Research and Markets: World MEMS Equipment & Materials Market 2009 - By 2012, the MEMS Equipment Market will Reach $500M

DUBLIN--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/78fba8/world_mems_equipme) has
announced the addition of the "World MEMS Equipment & Materials Market 2009"
report to their offering.

Discover key trends in MEMS manufacturing processes and materials.

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 mirrors.

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-Léti 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 100/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 ) is used for
sacrificial release. There is a trend for thicker BOX (> 5 ) 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.

Who should buy

MEMS manufacturers:

* Know the MEMS market by device for 2008-2012
* Know your competitive landscape
* Understand the MEMS manufacturing trends
* Identify the new MEMS market trends

Financial & strategic investors:

* Understand the MEMS technologies and challenges.
* Evaluate business opportunities for new MEMS companies in devices, equipments
or materials.

Equipment & materials suppliers:

* Evaluate the market potential for your tool
* Know the 2008-2012 MEMS equipment & materials market for every kind of tools,
wafers, chemical and gases
* Indentify the new trends in MEMS manufacturing
* Know the major equipment and materials players

Key Topics Covered:

Executive summary

MEMS markets

MEMS manufacturing infrastructure development

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

Emerging trends in MEMS manufacturing: trends, players and markets

MEMS materials market

Conclusions

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/78fba8/world_mems_equipme

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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