“20% annual growth to reach $5.4B in 2017!” announced Yole Développement

MEMS devices are extremely popular in mobile applications. Despite this interest, only 3 categories of MEMS devices are in high volume production today:



• Motion sensors: including accelerometers, magnetometers and more recently gyroscopes is the hottest market segment. It is still growing quickly and many business and technical evolutions are expected. One of them is the launch of combo sensors which provide a higher level of integration and possibly embed sensor fusion algorithms

• MEMS microphones : which are promised to a bright future, driven by ECM replacement and by new functionalities that require multiple microphones

• BAW filters and duplexers : BAW is popular since many years for the Band 2 in particular, and new opportunities will appear with some of the bands that will be used in 4G standards.



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Many other MEMS products are under development. The report highlights that novel MEMS opportunities need to be watched as they will fuel this market significantly:



• While limited to weather forecast applications today, pressure sensors are going to be used in combination with inertial sensors to provide location-based services



• RF MEMS switches had a successful start in 2011 and will benefit from the current hype for antenna tuning



• Oscillators is another hot area where silicon MEMS has a high potential, both for replacing TCXO quartz oscillators and for integration of resonators



• Another hot market is going to be MEMS auto-focus which provides significant added value compared to the existing VCM technology, but will face competition with other technologies as well



• And many other types of MEMS are emerging: microdisplays, microspeakers, environmental sensors, touchscreen, joystick…



Opportunities are thus huge for MEMS device makers, as this market tripled from 2009 to 2011. The

ranking of the top players has also evolved the past 2 years: ST Microelectronics was number 3 in cell phone applications in 2009 and is now the number one supplier by far with $477M cellphone and tablet revenue in 2011. ST Microelectronics still dominates the MEMS accelerometer market, had an impressive start with MEMS gyroscopes, only challenged by InvenSense, and continues to expand to many other MEMS devices to become a one-stop supplier.



ST Microelectronics major clients are Apple, Samsung, Nokia, RIM and HP. Other large players are very focused on their core markets: AKM is the number 2 with $260M sales of magnetometers for electronics compass solution, Avago is leading the BAW filters and duplexers market with $244M sales, and Knowles is number 4 with $233M revenues from MEMS microphones. The trends which are shaping the competitive landscape of tomorrow are analyzed carefully in this report:



• Many start-ups are about to introduce disruptive technologies on the market: both for emerging markets (RF MEMS switches and variable capacitors, scanning mirrors for picoprojectors, silicon timing devices, speakers, auto-focus…) and for the current large markets (MCube for inertial sensors, 3S for microphones…)



• Attracted by this growing and high-margin market space, large semiconductor companies are now eyeing MEMS: Fairchild and Maxim already made the move through acquisitions, and others should follow



• New business models are being developed and it appears that some players specialize on a specific part of the value chain (MEMS manufacturing, signal processing…) while others are offering complete solutions (e.g. combo sensors which integrate MCU and software)



“The market for MEMS in cell phones and tablets will grow 19.8% to reach a $5.4B value in 2017”, says Laurent Robin, Activity Leader Inertial MEMS Devices & Technologies, Yole Développement. The MEMS industry will be largely impacted by global trends in mobile devices: connected devices, video and music consumption, social networking, diversity of users and usages, mobile advertising. In the reverse way, Yole Développement also notes that the booming demand for smartphones and media tablets can be partly explained by the integration of MEMS sensors which provide new functionalities.