Abstract
Despite the crisis, innovation is still driving the MEMS business
The MEMS business continues to be driven by innovation. Following the demand
for MEMS devices for cell phones, the MEMS customer wants to have smaller,
higher performance and less costly MEMS dies. For the toolmakers, it means a
continuous development effort for new processes for quicker deep etch rate,
cleaner sacrificial etching, new metallic bonding, 3D packaging approaches and
wafer level testing to name a few. The new "World MEMS Equipment & Materials
Market 2009" ("WMEM 09") describes the trends and opportunities for equipment
and materials for MEMS production. This report gives market forecasts for MEMS
devices and the associated MEMS equipment and materials. Although the MEMS
sector will remain flat overall for the next year or so, there are growth
sectors and room for innovation for inertial MEMS (for cell phones), RF
switches, energy harvesting and μmirrors.
The MEMS production tool market will be flat for 2009/2010, but MEMS equipment
R&D is still active as players prepare for a ramp up in 2011. By 2012, the
MEMS equipment market will reach $500M. The WMEM 09 report provides in-depth
analysis for the different types of tools for MEMS production:
- Deep Etching
- Sacrificial Etching
- Deposition & Cleaning
- Bonding
- Lithography
- MEMS on IC
- Standards
- Through Si Vias
- Testing CAD Tools
Main report highlights
For each type of equipment the report provides information about the market
and technology trends. For example, there are currently many competing
sacrificial release technologies, but we see a growing interest for XeF2
sacrificial etching.
This is a very particular technology as it cannot be used for SiO2 but for Si,
SiGe, polySi, W, Ti and Mo. Although it was restricted to some niche
applications with only one large volume production (iMoDTM from QMT), it seems
there is an increased interest for this technology. Another specific MEMS
process, bonding, is moving away from glass and anodic to more metal based,
for better hermeticity and thinner line widths, but the bulk is still the
traditional processes, and the push there of course is to reduce the amount of
silicon real estate taken up by the glass frit to get more devices on a wafer
without giving up performance.
Although, technically speaking, there are no MEMS that require only stepper
lithography for all layers in the stack, the motivations currently causing a
shift from aligners to stepper lithography for MEMS are manufacturability
issues and infrastructure evolution issues.
Something new is the possible coming for Standard processes for MEMS. For a
long time, the MEMS production rule has been "One product, one process, one
package!" But European foundries and R&D institutes argue standard process
modules are possible for MEMS production. Silex is leading the way, inspired
by its through-wafer via and WLP platform: the more a fabs' customer can use
identical process blocks, modules or platforms, the better the process control
and yield and the lower the costs. Other players are CEA-Leti for standard
processes on 8-inch wafers for R&D fabs. Examples of modules include TSV , WL
packaging, hermetic bonding or Si membrane. Integrating different modules
together creates a function (sensor, actuator ...). This approach is competing
with use of CMOS process for MEMS structures.
Packaging is key for new MEMS design. For example, 3D integration with TSV is
now an industrial reality with continuous growth expected. 3D Integration with
TSV for MEMS is likely to be the next relay of growth for DRIE market and 3D
TSV is pushing the need for quicker etch rate (towards the 100μ/min!). DRIE
is currently used mostly for inertial MEMS manufacturing and is also
increasingly used in replacement of wet for microphones, pressure sensors
(because of better control of feature profile, depth and uniformity across the
wafer). Current challenges for DRIE are the removal of polymer after Bosch
process, sidewall roughness, end-point detection, reproducibility &
reliability and increased etch rate.
Market metrics
Materials for MEMS will be a $470M market in 2012. In terms of wafer size,
there is a transition from 6" to 8" wafer size for the companies involved in
high volume MEMS applications. There are 10 MEMS companies already processing
8" wafers with 5 new announcements in 2009. SOI wafers are used and represent
about 23% of total processed wafer in $M value. Thick SOI (0.2 to 60 μ) is
used for sacrificial release. There is a trend for thicker BOX (≫ 5 μ)
for MEMS devices requiring higher deflection (such as micromirrors or some
gyros).
Yole' s research draws on the ongoing work of its analysts tracking 150 MEMS
applications, aggregated into 12 major categories of devices: inkjet heads,
pressure sensors, microphones, accelerometers, gyroscopes, MOEMS, micro
bolometers, micro displays, micro fluidics, RF MEMS, micro tips, and emerging
MEMS devices. Information is gathered directly from system & device makers,
and equipment & materials suppliers.
Table of Contents
Executive summary p.3
MEMS markets p.12
- In MUS$
- In Munits
- Per devices
- Per applications
MEMS manufacturing infrastructure development p.18
- Top 30 MEMS manufacturers
- Top 20 MEMS foundries
- 8" MEMS projects status
Analysis of the most buoyant MEMS devices today: MEMS for cell phones, RF switches, energy harvesting & mirrors p.30
MEMS equipment & materials markets forecasts 2008-2012 p.74
- Market forecasts per type of tools
- MEMS wafers shipments
- 6" vs. 8" wafers shipments
- Chemicals for MEMS market forecasts
Emerging trends in MEMS manufacturing: trends, players and markets p.81
- Integrated sensor market/technical trend of MEMS & IC
- DRIE
- Sacrificial Etching
- Deposition & Cleaning
- Bonding
- Lithography
- MEMS on IC
- Standards
- Through Si Vias
- Testing CAD Tools
MEMS materials market p.231
- Si wafers
- SOI wafers
- Photomasks
- Chemicals
Conclusions p.245
