstract:

Yole will present its new, updated MEMS market and industry overview. The 2011 year has been an interesting year for the MEMS industry with the creation of MEMS teams at Apple, Google, Facebook; with the first time that the MEMS business has reached $10B; with the introduction of the first RF MEMS in a mobile phone … The MEMS business is changing definitively and 2011 has been the year of the transition of the MEMS market into big business with clear signs of the adoption and wide diffusion.

But there is still a long road to drive before reaching a $100B business: the integration of MEMS devices is still complex for system manufacturers, delaying fast market adoption. The ability of MEMS manufacturers to simplify the system integration work will directly impact the growth of MEMS business. A strong collective push of MEMS companies has to be applied to create a MEMS ecosystem in order to simplify the integration of MEMS into larger systems and modules, enabling non MEMS specialists to use them without a steep learning curve, which is still the case for many applications.

We will review the current MEMS market and players and will present what the MEMS future could be. Indeed, MEMS will be crucial in the next years for a better connectivity: the coming of combo sensors, the new “infrared everywhere” motto, and the brand new devices close to volume production (antenna matching finally on the market with MEMS technology, introduction of the first MEMS based micro fuel cells, Mirasol MEMS based display having its first volume application…). For example, tablets will contribute to the market growth.

We will also review the MEMS industry changing landscape: MEMS companies are now the target of acquisition by semiconductor or system makers. And a significant number of semiconductor companies have identified MEMS as a growing area and the M&A in MEMS is a clear sign of such interest. So we can expect growth of the MEMS market in next years.