“The MEMS packaging, assembly, test & calibration market will reach $2.3B value by 2016, growing three times faster than the overall IC packaging industry,” forecasts Yole Développement

MEMS packaging market is growing 2x faster than IC packaging market

“The MEMS packaging market is growing 2x faster (~ 20% CAGR) in terms of package unit shipments than what is predicted for the overall IC package market,” explains Jérôme Baron, Business Unit Manager, Advanced Packaging at Yole Développement. WLP / TSV platform is set to grow the fastest while leadframe and organic laminate based packages are poised to grow a comfortable 16% CAGR over the next 5 years to come.

There are plenty of MEMS and sensors to be found in recent smartphone designs: MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, electronic compass magnetometers, multiple silicon MEMS microphones, FBAR / BAW filters & duplexers, RF switches and MEMS oscillators: there is no doubt that MEMS content is growing faster than standard IC content.

Changing the paradigm

In terms of how the packaging is involved, it’s all about orchestrating the assembly of MEMS sensor and their related ASIC inside a module. But this is costly: packaging, assembly, test and calibration steps account for nearly 35% to 60% of a total MEMS packaged module’s cost.

MEMS types of packaging are more complex than most standard IC packages because they require “System-in-Package” type of assembly. Additionally, most MEMS packages are connecting sensors to their final environment, bringing very specific constraints at the module level such as building a cavity, a hole in the substrate or metal lead for pressure sensor and microphones, an optical window for optical MEMS, a full vacuum hermeticity at the die level.

The application scope of MEMS is broad and very diversified. Since its early beginnings, the MEMS industry faced the issue of being a highly fragmented market, with NO manufacturing standards clearly emerging.

Packaging always needed to cope with the very specific end-applications requirements of MEMS modules

However, the MEMS law “One MEMS = 1 Device with 1 Process with 1 Package” is now changing as several packaging platform standards are now clearly emerging (such as WLP & TSV interconnects, SiP module assembly based on molded or cavity packaging for e.g.)

This Yole Développement’s report is featuring a full analysis of packaging, assembly & test requirements application by application as well as a dedicated focus on MEMS package substrates such as ceramic, leadframe and organic laminates.

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Standards are on the way
While there are a lot of developments happening for high reliability, low cost MEMS packages in the automotive, medical and industrial application space, the number of MEMS and sensors going into mobile, consumer and gaming applications is expected to continue to skyrocket, driving integration of an incredibly high number of MEMS and sensor devices in unprecedented volume. As a result, OSAT and wafer foundry players are getting more and more interest in MEMS module packaging, as volume and complexity of MEMS SiP modules is increasing dramatically, implying several key trend in this space:

- IDMs needs to find second sources partners and qualify some OSATs in order to secure their supply chain

- Standardization (coming from both foundries, OSAT, WLP houses or substrate suppliers) is critical and necessary to implement in order to keep the packaging, assembly, test and calibration cost of MEMS modules under control.

More than ever, system-level integration (including package co-design & software competencies, SiP module assembly, passive integration and 3D TSV / WLP capabilities) will be key to leverage a high added value solution to final OEM customers as well as an efficient infrastructure to support the high volume grow of consumer MEMS applications. “There are many different players with different designs, and it’s not likely we’ll see one solution adopted by all the players. Expect to see a blooming of several “big niches” standards in the future, driven by the biggest and most successful players,” says Laurent Robin, Activity Leader, Inertial MEMS Devices & Technologies at Yole Développement.