BLA MEMS Industry Report - Boucher

Transcription

Boucher-LenschAssociates
Associates LLC
Boucher-Lensch
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Q4.2010
MEMS Technology
2 n d Edition
Charles Boucher, Ph.D.
Managing Director
charles@boucherlensch.com
(408) 501-8826 x1709
Robert Lensch
Managing Director
robert@boucherlensch.com
(408) 501-8826 x1710
Executive Summary
MEMS are the exotic cousins of semiconductors and integrated circuits, originally
based on silicon wafer fabrication techniques, but adding the dimensions of space,
flexion and continuously variable output similar to analog devices. Conceptualization
and demos started nearly as early as ICs, back in the 1960s. Initial commercial
volumes commenced in the early 1980s, yet beyond a few home runs, MEMS mostly
languished until the mid-1990s. Then came the usual exuberance and
disappointment cycle from the mid-90s through the telecom crash of the early
2000s. But, as always, in background during the boom-bust, an increasing variety of
MEMS applications and formats beyond basic Si wafers were under development
and hit the market in the mid to late 000s. Those that provided unique costeffective differentiation survived the Contraction of 2009 better than the semicon
sector generally and now, entering the 010-decade, a range of MEMS devices are
becoming accepted mainstream and even hi-volume components.
Now, on the cusp of the 2010s, MEMS is hitting a “young adulthood” stage of better
focus on market fundamentals and more demand-pull opportunities, even allowing
for the current economic crisis. We believe the industry is approaching a tipping
point beyond which growth will accelerate, driven by the convergence of new high
volume applications, increasing MEMS foundry capacity based on standard building
blocks, and the potential for increased venture capital flows into the market.
Some of the key advantages of MEMS are:
•The ability to miniaturize physical interactions to nearly the same degree as IC’s.
•The related ability to reduce the sample-size of measurands.
•The ability to integrate sensing, analysis and response in a miniature package.
MEMS is not a single product or market, but an engineering tool-kit applied to a
wide array of markets. Most analysts measure between 9 to 12 separate
MEMS market segments, each with its own unique dynamics and specialized
niche applications. Consequently there are dozens of fragmented market
segments. In most cases, a new MEMS device was fabricated with a proprietary
in-house process, making it difficult and expensive to bring new devices to the
market. This has contributed to the relatively slow growth of the MEMS
industry until now.
Experience
Relationships
Insight
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
In this report, we will parse MEMS into 9 segments, plus a miscellaneous section at the
end. None of these involves those interlocking-ratcheting-gear illustrations popularized
from early academic papers. The earliest volume applications of MEMS were pressure
sensors, inkjet printer heads and TI’s micro-mirror digital projectors. As recently as the
early 2000s those 3 segments accounted for well over 80% of all MEMS business. Today
with the slow creeping emergence of new applications, each of the other 6 areas now
generates at least $100 million in annual revenue and the share of the Big 3 applications
is down to about 50%. Estimates show that by 2010 almost half of the market segments
will have hit $1 billion or more, with the total MEMS business above $10 billion by 2012.
Still, MEMS will amount to less than 5% of total semiconductor industry revenue to
provide some perspective.
Physical actuation is difficult to get right. That’s one reason why the two most complex
MEMS devices in volume production today – inkjet heads and micro-mirror displays – are
dominated by just a few global giants. Simpler, but by no means trivial, sensing devices
(pressure, inertial, thermal, etc.) are finding more diverse applications and, since 2006,
finally emerging into consumer markets, such as accelerometer and gyroscopic MEMS
devices for the iPhone, Wii and Playstation game controllers which have driven a second
wave of MEMS growth and raised its visibility. Henceforth, sensors will dominate the
MEMS landscape vs. physical actuators because of the broad evolution of industrial,
medical and consumer goods into interactive, self-aware, adaptive services that require
enveloping their operations in sensory nets.
Like IC’s previously, MEMS is moving away from discrete components to integrating the
mechanical device with electronics, photonics and fluidics in an integrated system. Since
every MEMS sensor or actuator will require electronic circuits to measure, process and
transmit the sensor’s output, respectively to provide the control signals for the actuator’s
input, there will be opportunities for ASIC and ASSP suppliers to provide such ICs.
Substrate materials (silicon, glass, metal, plastics) and MEMS fabrication equipment
opportunities will emerge for companies further down the food chain from MEMS
devices. The packaging of MEMS either on their own or in combination with an IC in a
multi-chip package is another area of opportunity driven by the growth of the MEMS
market.
MEMS will play a vital role in the emerging integration of ICT (Information Communications
Technology) markets with biomedical, alternative energy and intelligent transportation.
One growth area for MEMS sensors will be the evolution of “cleantech” applications.
Mesh sensor networks, such as commercial building automation, medical monitoring,
and industrial monitoring and control are areas of interest that can utilize MEMS sensor
technology to sense pressure, air flow, position and orientation. MEMS could also play a
role in energy harvesting to convert ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy
through piezo or capacitive energy conversion.
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The MEMS industry is starting to adopt some of the strategies that helped the
semiconductor industry enjoy strong growth over a long period of time. MEMS
processing technology is becoming somewhat more standardized with increasingly
advanced modeling/simulation tools available to designers. The slow standardization of
process technology is creating more foundry services that are available for outsourcing
MEMS prototypes and production, leading MEMS start-ups down the path – over 15
years after IC firms – toward fabless or fab-light models. A key aspect is that MEMS
features, while sophisticated, are almost never at the smallest scale and are often
several microns in size. With traditional IC fabs constantly pushing the limits of physics,
resulting in astronomical capital requirements and driving industry consolidation, one
‘escape’ route for 2nd and 3rd tier fabs is to shift into higher-value MEMS fabrication,
where leading-edge MEMS devices can be made with equipment otherwise obsolete for
high volume leading edge IC production. Companies in the traditional semiconductor
industry have strong financial motivation to branch into MEMS markets to generate
incremental revenue and exploit synergies between their core technologies and
complementary MEMS.
The emergence of more tools and foundries means, as it did for ICs, that it is now
possible to launch MEMS ventures that focus on value-added IP and applications
knowledge, rather than manufacturing expertise. However, there is unlikely to be a
global giant that dominates the MEMS market to the extent that a few companies
dominate the semiconductor market, at least not anytime soon. MEMS is a very
interdisciplinary technology and is strongly coupled to system integration, placing a
focus on up-front business development and on one’s partnership chain. The MEMS
landscape is so fragmented in terms of device architecture and applications that it will
be difficult for one company to emerge as the dominant force in every segment.
In addition to sensors, we believe other areas with high growth potential for MEMS in
the next 5 years include timing oscillators, next-gen RF MEMS, microdisplays and
picoprojectors, and also microphones and micro-speakers. We expect these solutions
to establish market penetration in several industries including consumer, automotive,
biomedical, and industrial process control.
One of the fastest growing areas of microfabrication is microfluidics which creates “chips”
that look like ICs but are often fabricated on glass or polymer substrates, composed of
microscopic capillaries for fluids to flow, intermix, catalyze and register indications.
As traditional areas of investment such as semiconductors, enterprise hardware, and
software mature and attract fewer venture dollars, emerging businesses such as clean
technology and alternative energy, Web-based services, and MEMS/sensor/microelectronics
solutions for different markets will emerge as new investment areas. Given the stillfragmented nature of the MEMS market, we believe that many companies will exit through
M&A, but it is likely that a handful of companies that create unique products that are
aligned with a key market trend could potentially go public through an IPO.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ......................................................................... 1
Overview of MEMS .......................................................................... 5
Complexity of MEMS .......................................................................................................... 6
MEMS Technology and Applications................................................. 7
Cantilevers - Beams ............................................................................................................ 7
Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities ...................................................................................... 8
Acoustic Wave Sensors ....................................................................................................... 9
Pivots and Armatures ....................................................................................................... 10
Fluidic Channeling ............................................................................................................ 12
MEMS Market Opportunities and Outlook...................................... 13
MEMS Application Markets............................................................ 16
A1 – Pressure Sensing ....................................................................................................... 16
A2 – Inertial/Position Sensing............................................................................................ 21
A3 – RF MEMS and Switching ............................................................................................ 30
A4 – Timing Devices.......................................................................................................... 38
A5 – Silicon Microphones/Speakers.................................................................................... 42
A6 – Optical/Photonic MEMS or MOEMS ........................................................................... 45
A7 – Displays/Imaging: Visible Spectrum............................................................................ 57
A8 – Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum ............................................................. 63
A9 –Microfluidics ............................................................................................................. 66
A9.1 – Lab-on-a-Chip / Micro Total Analysis Systems / µTAS ............................................... 74
A9.2 – Chemical Microreactors (MECS) and Fuel Cells.......................................................... 80
Financial Overview........................................................................ 82
MEMS Industry Trends .................................................................. 84
Conclusions ................................................................................... 86
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Overview of MEMS
The acronym MEMS stands for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems with the focal point
being the second "M" - mechanical - and thence ultimately the concluding "S". The core
distinction of MEMS is the addition of various types of mechanical flexion to traditional
semiconductor-related microfabrication. For all their glory and value, typical
semiconductors are simply concatenations of electronic transistors to achieve some
computational or memory function. In the physical world, an action generates a physical
data signal such as movement, sound, pressure, light, etc. This physical signal is converted
into an electrical signal by some sort of transducer, and the electrical signal is then sent
through a computational algorithm implemented in either analog or digital electronics (if
digital, then the analog electrical signal must first be digitized). The output signal from the
algorithm is converted from the electrical domain to the physical domain through another
transducer to create a reaction in the physical world. These core elements are sometimes
called the "information processing triptych"
Figure 1: Information Processing Triptych
System Boundary
Input Signal
(measurand)
Processor
Sensor
(Input transducer)
Actuator
Output
signal
(Output transducer)
Pot ential for micro-mechanics
Tradit ional microelect ronics
Source: Gardner, 1994
The promise of MEMS has always been to bring the sensor and actuator within the
realm of highly miniaturized fabrication, with at least physical packaging benefits, and
ideally the potential to integrate one or both mechanical actions with the associated
processor circuitry and create a true integrated "function-system on a chip”.
This is a highly abstract definition of MEMS. In practice, MEMS can apply to potentially
every conceivable sensing and actuating behavior and every conceivable mechanical
protocol, in every market from energy to medicine to telecom to automotive and
aerospace -- resulting in hundreds of different concepts, markets and methods. Thus
MEMS is not a single product, process or market. Rather, it’s a technique applicable to
myriad applications. Most comprehensive discussions of MEMS parse at least a dozen or
more separate markets, each one with its own opportunities, benefits, challenges, and
adoption curve.
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Figure 2: MEMS is Fragmented but Ubiquitous
Source: Kurt Petersen
Complexity of MEMS
One of the unique challenges of MEMS is that it poses a number of daunting technical
problems. Semiconductor microelectronics, which involves extremely complex
technology, is simplistically a network of metallic traces patterned to connect an array
of transistors. Granted, the number of interconnects is in the billions for modern ICs,
but there is a relatively limited number of different components and no moving parts.
By comparison, MEMS endeavors to actually carve-out, build-up, and shape a variety of
different structure: hinges, pivots, cavities, diaphragms, cantilevers, pendulums and other
highly complex shapes, all at micrometer scales. It also uses and combines all manner of
organic and inorganic materials and substrates, resulting in potentially more complex
structures than conventional microelectronics. With ICs, a wide variety can be made with
fundamentally similar processes -- the proprietary IP resides mainly in the circuitry design.
With MEMS, however, the end-product value is often inextricably linked to the unique
fabrication process involved in creating it, resulting in the MEMS community’s oft-cited
challenge of "one product, one process." For example, analysts note that among functionally
similar accelerometers in the marketplace, each is fabricated in a significantly different way.
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This lack of process homogeneity has contributed to the relatively slow growth of MEMS
markets to date. It limits the reuse of common processing equipment and techniques,
which results in high equipment and processing costs. The MEMS industry to date has
not benefited from the economics of scale that has helped the silicon IC industry drive
down unit costs on a continuous basis for several decades. MEMS fabs are
comparatively complicated which raises their payback threshold, resulting in another
industry cliché – “the $10 solution for a $1 problem”.
However, while MEMS fabrication can be complex, it is rarely if ever at the bleeding edge
in terms of semiconductor minimum feature size. Most MEMS features are on the order
of several microns, versus the latest ICs now delving below 50 nanometers in feature size
and getting smaller. This means that the leading edge of MEMS can use or reuse mature
process equipment that is otherwise nearly obsolete for ICs.
One of the MEMS opportunities is for semiconductor fabs caught at a competitive
disadvantage as IC markets move to nanometer features on 300mm wafers and are
dominated by a handful of megaplayers. These second and third tier fabs can shift laterally
into the more specialized MEMS space, perhaps offering the flexibility of "mass
customization", supporting a number of different process recipes and materials. This is
conceptually similar to the way in which, while broad segments of industrial machinery
production shifted to East and South Asia in the late 20th Century, Japan and European
countries prospered by dominating niche markets for ultra-precision machinery. It is no
coincidence that many of the specialty MEMS fab tools also originate in Japan and Europe.
Another opportunity for MEMS innovation is to reduce this cost-complexity trade-off by
developing designs or processes that maximize the use of common process techniques and
equipment to establish a standard process foundation similar to what the semiconductor
industry has done.
MEMS Technology and Applications
There are different ways to parse the diversity of micro-mechanical devices. One is to
consider the different physical actuations made possible through microfabrication:
•
Cantilevers, Beams and simple flexion
•
Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities
•
Acoustic Wave Transducers
•
Pivoting, Armatures, with some resistive forces
•
Fluidic Channeling
Cantilevers - Beams
The earliest MEMS products were simple silicon devices with some "bridge" of Si between
two independent supports, where a stress focused on the "bridge" would generate a
piezoresistive effect that could be precisely measured. A "dangling" bridge, i.e. a cantilever,
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can be used either to measure flexion resulting from inertial motion or external pressure, or
the cantilever can act as a microscopic relay switch where an electric potential applied to an
adjacent substrate can either attract or repel the cantilever. The first significant
Figure 3: SEM Photo of a Cantilever MEMS Device
Source: Sandia National Laboratories
commercial piezoresistive strain gauges were marketed in the early 1970s. Since then
more complex forms have been executed with so-called "bulk micromachining" whereby
the various etching, masking and deposition techniques of semiconductor fabrication are
utilized to carve mechanical forms out of substrates, typically, silicon. One of the drawbacks
to bulk micromachining is that the microstructure geometry is defined by the internal
crystalline structure of the substrate. Consequently, fabricating multiple, interconnected
micromechanical structures of free-form geometry is often difficult or impossible.
Product types based on beam or cantilever structures include accelerometers, gyroscopes,
relays, switches, and physical sensors – pressure, strain and flow. For example, the
Microvisk fluid sensor is designed essentially like “sticking your finger into a river”, with a
silicon cantilever placed into a fluidic channel and calibrating the bending resistance to
viscosity of the flow.
Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities
As the next step beyond the limitations of bulk micromachining, techniques were
developed in the 1980s that have come to be termed "surface micromachining". Here,
instead of carving the devices out of the silicon substrate, the substrate wafer is used as
a platform on which multiple layers of structural and sacrificial material are built-up and
patterned to realize the creation of free-form, complex and multi-component structures
not possible with bulk micromachining or wafer bonding processes. Gabriel states in an
IEEE paper that "more than any other factor, it is surface micromachining that has
ignited, and is at the heart of, the current scientific and commercial activity in MEMS."
Freed from the limits of silicon, the device designer can choose any suite of
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complementary structural and sacrificial materials such as metals and polyimides, also
interspersed with thin-film applications. This has allowed a broad group of new devices
to be conceived, involving creation of cavities spanned by relatively thicker or thinner
membranes or diaphragms.
Figure 4: Diagram of a MEMS Membrane Device
Source: Raytheon
In Figure 4, from a paper by Raytheon in 2000, a membrane arches over a dielectric to
form a cavity that can hold a charge as a capacitor, where the specific form factor
regulates the capacitance. Applying the right electric potential will pull down the
membrane and discharge the capacitor. An array of 59 variably sized MEMS capacitors
was deployed as a five-pole frequency filter described and pictured in that paper.
Micro-diaphragms are also used in light refractive image displays (Qualcomm Mirasol™),
adaptive optics (IrisAO), insulin pumps (Dibiotech SA) and chemical microreactors (see § 9).
Acoustic Wave Sensors
Another class of devices is comprised of microstructures designed to react in some way
to physical waves (technically termed "acoustic waves" but not necessarily related to
humanly audible sound) induced in either the substrate (bulk acoustic waves) or in a film or
deposition on the surface of the substrate (surface acoustic waves). While their execution
can be complicated, the basic notion of an acoustic wave sensor is to have two transducers
-- one which creates a physical wave and the other which receives it -- at a strategic
separation based on anticipated wavelengths, and then modify the medium between the
transducers and measure how much that modification changes the base-state waveform
(amplitude, frequency or both). This basic concept turns out to be quite versatile.
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Figure 5: Diagram of an Acoustic Wave Sensor
Source: Advanced Sensors for Multifunctional Applications
Placed on a cantilever, bridge or diaphragm it can register variable strain or torque of
various sorts, or build-up of particulates for concentration measurements as shown in
Figure 5.
A common application of acoustic wave devices is to serve as a frequency filter where
the resonance and spacing are fixed tuned or, using mechanical actuation, adjustably
tuned to a desired pass or block frequency.
One of the most complex, multi-component structures to emerge using surface micromachining has also become the largest selling MEMS device by dollar and volume in
history - the ink-jet print head. As shown in Figure 6, the ink-jet print head is a complex
integration of piezo, diaphragm, cavity and multi-material MEMS techniques.
Figure 6: Diagram of a MEMS Ink Jet Print Head
Source:
Pivots and Armatures
The next level of complexity with advanced micromachining is the development of more
freely moving parts, which may include pivots and resistive elements such as leaf or coil
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springs. The most well-known example of this, rapidly approaching the high-volume of
ink-jet heads, is the massively parallel micro-mirror optical device such as the Texas
Instruments Digital Light Processor (DLP®) (Figure 7), but now including a range of
micromirror applications from optical switching to bar-code readers.
Figure 7: Diagram of a DLP Element
Source: Texas Instruments
Another example is gyroscopes. While earlier models were essentially multi-directional
piezo-cantilever accelerometers, newer models are miniaturizing more traditional rotor
type gyros, such as this illustration from Bosch shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Diagram of a Rotor-Type Gyroscope
Source: Robert Bosch
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Fluidic Channeling
The next development in microfabrication was to take the idea of electronic wire traces or
optical wave guides and adapt them to the world of fluids (including various gases entering
a space usually sealed in vacuum). While some initial products were implemented in
silicon, fluidics challenges led designers to other substrates including plastics and glass.
Many concepts were essentially ultra-miniaturized plumbing schemes and involved very
little, if any, mechanical action and often only external, sometimes macro-scale, electrical
actuation. So, while highly sophisticated “microfabrications”, many designs are not MEMS
strictly-speaking. However, microfluidics is usually bundled with MEMS market analyses
for two reasons. First, the skill set and fabrication techniques often involve the same core
competencies. Second, newer designs are now using integration of plumbing schemes,
MEMS physical actuation, optical measurements and perhaps application of microelectronic charge for measurement or catalysis.
Figure 9: Diagram of a Fluidic Channeling Device
Source: Chemtrix
Some of the earliest applications of microfluidics were “DNA chips” that allowed rapid
testing of thousands of samples by basically taking the old 10x10 or 20x20 rack of test tubes
and miniaturizing that to fingernail size. Today, microfluidics is also being applied to
hydraulic actuation and telemetry, synthesis of bulk chemicals, such as pigments and
pharmaceuticals, and to energy applications from fuel cells to processing ethanol and
cellulosic biodiesel.
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MEMS Market Opportunities and Outlook
While the MEMS market has only started to achieve wide-spread notice during the
current decade, its first commercial success dates back to the late 1960s. The four areas
of initial major MEMS commercial success are:
Pressure sensors
Accelerometers
Optical micro-mirrors
Inkjet nozzles
The initial demand markets for MEMS have been
Military/Aerospace
Automotive
Medical
With the exception of the early success of inkjet nozzles, MEMS has not broken into the
consumer markets until more recently, and even inkjets were not on the scale of the
cellphone/digital appliance markets which have ramped in MEMS only in the latter 000s.
MEMS business development has been as cyclical as any high-tech sector, with blooms of
ventures followed by die-offs and a few sterling successes emerging from the maelstrom.
Today there are numerous discreet MEMS segments with market traction established or
emerging. In this report, we will look at 9 different segments, but each of them can be
further subdivided, and new applications are continually emerging. The charts below from
Yole show a general parsing across the life stages of markets.
Figure 10: Stage of MEMS Markets
Source: Yole Développement
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The MEMS device market generated between $6 to $7 billion according to estimates in
2009, feeding a $45 to $50 billion market for the systems into which the MEMS are
integrated. This compares to a $200 to $300 billion global semiconductor market. So,
MEMS remains a highly specialized niche, well less than 5% of the total semicon market.
During the Recession, the MEMS market contracted about 11% compared to an overall
14% contraction in the broader semiconductor market. The rebound forecast by iSuppli
and Yole below is also milder than that for the general market, in the range of 11% to 14%.
The 4-5 year outlook is for growth of between 2/3 and a doubling of MEMS revenue,
depending on how widely you define MEMS. This corresponds to a CAGR of around 12%
to 14%. The 5 year annual compound growth for the semiconductor market is expected
to be around 9% reaching a market size of $340 billion in 2014.
The MEMS market however, is still in the nascent stages of its life cycle and consequently
is expected to enjoy much higher growth over the next decade as MEMS applications
continue to broaden and proliferate.
Figure 11: MEMS Market Forecasts
Source: Yole Développement, Summer 2010
Source: iSuppli, Summer 2010
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The ultimate size of the MEMS market will be dependent on whether the industry can
evolve from the “one product, one process” model that has characterized it to date.
MEMS fabrication can be vastly more complicated than traditional IC’s and thus the
production efficiencies are far lower. A mid-000s estimation by Kurt Petersen (shown
in Figure 12) shows MEMS complexity to be about a decade behind that of microprocessors and that, until the mid-1990s, it was about 20 years behind.
Figure 12:
Source: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Solid-state Sensors. Actuators and Microsystems
The semiconductor industry has followed the famous Moore’s Law, which postulates
that the number of transistors on an IC doubles approximately every 2 years as
minimum transistor sizes continue to shrink over time. Intel’s microprocessors contain
over 1 billion transistors/chip using the current leading edge 45nm process technology,
and that trend is expected to continue for several more generations. The semiconductor
industry has benefited from the convergence of the industry around a standard set of
materials (silicon wafers, silicon dioxide dielectric, aluminum and copper metallization,
etc.) and a common building block device (MOSFET transistor). This has allowed process
tool vendors to focus on a standard set of process modules and materials for IC
fabrication. Even though each manufacturer has a customized process flow, the same
basic process building blocks are used to fabricate an IC.
More recently, the initial MEMS penetration of mass consumer markets has led to increasing
wafer-level packaging and multi-function integration, which are starting to push MEMS
into the price/performance escalations of more traditional mass semiconductors. This
trend has also led to better integration with CMOS chips resulting in System-in-a-Package
(SIP) solutions which are particularly important for space constraint applications such has
cell phones and other mobile devices. There is still a long path before monolithic MEMS/
CMOS solutions will start to play a major role but companies like Silicon Labs, as demonstrated
through their acquisition of Silicon Clocks and ChipSensors, are betting on that direction.
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MEMS Application Markets
A1 – Pressure Sensing
The earliest mechanical microdevices were strain gauges fabricated from single crystal silicon
in the late 1960s and 1970s. Advances in etching allowed for the first diaphragm devices in
the mid 1970s to encompass a more complete physical structure of a pressure sensor.
Figure 13: MEMS Pressure Sensor
Source: Freescale Semiconductor
Initial applications were high cost, low volume niche military and industrial markets.
From the late 1970s onward, automobile market regulation has been a primary catalyst
for ramping high-volume production of MEMS pressure sensors, starting with the 2nd
round of US automotive emission standards in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to most
recently the stringent new European emissions standards due to start in 2009. Another
application for MEMS pressure sensors is the USA’s tire pressure monitoring mandate,
enacted in 2000 which went into effect in Q4 2008. The majority of automotive pressure
sensing is gaseous, either exhaust manifold pressure or tire pressure. Fluidic pressure
sensing has also been addressed by MEMS from its earliest days in both the automotive
and medical markets. An IEEE paper by Kurt Petersen nicely summarizes this:
“The implementation of automotive pollution control legislation in the late 70’s and early
80's spurred automotive manufacturers to develop manifold pressure sensors for the control
of the air/fuel ratio. Ford focused on micromachined capacitive sensors and Delco (GM)
focused on piezoresistive sensors. These devices went into high volume production in the
early 1980’s. In parallel with these developments, Foxboro ICT created a micromachined
pressure sensor which could be used for blood pressure sensing applications. In fact, this
device, using high volume silicon processing technologies, was sufficiently cost effective to
be sold as a ‘disposable’ sensor, eliminating the need (and expense) of sterilization, required
for re-useable medical devices.”
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Because pressure sensing is the oldest MEMS market, one of the largest, and also because
a MEMS pressure sensor is structurally rather simple, the MEMS pressure sensing market
is dominated by the largest automotive supplier and semiconductor companies, who
developed products on their own, or acquired early MEMS pioneers from the 1980s.
Market Overview and Growth Drivers
The automotive market is a major driver of MEMS pressure sensors. The devices have also
been applied to smaller niche markets from aerospace to industrial process control to the
medical applications noted above. Recently, pressure sensors are being considered by
mobile smartphone vendors as altimeters to augment location-based services applications.
When market estimates cite “MEMS-automotive” they usually co-mingle inertial and flow
sensing, whereas estimates cited as “MEMS – pressure sensors” also include medical and
industrial markets, which we will review along with fluidics in a later section.
The pressure sensor segment’s large exposure to the recent decline in the automotive
market has damped short-term revenue, more than offsetting the increased MEMS
content per vehicle from the U.S. tire pressure mandate. Recent mandates for tire
pressure measurement systems in Korea and (anticipated) in Japan are expected to give a
boost to pressure sensor sales in the 2012-2014 timeframe. The non-automotive market
may be about 1/3 of the total pressure sensor market, and that appears to be steady,
suggesting consistent demand for upgrades and replacements to process control systems.
Overall, MEMS pressure sensing is currently a $1 Billion market in four discrete segments:
automotive, industrial process automation, medical and aerospace/defense. Generally,
automotive has comprised around 40%, industrial and medical about 20%, aerospace
around 10% with the rest miscellaneous applications. Of late, industrial automation,
typically gas and fluid pressure sensors, has been growing strongly. Medical seems poised
for higher unit growth, though being often configured as a consumable, is subject to strong
pricing pressure. Aerospace/defense is generally steady since it is largely dependent on
government budget programs which tend not to change rapidly. Roll-out in the newer
segment of consumer cellphones is likely to be slow, and limited mostly to high-content
vertical urban markets in Asia. Overall recent forecasts show a doubling of pressure sensor
revenue in the next 5 years to around $2.3 ~ $2.5 Billion.
Figure 14 – MEMS Pressure Sensor Market Forecast
Source: Yole Developpément, July 2010
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Companies
As one of the longest established MEMS product segments, this market is dominated by
large electronics companies and specialized automotive suppliers including these who have
developed their own MEMS technology from an early stage.
Freescale
Bosch
Sensata
Alps
VTI
Through acquisitions summarized below, these large companies are also competitive in
MEMS pressure sensors: GE, Elmos AG, Schneider Electric SA, and MEMSCAP.
1.
One of the early Silicon Valley ventures in MEMS pressure sensors from 1985 –
NovaSensor – was acquired by Lucas Electric in 1990 and several transactions
later became part of General Electric’s Measurement and Sensing Group.
2.
Around the time NovaSensor was acquired in 1990, Silicon Microstructures, Inc.
(SMI) was founded in Silicon Valley. Several transactions later, it landed as a
subsidiary of the large German automotive ASIC manufacturer Elmos AG in 2001.
3.
Kavlico was a southern California start-up in the 1950s focused on the aerospace
market, and was an early adopter of MEMS in the 1980s. Several acquisitions
later, it became a subsidiary of Schneider Electric SA of France in 2004.
4.
Capto A/S was a subsidiary of Sensonor specializing in medical and aerospace
sensors. It was acquired in 2001 by MEMSCAP of France and formed the basis
for its current specialty sensor business.
Newer Ventures
Another group of pressure-MEMS companies formed in the 1990s and 2000s remain
independent:
• Transense Technologies plc. was started in 1991 in Oxfordshire, UK. Their primary IP
relates to using surface acoustic wave effects to measure strain in a MEMS diaphragm
and create what are effectively RF strain gauges. Transense has supplier agreements
with Honeywell, Melexis, TaiwanSAW, Texas Instruments and Lear auto parts. A public
offering to raise £2.4M was launched in Q3.10.
• Presens SA was founded in 1996 to spin-off technology from Norway's SINTEF
(Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research). Presens differentiates their MEMS
sensors by using a single crystal Si tubular pole supporting a Wheatstone resistor bridge
for measuring differential transverse and axial stress. They propose this design as more
resilient to high pressure and over-pressure conditions with a large dynamic range.
Presens specializes in harsh-condition installations, particularly undersea drilling
platforms - a natural in Norway. Their new lightweight Asterix line of dual pressure/
temperature sensors was released in Q4.09, followed by new distributor agreements in
Germany and Italy. Presens previously won contracts with the European Space Agency
and PRISMA satellite consortium to develop microsensors for monitoring pressurant
and propellant tanks/lines for electric/cold gas propulsion systems.
18
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
• All Sensors Corporation is a specialist firm in Silicon Valley founded in 1999 to focus
on low-pressure sensing for medical and industrial apps. Several of their barometric
and surface-mount pressure sensors use a MEMS core. Shortly after founding, All
Sensors was chosen to support Michelin’s Earthmover Tire Pressure Management
System abandoned by Texas Instruments. All Sensors focuses on higher value niche
markets such as mine safety, HVAC, environmental monitoring and military
applications. In 2007, All Sensors bought an interest in AsenStec Gmbh of Germany,
now operating as All Sensors Europe. A new range of low-voltage sensors was
released during 1H.10.
• Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on
specialized exotic sensing solutions including MEMS pressure, inertial and integrated
environmental sensors. It is working on developing special materials for extreme
environment pressure sensors for the military.
• MEMStech Bhd based in Malaysia was created as a national champion in 2001 out of
a microfab in Singapore. Its first newly developed product was a MEMS pressure sensor
launched in 2002. Recently, it’s been in hot water over earnings mis-statements. Since
the start of 2010, Bursa Malaysia proposed delisting, which was appealed, followed by
receivership, and during Q3, a proposal for a ~$6M recapitalization by a Malaysian
investment group, Lityan Holdings BhD.
• Theon Sensors is an 11-year old specialized sensor firm in Greece that launched a
MEMS division in 2004. Its first products are a mass air flow sensor (see §8) and
capacitive pressure sensors claimed to have high sensitivity, low power consumption
and better thermal dependency.
• Shanghai FineMEMS, Inc. and Jiujian Baohua FineMEMS, Inc. are new vendors in China
launched in the mid-000s offering MEMS pressure sensors for general automotive and
tire pressure monitoring applications. They claim to feature a low-cost ASIC and plastic
packaging technology and claim some initial sales to native Chinese auto manufacturers.
• Acuity, Inc. of Silicon Valley was launched in 2007 specializing in low-bar piezoresistive
pressure sensing for medical, industrial process control and HVAC markets. Initially
ranging to 20 bar, in Q2.10 it launched a new sensor with a 10mbar full-scale rating.
Table 1: MEMS Pressure Sensor Companies
next page
19
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 1: MEMS Pressure Sensor Companies
Pressure Sensor Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Transaction History
Bosch Sensortech
GERMANY
Extensive automotive and tirepressure business. Also, navigation
applications providing accurate
altitude positioning for pedestrian
building-floor detection and Sat-Navi
enhancement in absence of GPS
Denso
JAPAN
Integrated automotive supplier
Freescale Semiconductor
Phoenix, AZ
Extensive tire-pressure monitor
business, digital output sensor used in
micro-barometer for oxygen regulation
in medical ventilators
Spun-off from Motorola in 2004
Sensata Technologies BV
Attleboro, MA /
NETHERLANDS
Piezoresistive Monocrystalline Silicon
Strain Gauge sensors
$569M public offering in March-010. Shares sold by Bain Capital LLC
which bought Texas Instruments Sensors & Controls operation for $3 billion
in 2006 creating Sensata Technologies. Later in 2006, Sensata purchased
some automotive instrumentation operations from Honeywell. In 2007, it
purchased a digital imaging operation from Cypress.
Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
JAPAN
Volume Ship Q1.10 of world's-smallest
waterproof piezo pressure sensor w/
barometric and water-pressure detection
EPSON
JAPAN
New pressure sensor using quartz
photolith process sampling Q4.10
VTI
FINLAND
MEMSCAP
RTP, North Carolina
Specialized pressure sensors focused
on biomedical and aerospace
applications.
Acquired Capto AS subsidiary of Sensonor for €10M in 2001
Partnership with Cleveland Clinic venture OrthoMEMS in 2009 to
commercialize a medical pressure sensor for spine injury applications.
Sensonor
NORWAY
Well monitoring, tire pressure and
engine control pressure sensors
Infineon bought Sensonor for €48M in 2003 and it was sold back to private
investors in March 2009
GE NovaSensor
Fremont, CA
Specialized pressure sensors for lowpressure, extreme environments and
specialized packaging
GE Measurement and Sensing Grp buys NovaSensor from TRW in 2002
TRW gets NovaSensor as part of acquisition of Lucas (England) in 1999
Lucas acquires privately held NovaSensor in 1990.
Elmos/Silicon Microstructures
Milpitas, CA /
GERMANY
Pressure sensors for automotive,
medical, industrial and white goods
applications
Elmos AG acquires SMI from OSI Systems for $6.5m in 2001
OSI Systems acquires SMI from Exar for $6.5m in 1998
Exar/Rohm acquires privately held SMI in 1995
Schneider Electric/Kavlico
Moorpark, CA /
FRANCE
Focused on engine sensors for a
variety of vehicles.
Schneider Electric acquires Kavlico from Solectron for $200m in 2004
Solectron gets Kavlico when it acquires CMAC (Québec) in 2001
CMAC acquires independent Kavlico in 2000
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Recent Financing Activity
Investors
Transense Technologies plc
BRITAIN
SAW MEMS sensors
AIM – TRT
• £2.4m Share offering in Q2.10
Accumulated Loss ~£13m through early 2010
Presens SA
Oslo, NORWAY
High-pressure sensors using
Wheatstone bridge sensors
Spin-off of Norwegian Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research
All Sensors Corporation
Morgan Hill, CA
Low-pressure sensors
Over $1M in 3 private placements
through 2002
Sporian Microsystems
Layfette, CO
Extreme-environment sensors
Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts.
MEMStech Bhd
MALAYSIA
Pressure sensors
Proposed $6M recap – Q3.10
Theon Sensors
GREECE
Capacitive pressure sensor
Privately held, longer established business supplying traditional sensors
Shanghai FineMEMS, Inc.
Jiujian Baohua FineMEMS, Inc.
Shanghai, China
Wuhan, Hubei, China
Piezoresistive pressure sensors,
including tire-pressure (TPMS)
Local Chinese investment
JV of SFMI with Jiujiang Baohua Petrochemical Technology Inc.
Acuity, Inc.
Fremont, CA
Low-pressure piezo sensors
20
Private placements – not specified
Lityan Holdings BhD
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A2 – Inertial/Position Sensing
Inertial sensors – accelerometers and gyroscopes – are considered the second earliest
MEMS success after pressure sensors, and likewise driven by the automobile industry, in
this case via wide deployment of airbags and anti-lock brakes (ABS) during the 1990s.
MEMS sensors have also become a fundamental component of inertial guidance systems
in aerospace. According to iSuppli, the auto
Figure 15
market is the second largest after ICT for all types
of MEMS devices with pressure sensors and
inertial sensing being the top two applications.
One analyst had called accelerometers "the stars
of the MEMS show", and now gyroscopes are
rapidly catching up and being integrated as part
of comprehensive inertial measurement units.
Most accelerometers have a micromachined
proof mass and piezoresistive connectors whose
flexion generates varying signal strengths. Microgyros most commonly use a tuning-fork design,
where two masses are driven to oscillate, via a
comb-drive or piezoresistive effect in equal but
opposite directions, and the oscillations will be
detectably perturbed by rotation. As MEMS has
matured, more complex inertial designs have
emerged, shown in Figure 15, such as the Bosch
micro-flywheel, a so-called ‘wine-glass’ resonator
where a ring is driven to resonance and the
harmonic nodal points are detected to indicate
rotational change, a 2-axis pitch/yaw ring module,
and one with a central sensing mass with
capacitance sensors
Sources: Robert Bosch;
Invensense via EETimes;
STMicro via MEMS Investors Journal
21
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
More recently, magnetic sensing has been added to inertial sensing to form a new class
of embedded location sensor, both within machinery or bodies, by measuring magnetic
distortions, and externally as “digital compasses”. In many respects, magnetic dwarfs
inertial in the complexity of the science required to execute. The interplay of
magnetism and electricity provides a wide array of voltage and resistivity/impedance
effects for engineers to concentrate and refine so as to exploit in a microelectronics
package. Naturally, with MEMS magnetic sensors in early stages, each magnetic effect
is leveraged by one or another of the products on the market as different approaches
compete to dominate future implementations. Examples include using voltage
differences when a magnetic field is perpendicular to the current – called the Hall effect,
after a Dr. Hall who discovered it, as well as resistivity/impedance effects induced either
in a single conductor or between sandwiches of ferromagnetic and non-magnetic
isolation layers – the latter called ‘magneto-resistivity’ or #MR, with various # prefixes
depending on the specific type or technique of magneto resistivity invoked.
Depending on the implementation, micro magnetic sensors don’t always have moving
parts, given magnetism’s ability to induce variations in static bodies, but they can be
complexly micro-fabricated parts
• as with the Asahi Kasei Microsystems part from the Nokia N97 illustrated below
and thus often cross over into the “MEMS” space, especially as they are increasingly
combined with micro-mechanical accelerometers and gyros in more complete inertial
measurement units – IMUs.
Figure 16 –Asahi Kasei AKM AK8974 Digital Compass Package – X-Ray
Source: Chipworks Inc. via MEMS Industry Group blog
22
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
MEMS inertial sensors and micro magnetic sensors have been actively marketed for nearly
two decades in automotive and aerospace applications, but only recently did they finally
break into the mass-market consumer space; most notably with inertial sensors in the
Nintendo Wii video game system and Apple iPhone and digital compass functions in, first
higher-end Japanese mobile phones and most recently the Apple iPhone 3GS.
A white paper published by InvenSense, a venture-backed company targeting low-cost
gyros, presents some interesting history of the price elasticity of MEMS accelerometers in
the car market. They describe the first generation of MEMS accelerometers by NovaSensor
and EG&G as unable to break the $10 per part barrier, whence they were overtaken by the
2nd generation by Motorola/Freescale, Analog Devices, STMicroelectronics and others,
which focused on driving costs below the threshold of around $3 per part, at which level
unit demand took off. They note that both NovaSensor and EG&G’s businesses have since
been acquired several times. And we note that it was Analog Devices and STMicro who
supplied the Wii and iPhone.
In recent years, vendors have been working on both cost and form-factor, introducing ever
smaller inertial sensors, with Freescale, STMicro and Cornell spin-off Kionix all recently
breaking below the 1mm threshold in thickness. MEMS Gyroscopes are now below $10
and MEMS accelerometers are around the $1 per part threshold. Indeed, iSuppli is
forecasting that in a few years, accelerometers will surpass inkjet heads as the #1 MEMS
part in volume and revenue. Yole is more bullish on inkjets, but as several vendors are also
combining acceleration and gyroscopic detection, if you combine volumes of the two
categories then “inertials” are already the #1 MEMS segment.
Magnetic is trickier sector to parse. iSuppli lists total global revenues of “silicon magnetic
sensors” at $820M in 2009, but that is likely a superset of both MEMS and the applied
MEMS of the “digital compass”. Yole looks specifically at digital compass and sees a
$100M market in 2009. Both see a 5-year CAGR in the 13% to 14% range for both
classifications of magnetic. The early 2010 announcement by consumer MEMS giant
STMicroelectronics of a new magnetic IMU using a Honeywell TruePoint™ component
suggests a potential inflection point towards larger-scale consumer implementations.
Figure 17 – MEMS Position Sensor Market Forecasts
Source: Yole Developpément, July 2010
23
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Companies
As with pressure sensing, inertial sensing MEMS is dominated by large electronics
companies and specialized automotive suppliers including:
Major players dominating the accelerometer market:
•
ST Microelectronics
•
Bosch Sensortec
•
Analog Devices
•
Rohm Semiconductor
Major players dominating the gyroscope market:
•
ST Microelectronics
•
Analog Devices
•
Panasonic
Major players dominating the magnetic sensor market:
•
Honeywell
•
Asahi Kasei Microsystems
Other players from major corporations are:
•
Freescale
•
Denso
•
VTI
•
Hewlett-Packard
•
EPSON
•
Sony
•
QinetiQ
•
SensorDynamics
•
Silicon Sensing Systems (Sumitomo/BAE joint venture)
•
MEMSCAP
•
Sensonor
•
Sensata (formerly Texas Instruments)
Bosch Sensortec was for longtime the largest vendor of inertial sensors, though by some
estimates recently supplanted by STMicroelectronics. STMicro and Freescale have
been at the forefront of miniaturization with both companies introducing MEMS accelos
under 1mm in height during 2007. As noted above, Analog Devices and STMicro have
enjoyed early breakthroughs in the consumer space through the success of the Apple
iPhone and Nintendo Wii gaming system. New 3-axis accelos from both ADI and STM
won recognition as Chipworks’ outstanding products across all-MEMS in 2009.
After getting some earlier-decade inertial MEMS when Rohm acquired Oki Semiconductor
in 2008, Rohm took a more significant position in 2010 through acquisition of Cornell spin24
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
off Kionix, which was one of the top venture-backed MEMS players of the late 000s.
Rohm-Kionix supplies a wide variety of inertial sensors for automotive, consumer goods,
hard-disk drop protection and some medical applications. Pre-acquisition Kionix grabbed
attention in 07-08 by launching a sub-1mm analog accelerometer nearly simultaneous
with industry giants Freescale and STMicro, and then winning Frost & Sullivan’s Global
Award for MEMS Product Line Strategy. 2010 saw release of gesture-capture firmware,
and integration into Cypress Semiconductor’s inertial development platform product and
use of its accelerometer in the Q3.10 Sony PlayStation Move.
Sony reportedly supplied its own MEMS gyroscope for the PlayStation Move, marking a
new product line for their MEMS fab, in addition to making silicon microphones for Knowles.
EPSON developed a quartz-based MEMS process, originally for the timing oscillator
market. Recently it has begun applying its’ QMEMS™ technology to other applications
and at the end of Q3.2010 announced a new series of gyro MEMS.
Nintendo gyroscopes are supplied by Epson and Invensense and reportedly the next-gen
of Wii will contain 3-axis MEMS gyroscopes from Panasonic
Hewlett-Packard has entered the space recently a late 2009 demo of an inertial
measurement unit (IMU) claimed to be a thousand times more sensitive than current
devices, using a suspended movable mass that changes the electric potential between
electrodes. Its initial application is reportedly in geologic exploration, including a
Q1.2010 announced collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell for oil/gas reservoir seismic
exploration data.
VTI in Finland has focused for a long time on the automotive market for accelerometers
and gyroscopes and was the first to adopt wafer-level packaging as part of launching the
world’s smallest and least power consuming 3-axis accelo in 2009. In Q4.10, VTI entered
the consumer electronics segment with advanced gyros, and added a 3rd target segment
of biomedical for 2011.
Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd. (SSS) is a joint venture of Sumitomo and the former inertial
guidance group at British Aerospace (BAE), which, as Atlantic Inertial Systems, was acquired
by Goodrich in late 2009. SSS has shipped over 10 million yaw sensors and over 1-millionth
angular rate gyros. In Q3.10 SSS launched a new low-cost gyro - the PinPoint® – distinguished
by a proprietary balanced vibrating ring design.
Asahi Kasei Microsystems is the market leader in magnetic Hall effect sensors, scoring a win
for the Apple iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97 smartphones.
Honeywell has offered Anisotropic MagnetoResistive (AMR) sensors for years for specialized
industrial and military apps. In early 2010, Honeywell agreed to supply its AMR module to
STMicroelectronics to be integrated into a new STM inertial and digital compass device.
25
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Integrated Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) that combine multiple axes of motion and
position are seen as a major growth area in the early 2010s. Numerous MEMS vendors
launched combined accelo-gyro IMUs from late 2009 through 2010 including VTI of
Finland, STMicro of Switzerland, SensorDynamics AG of Austria and InvenSense of the
USA. Along with the ADI and STM devices above, SensorDynamics’s IMU was also a
Chipworks’ outstanding product among all MEMS for 2009.
Smaller Ventures
The most successful small companies with expanding market penetration are:
•
Qualtré, Inc. is a more recent entry into the MEMS space, established in Massachusetts in
2008 to commercialize both a unique solid-state bulk-acoustic wave gyro technology and
the high-aspect-ratio etching processes needed for fabrication, developed at Georgia Tech.
The company has so far raised $8M in two rounds and aims at volume shipments in 2011.
•
InvenSense Inc. is an early/mid-stage venture in Mountain View that launched a low-cost
dual-axis gyro MEMS which has been incorporated into image-stabilization and navigation
products, as well as an accessory for the Nintendo Wii. In 2008, it claimed the smallest dualaxis gyro package at 4 x 5 x 1.2 mm, 25% smaller than competitors. New lines of 3-axis and
6-axis gyro MEMS were introduced mid-2010 along with integrated Inertial Measurement
Units (IMUs) for consumer electronics and the launch of a new 15M units/mo fab in Taiwan
to accommodate the mass market. InvenSense has received a total of $38 million through
3 rounds of funding from investors including Sierra Ventures, Qualcomm and NTTDoCoMo.
iSuppli has ranked InvenSense as the #1 supplier of consumer gyro supplier while Yole has
estimated a nearly 5x growth rate ’09 vs. ’08, leading at the end of Q2.10 to an S-1 filing for
a possible IPO.
•
Memsic, Inc. is a spin-off of Analog Devices that developed a unique variation on a MEMS
accelerometer using gas convection as the proof mass. A single heat source, centered in the
silicon chip, creates a thermal gradient and density gradient in the sealed gas. External
motion moves the gas within the micro-package and the applied force is detected by
temperature variations around the heat source. Memsic's gas accelerometers were used in
the audience’s LED wave torches at the Beijing Olympics ceremonies to create their mass
signaling effects. Memsic added to its systems integration capabilities with the late 2009
acquisition of Crossbow Technology, Inc.
•
Sensitec GmbH got its start in 1999-2000 when a research bootstrap took over the Institute
for Micro Structure Technology and Opto Electronics in Germany which specialized in
magneto-resistive research. In 2004, it acquired the fab of Naomi Technologies AG and
expanded commercial sales of Anisotropic and Giant MagnetoResistive sensors. Sensitec
supplies the AMR die for Memsic's line of magnetic sensors launched at the end of 2008.
26
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
•
MEMStech Bhd based in Malaysia was created as a national champion in 2001 out of
a microfab in Singapore. It launched its first MEMS accelerometer product in 2005.
Recently, it’s been in hot water over earnings mis-statements. Since the start of 2010,
Bursa Malaysia proposed delisting, which was appealed, followed by receivership, and
during Q3, a proposal for a ~$6M recapitalization by a Malaysian investment group,
Lityan Holdings BhD.
•
Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on
specialized MEMS devices. In 2007, it introduced a 3-axis accelerometer designed for
high-G inertial shock applications, especially in the military.
•
Domintech Co. Ltd. is a MEMS fab in Taiwan that has been developing motion sensor
technology since 2007. Having developed experience with 3-axis accelo and gyro, it is
planning to launch its own-branded products in 2011, 3-axis first, with 6-axis in plan.
•
Virtus Advanced Sensors, Inc. is an early-stage venture among technology partners Carnegie
Mellon Univ., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Sendai MEMS Park, and Hong Kong Science & Technology
Park and, for manufacturing, Taiwan-based Unimicron and ChipSense. Virtus launched its
first product in 2008, a standalone MEMS accelerometer integrated with Bluetooth called
the SENSING MOTE claimed as the smallest and lightest stand-alone 3-axis acceleration data
collection unit. Virtus is collaborating with Acutronic USA for development of testing tools
based on Virtus’s sensors.
•
Movea SA based near Grenoble was created in ’07 out of development teams at the
Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the French Atomic Energy Commission
and in early ‘08 purchased Gyration, Inc., a Silicon Valley firm that applies inertial MEMS to
consumer and healthcare markets. At the end of Q3.10, Movea launched a new integrated
chipset suite -- MotionIC™-- combining 2-9 axis inertial MEMS with firmware, API and SDKs
focused on set-top box and digital TV OEMs and service providers.
•
Colibrys SA was spun-off from the Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA in
Neuchâtel in 2001 and focuses on semi-custom and standardized harsh-condition MEMS
inertial sensors for energy, military and aerospace markets. In 2008 Colibrys announced a
distribution agreement with Avnet, one of the world's largest distributors of electronic
components. New products were introduced during 2010, with expanded applications such
as aerospace guidance and directional drilling, and a new full-line distributor in Brasil.
•
Baolab Microsystems was spun-off in 2003 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
in Barcelona. It discloses a portfolio of 9 patent filings regarding the design and application of
low voltage metal-to-metal electrostatic micro-relays, sized to place thousands of them on a
single chip die, activated below 5V. In March 2010, it disclosed its CMOS process called
NanoEMS™ and demo’d MEMS on standard 0.18µm 200mm volume CMOS wafers with
minimum feature sizes down to 200 nanometers. NanoEMS™ won 2 industry awards in Q4.10
and Baolab anticipates sampling by the end of 2010 with RF switches, inertial MEMS and
integrated function MEMS.
27
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 2a: Position Sensor Companies
Position Sensor Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Bosch Sensortech
GERMANY
Market leader in automotive applications
Transaction History
Analog Devices, Inc.
Norwood, MA
Automotive, Cannondale bicycles and Nintendo Wii
Q2/Q3.10 launch of 4thgen “Quad-Sensor™ shock/vibration-resistant gyros
Phoenix, AZ
Among top 5 in accelerometer market share
High-aspect ratio micromachining introduced Q4.08 for AIRBAG systems.
VTI
FINLAND
Specializing in sensitivities at low-G and low power consumption for automotive. First MEMS inertial wafer-level
packaging in 2009. New products for consumer electronics and medical markets introduced Q4.10
Denso
JAPAN
Among top 5 in accelerometer market share, new gyroscope unit added in 2009-2010.
High-aspect ratio micromachining introduced 2007 for various automotive applications
STMicroelectronics
SWITZERLAND
Diverse applications, 40% of smartphone accelos (per iSuppli), Sub-1mm-sized accelerometer
MEMSCAP
RTP, N. Carolina
Industrial and aerospace specialty apps
Honeywell
Plymouth, MN
Redmond, WA
Accelerometers, Gyroscopes and AMR Magnetic Sensors for aerospace, automotive and industrial applications,
new supply deal with STMicro for the consumer market
Sony
JAPAN
new 2-axis gyro in the PS3 Move controller
Panasonic
JAPAN
Inertial units for automotive and consumer applications, new 3-axis gyro in for future Nintendo 3DS
Sensonor
NORWAY
Accelo and gyros for automotive and
harsh environments
Infineon bought Sensonor for €48M in 2003 and it was sold back to private
investors in March 2009
Hewlett-Packard
Corvallis, OR
Ultra-sensitive IMUs for extreme
demand markets
Collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell to develop wireless sensing system
for oil/gas reservoir seismic exploration data.
Asahi Kasei Microsystems
JAPAN
Leader in Hall effect magnetic sensors, digital compasses for iPhone and Nokia N97
EPSON
JAPAN
IMUs using quartz photolith process starting Q2.10 through late 2011.
QinteiQ
BRITAIN
Accelo, Gyro, Shock sensors for aerospace, defense and automotive
SensorDynamics
AUSTRIA
Integrated accelo/gyro inertial management systems
Sensata Technologies BV
Attleboro, MA
Accelo and thermal MEMS tilt sensors
(see transactions in §1 Pressure sensors above)
ROHM / Kionix
Ithaca, NY / JAPAN
Sub-1mm-sized accelerometer
Acquired by ROHM in Q4.09 for $233M after $51M in venture $ since ‘04
Sumitomo / Goodrich SIS
BRITAIN/JAPAN
Wine-glass magneto-gyro
Goodrich Sensors & Integrated Systems
Burnsville, MN
Aerospace and defense applications
Hitachi
Silicon Sensing Systems is a JV between Sumitomo and Goodrich, who bought the
ex-BEA Atlantic Inertial Systems from J.F. Lehman & Co. in late 2009.
JAPAN
Analog Devices accelerometers
Source: Princeton University Soboyejo Research Group
Source: Chipworks Inc. via MEMS Industry Group blog
28
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 2b: Position Sensor Companies
Position Sensor Producers
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Investors
Qualtré
Marlborough, MA
Solid-state BAW gyros
$5M,Series A, Q4 2008
$8M,Series B, April 2010
Matrix Partners
Pilot House Ventures
Memsic, Inc.
Andover, MA
Gas-convection gyroscope
$60M NASDAQ IPO, December 2007
Purchased Crossbow Technologies,
January 2010
Celtic House, Canada (lead)
Still River Fund
Investar Capital
CID Group
Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co.
InvenSense, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA
Low-cost gyroscopes,
ranked as #1 supplier to consumer
electronics
Pre IPO S-1 filed June 2010
$19M Series C, May 2008
($38M total to date)
Sierra Ventures (lead)
Qualcomm Ventures
Artiman Ventures
Skylake Ventures (Korea)
Partech International
DoCoMo Capital
Foxconn (Taiwan)
Inventec Appliances Corp (Taiwan)
VentureTech Alliance
(Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co.)
Colibrys SA
SWITZERLAND
Harsh-environment accelos & gyros
Not announced
Chairman is a partner at
TAT Capital Partners AG
MEMStech Bhd
MALAYSIA
Single and dual-axis accelerometer
Lityan Holdings BhD
Sporian Microsystems, Inc.
Lafayette, CO
3-axis accelo for high-G shock
Domintech
TAIWAN
3-axis accelo and gyro, 6-axis planned
Sensitec GmbH
GERMANY
Anisotropic Magneto Resistive sensors
Not announced
Virtus Advanced Sensors, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA,
3-axis standalone accelerometer
sensing mote w/ Bluetooth
Not announced
Innovation Engine, Tokyo
Japan Asia Investment Corp.
(JAIC)
USC Corp. (Sony trading company)
Movea SA
FRANCE /
Milpitas, CA
Inertial MEMS aimed at consumer and
healthcare therapeutic markets
€7.5M First Round, January 2008
I-Source Gestion (lead)
GIMV (lead)
Thomson Multimedia Sales Int’l
CEA Valorisation SA
Terrassa,
CATALUNYA, SPAIN
Inertial MEMS fabbed in CMOS
Baolab Microsystems S.L.
Source: Invensense
purchased Gyration, Q2.08
€1M seed round, Q4.2004
Highgrowth Partners SGECR SA
FonsInnocat
Source: Qualtré
29
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A3 – RF MEMS and Switching
Among the earliest RF MEMS were acoustic wave sensors. Bulk acoustic wave (BAW)
devices were originally monolithic non-MEMS sandwiches of electrodes and different
density layers. The MEMS version uses a thin layer of piezoelectric material suspended
like a stretched membrane or arched bridge, whereby the application of an electric
charge "twitches" the diaphragm, analogous to plucking a string, and the cavities and
bridges can be "tuned" to resonate at certain RF frequencies. The thin-film-diaphragm
version of BAW is called a film bulk acoustic resonator or FBAR.
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are generally non-MEMS interdigital transducers
where the pitch, line width and thickness determine the center frequency of the filter and
the shape of the passband (see Figure 18).
Figure 18: Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Device
Source: Triquint
The relative market position of SAW and FBAR/BAW as RF filters (shown in Figure 19) was
well summarized in an article by TRIQUINT [NASDAQ –TQNT] in the June 2007 issue of
Microwave Product Digest:
“SAW approaches practical limits at 2.5 GHz because the requirements for line width and
gap dimensions in the transducers call for less than 0.25 µm lithography resolution. SAWs
with a relative bandwidth of larger than 0.5% show a significant temperature dependency.
The BAW principle has inherent advantages with regard to losses. Acoustic energy density
is very high in BAW designs and the waves are very well trapped. Q-values achieved with
BAW resonators are superior to any other technology suitable for the GHz range. As a
result of the high Q-values, the filter skirts will be very steep while the insertion loss
remains low even at the edges of the passband. This is a key advantage for duplexers in
the US-PCS band and the main reason FBAR and BAW were able to conquer a large
market share in this particular application.”
30
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Figure 19: Performance Characteristics for Acoustic Wave Devices
Source: Triquint
The primary application of MEMS FBAR filters has been as higher frequency duplexers for
WCDMA 3G handsets. These have been in the market since 2002 and today are supplied
mainly by two firms – HP/Agilent/Avago and EPCOS/TDK. In late 2008, Avago acquired
the monolithic BAW business of Infineon.
Switches
Perhaps the most basic electro-mechanical functions are those of switches and relays. As
switching functions are ubiquitous, the ability to shrink the footprint of a traditional reed or
physical latch switch, as well as gain advantages in lower power consumption, power loss
and faster on/off cycles has made the concept of MEMS switches very popular and has
attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment over the decades.
One of the most frequent applications of switching arrays is in radio signal processing
systems. In a sense, the term “RF MEMS” is essentially the specialized applications of
MEMS switches. Other types of RF MEMS include oscillators/resonators and the above
cited acoustic wave sensor architectures. Specific device solutions are often parallel or
mixed arrays of components for switching, timing and resonating, for example to create
tunable frequency filters or switches for multi-mode radios. More recently, various
RF MEMS techniques are being applied in the burgeoning field of RFID taggants.
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
The first MEMS switch design was published in 1979 by IBM, but it was not until the 1990s
that further research began to be actively published. A published patent search shows a
sharp upswing in MEMS switch patents in the 2000s decade with nearly 200 issued from
2000 to 2006. While the largest single assignee was Intel, a number of the cited switch
patents also went to IBM, Toshiba, Agilent, Freescale and the Rockwell Science Center.
Other major RF MEMS patent assignees were Defense contractors Raytheon, Hughes, and
Northrop Grumman. In our technology intro we cited a Raytheon paper from 2000
showing a capacitive switch. The application was building RF filters from arrays of those
switches to create devices with up to 16 capacitance states, ranging from a 1-pole structure
with 12 MEMS to 6-pole structures with 139 MEMS. The Raytheon engineering team
subsequently spun off from to form the start-up MEMtronics Corp. to commercialize both
raw switches and integrated subsystems of tunable filters, phase shifters and phased array
antenna components. MEMtronics latest win was a DoD grant for narrow-band low-loss
tunable filters in the Ka-band. Indeed, arguably the most active MEMS switch development
group is the RF MEMS division at the Army Research Lab in Maryland.
The heavy usage cycle, and some of the physical constraints of flexion, spring recoil and
mechanical stiction caused by microscale interfacial forces has also made MEMS switches a
significant engineering challenge resulting in one of the largest MEMS venture graveyards
of the 2000s.
Since clock generation and timing is such a key component of frequency management, many
analysts will include as part of the RF MEMS category the timing device segment, which we
will discuss separately below in §4.
Capacitors
Another MEMS application in RF is capacitors. A so-called Digitally Tunable Capacitor
has been developed by wiSpry, Inc., a start-up in Orange County, CA. It allows for multifrequency operation by mobile terminals using a single antenna module rather than
having multiple fixed-frequency components. The first commercial sample was shipped
in 2008, with a Patent granted at the end of 2009 and a joint-development agreement
with NTT DoCoMo signed in Q3.2010.
Cavendish Kinetics in the Netherlands is also developing MEMS tunable capacitors using
a technique of encapsulating the MEMS within a traditional CMOS fabrication. Baolab
in Catalunya, Spain is using a similar technique for making switch/relays. See Figures on
next page.
32
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Figure 20: Diagrams of Cavendish NanoMech™ and Baolab NanoEMS™
Source: Cavendish Kinetics and Baolab
The total market for all RF components is well north of $10 billion, while total sales of
RF MEMS are barely 0.1% of that. The acoustic wave business is seen as mature and
stable. A review by the Dutch MEMSland consortium showed the FBAR business largely
constrained to the >2GHz area, whose upside is limited by the slow rollout of 4G services
using that spectrum. Otherwise, better price/performance and versatility of SAW
devices is seen as a constant market share threat. The FBAR market is dominated by
Avago/Infineon, who have around 70% share, and a recent Yole forecast shows nearly
flat growth for the FBAR MEMS segment.
The first commercial application for MEMS switches was neither RF nor telecom but
automated test equipment (ATE). Advantest has been the leader here, developing their
own proprietary switches and beginning shipment of products using those switches in 2005.
Other ATE/measurement firms and suppliers such as Agilent, Rohde & Schwarz, Teradyne
and Maxim had been reported as investigating. Omron launched a MEMS relay in 2008
aimed at the ATE market. Form Factor claims the world's largest MEMS probe card
manufacturing capacity, and in late 2009 announced a new 300-mm full-wafer contact
probe card for NAND Flash devices using their MicroSpring® MEMS contact technology. At
the same time, they have suffered severe sales declines, along with the mainstream
semiconductor industry and in 2010 have gone through a CEO/CFO swap, force reductions
and a start-then-stop of moving production to Asia.
The segment of RF switches and variable-capacitors has suffered a more volatile “hype curve”
than other segments due to the tension between the allure of “billions of cellphones” and
the physics challenges of these genuinely complex parts. Also, competing alternatives from
traditional chipsets implementing RF functions to more sophisticated silicon-on-sapphire
CMOS products have offered excellent performance to the market, leaving some micromechanicals as either exotic solutions or merely unreliable solutions to simple problems.
In 2007, iSuppli predecessor Wicht plotted RF MEMS as being on the far side of the hype
33
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
trough and forecast over $100M in sales by 2010. Yet less than a year later, further
switch ventures went to the graveyard, and iSuppli’s current 2010 forecast is barely 10% of
the former estimate. And yet….
Science progresses, labor and capital re-form, and there are signs that FINALLY the early
Twenty-teens may be a breakout period for RF MEMS.
The latest forecast by Yole for all RF MEMS markets still shows a slow ramp in the next
few years, starting in the mid-single-digits through 2010, then accelerating to 14% to 17%
CAGR in 2012 through 2015. Meanwhile iSuppli foresees a coming hockey-stick in the
switch/variable-capacitor space, jumping from barely $10M annually the past several years,
to over $200M in 2014 within the total RF MEMS estimate of $500M by Yole.
Figure 21: Comparison of iSuppli Switch Forecasts and Yole overall RF MEMS forecasts
Sources: iSuppli/MEMS Investor Journal, October 2010 and Yole Developpément, July 2010
Companies
As noted, large corporate development of RF MEMS includes:
Advantest
Epcos (now acquired by TDK) Avago (including Infineon acquisition)
Omron
Northrop/Grumman
Raytheon
Thales
British Aerospace
Hughes
Also Skyworks Solutions, Inc. of Massachusetts in late 2007 acquired some RF MEMS IP
originally developed by Rockwell Science Center via Freescale Semiconductor.
And just at the end of 2009, MEMSCAP launched a new magnetic MEMS switch (not RF),
analogous to Magfusion (see in Graveyard below), for use in a medical video “capsule”, the
PillCam® developed by Given Imaging of Israel.
34
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Smaller Ventures
The current cohort of MEMS switch ventures were started in the early 2000s and have
taken nearly a decade or more to come to fruition.
•
X-COM Wireless, Inc. was formed in 2000 in Long Beach, CA and developed, largely
with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, micro-scale relay switches with direct metalto-metal contact and physical engage/disengage which are applied to circuit elements
for switching, tuning, and phase-shifting RF. Currently two products are emerging –
a single-pole double-throw industrial relay used for high-frequency test equipment
and instrumentation to be commercialized by Teradyne, and by early 2011, an RF tuning
circuit for wireless communications applications.
•
MEMtronics Corp. outside Dallas, TX was started in 2001 by Raytheon engineers who
had developed a capacitive MEMS switch. The device uses electrostatic actuation, but
the restoring force is provided by a bridge membrane rather than a cantilever arm.
Market focus appears to be military radar and C3 systems.
•
wiSpry, Inc. was formed in 2002 nearby to X-Com in Orange Co., CA and has developed
arrays of MEMS capacitors designed exclusively to be low-loss, dynamically tunable
RF components. They have developed a MEMS design they claim is 'silicon agnostic'
and can be built on top all leading RF processes, including CMOS, SiGe, BiCMOS and
GaAs. After a US Patent was successfully issued in Q1.10, they partnered with both
IBM(Semiconductor) and Infineon on tunable impedance matching, the latter in
conjunction with Smart Antenna Front End (SAFE) project of Denmark’s High Technology
Foundation. And in Q3.10, a frequent cellphone pioneer – NTT DoCoMo – partnered
with wiSpry to develop new tunable mobile devices.
•
Radant Technologies Corporation of Stow, MA licensed a design from Northeastern U.
and Analog Devices, Inc. in 2002 for a hermetically sealed, surface micromachined
all-metal toggle switch design which was launched in 2004 and won a Frost & Sullivan
Excellence award in 2005. Market focus and the primary customer has been DARPA for
electronically steerable antenna [ESA] subsystems using a massive array of 25,000
MEMS switches. Radant claims reliability of 100 billion switching cycles.
•
HT Microtechnologies was founded in 2003 in Albuquerque NM by engineers from
Sandia National Labs and the University of Wisconsin. Among a variety of other
products based on their patented deep X-ray (LIGA) fabrication techniques, they claim
to have built miniature relay switches that can handle up to 2A DC current and can
operate at RF frequencies. The company uses wafer scale integration and packaging to
allow low cost hermetic packaging. Currently focusing on high-G force impact switches
for military applications in weaponry and fuzes with US Army trials underway.
35
•
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Baolab Microsystems was spun-off in 2003 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
in Barcelona. It discloses a portfolio of 9 patent filings regarding the design and application
of low voltage metal-to-metal electrostatic micro-relays, sized to place thousands of them
on a single chip die, activated below 5V. In March 2010, it disclosed its CMOS process called
NanoEMS™ and demo’d MEMS on standard 0.18µm volume 200mm CMOS wafers with
minimum feature sizes down to 200 nanometers. NanoEMS™ won 2 industry awards in
Q4.10 and Baolab anticipates sampling by the end of 2010 with RF switches, inertial MEMS
and integrated function MEMS.
• Cavendish Kinetics, among the oldest companies in RF MEMS, started in the Netherlands
back in 1994. Its proprietary process, called NanoMech™, forms sealed cavities between
the metal layers of CMOS, similar to Baolab. With NanoMech™ it has developed a family
of MEMS cantilever tunable capacitors, targeting cellular channel tuning, band selection
and impedance matching for RF radios up to 3 GHz. In Q2.10, Cavendish announced a
collaboration with SVTC and Dupont EKC for fabrication of CK’s MEMS RF tuners.
•
Asulab, on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, is a timepiece-components manufacturer
who, analogous to Magfusion (see in Graveyard below), recently developed a
magnetically actuated micro-switch/relay for use in hearing aids and special-function
watches. Asulab was acquired in 2005 by SWATCH.
•
Bluechiip* Tracking Solutions was founded in 2003 in Australia to develop an RFID device
using MEMS. Most recently a proof-of-concept device was completed in partnership with
the Canadian DSP design firm SignalCraft.
*correct spelling with 2 “i”s
•
Veratag LLC is a recent spin-out from Cornell’s MEMS research, developing MEMS resonators
to generate RFID signals. It’s first publication was in late 2009.
•
MultusMEMS AB is a new venture in Uppsala, the university town of Sweden. In 2009 it
announced contract with the Swedish Space Agency Board to develop an RF MEMS switch for
systems biased to high RF power yet slow speed. It’s also aiming for a “sustainability” angle
by “using small amounts of material and consuming less energy compared to today’s technology”
Graveyard
PHS MEMS SA, created in 1998 in Grenoble,
took its name from the Japanese handyphone
system, for which it hoped to develop optical
switches. It ran through three rounds of over
$30 million before being liquidated in 2004.
Microlab Corp in Arizona renamed in ’03 as
Magfusion Corp. to reflect its launch product:
an unusual magnetically latching single pole
double throw (SPDT) switch/relay developed at
Arizona State Univ. Magfusion partnered with
PHS MEMS just before it failed, then in ’06 was
acquired by Schneider Electric SA along with
the highly successful MEMS firm Kavlico.
Simpler Networks, Inc. founded in 1999 in
Montréal by engineers from Nortel, Tellabs and
Bell Northern Labs to commercialize a MEMS
relay design for greater miniaturization of large
scale telecoms switchgear. The Company raised
a total of $98 million in venture capital and In
Q4.06 entered a joint development agreement
w/ AlcatelLucent for developing an automated
cross connect platform based on SNI’s relay.
But, progress foundered and SNI was placed
under Canadian receivership in late ‘08.
TeraVicta spun-off in 2000 from the
Microelectronics and Computer Technology
research consortium in Austin, TX and
attracted $14 million in 2 rounds for a
patented high-force MEMS relay switch.
Product was commercially launched in 2006,
but sales did not ramp and the company
filed Chapter 7 in Q1.2008.
siVerta, Inc. formed in 2002 in Silicon Valley
by principals from a micro-mirror optical
switching company, Xros which was acquired
by Nortel at the height of the photonics
boom in 2000. siVerta’s product was also a
micro-relay, but w/o the hermetic packaging.
36
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 3: RF MEMS & Switching Companies
RF MEMS and Switching Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Transaction History
Advantest Component Inc.
Japan
switches developed for ATE
Created from Advantest in Q2.2007 to commercialize internal designs
Avago
Palo Alto CA
FBAR for RF, switches for ATE
Latest FBARs for UMTS and 4G/LTE
launched Q2/Q3.10. Yole’s #4 fastest
growing MEMS vendor
Spun off from Agilent in 2005
acquired Infineon BAW business in 2008.
Norwood, MA
switches developed for ATE
TDK/EPC Corp. [EPCOS AG]
DE/NL/JAPAN
BAW filters and tunable capacitors
Acquired tunable capacitors from NXP in 4/08, Acquired by TDK 10/08
Omron
JAPAN
Switch promising 100 million cycles,
designed for ATE and RF measurement
Latest version launched 2008
MEMSCAP
RTP, N. Carolina
Magnetic micro-switch launched Q4.09
in medical imaging ‘capsule’ - PillCam®
Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
Woburn, MA
BAW filters, latest papers and product
upgrades released Q3.10
Raytheon
USA
Military applications
Northrop/Grumman
USA
Hughes
USA
Thales
BRITAIN
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Investors
X-COM Wireless, Inc.
Long Beach, CA
Metal-to-metal contact switches with
mechanical locking
Unannounced initial investment.
Mostly supported by SBIR and
DARPA grants with JPL/NASA
Ardesta LLC (lead)
MEMtronics Corporation
Dallas, TX
Capacitive diaphragm switch with
electrostatic actuation
Not announced. Several DARPA
contracts, which may sustain
wiSpry, Inc.
Irvine, CA
MEMS capacitors as dynamically
tunable RF components, designed to
be 'silicon agnostic', adaptable to
CMOS, SiGe, BiCMOS and GaAs
$20M Series C, June 2009
$18M Series B, March 2008
Acquired IPR of Rockwell Science Ctr. from Freescale in late 2007.
L-Capital Partners
DoCoMo Capital
Arkian
Chart Venture Partners
Acacia Wood Partners
American River Ventures
Blueprint Ventures
Hotung Capital Management
In-Q-Tel
Shepherd Ventures
Baolab Microsystems S.L.
CATALUNYA, SPAIN
Metal-to-metal , low-voltage, µrelays,
fabbed between CMOS metal layers
€1M seed round, Q4.2004
Highgrowth Partners SGECR SA
FonsInnocat
Cavendish Kinetics
NETHERLANDS
Cantilever tunable capacitors
fabbed between CMOS metal layers
$15.5M Series B, Q2.2006
Tallwood Venture Capital
Wellington Partners
Celtic House Venture Partners
Clarium Holdings Ltd.
Torteval Investments Ltd.
HT Microtechnologies
Albuquerque, NM
Wide spectrum range relays with waferscale integration
Initial seed investment in 2003
US ARMY development contract
Radant Technologies Corporation
Stow, MA
hermetically sealed,
surface-micromachined
all-metal toggle switch design
Not announced. Several DARPA
contracts, which may sustain
Asulab
SWITZERLAND
Magnetically actuated micro
reed- switch
Acquired by SWATCH in 2005
Bluechiip Tracking Solutions
AUSTRALIA
Passive RFID memory/thermal sensors
w/ unique programming/ storage MEMS
Not announced.
Private equity sources
Veratag LLC
Ithaca, NY
MEMS resonators for RFID signals
Not announced
Not announced
MultusMEMS AB
SWEDEN
High-power RF switches for satellites
Government contracts
Affiliate of Radant Technologies, Inc.
privately held defense contractor in
business since 1979.
37
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A4 – Timing Devices
Nearly every ICT device requires a precise clock to synchronize digital computational steps
or calibrate RF frequencies. In the highest-end applications since WW2 and in mainstream
digital electronics applications since the 1960s, the standard has been oscillators based on
harnessing the piezoelectric response of quartz crystals placed in an amplifier feedback
arrangement. Even though many electronic systems today incorporate silicon timing
devices to distribute and manage clock signals, the reference clock signal is still a quartz
crystal oscillator. Since the late 1990s, engineers have been developing MEMS oscillators
based on the piezoresistive flexion of silicon, micromachined in precise structural forms as
either beams, cantilevers or various combinations. The consistency of the material and
precision of the fabrication have been difficult challenges, but those engineers and venture
investors are betting that once the process and
Figure 22
device performance is stabilized, the
traditional volume economics of CMOS-type
fabrication will eventually prevail over the
bulkier and more complex crystal slicing and
assembly of quartz-based components. The
potential to integrate a MEMS oscillator and
timing controller in a single package or on a
single chip is especially interesting as it would
dramatically drive down the cost of the total
timing solution. Seiko Epson in Japan has
developed a hybrid process that integrates
quartz crystals into a MEMS-scale fabrication
process, not surprisingly called QMEMS™,
which is now shipping KHz band units for
applications like smartcards.
Source: Silicon Clocks via ElectroIQ.com
above: SiTime;
below: Sand9, Inc.
38
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Figure 23 – MEMS Timing Device Market Forecast
The total market for all timing devices was
estimated at over $5 billion in 2008. ABI
has forecast a 6% 5-year CAGR for the
overall timing market, but the substitution
of MEMS is starting to ramp significantly,
albeit still amounting to less than 10% of
the total timing market by 2015. MEMS
Timing device revenue is expected to
roughly DOUBLE every year through 2015 in
the latest Yole analysis.
Source:
Yole Developpément, July 2010
There is an economic case for MEMS as a replacement for quartz oscillators but incumbent
quartz suppliers are unlikely to cede the market without a fight. The potential for an
aggressive price war exists. The challenge to MEMS oscillator companies is to develop
marketing based on advantages other than simply low-cost, historically an unsuccessful
go-to-market strategy. Among the unique advantages MEMS oscillators offer is the ability
to programmably choose any frequency within a continuous range, rather than having to
supply a separate quartz device for each frequency. MEMS oscillators are more robust and
resistant to vibration and shock than quartz, and they can be made significantly smaller and
thinner than quartz oscillators, a distinct advantage in mobile electronics. The possibility of
integrating the MEMS oscillator either in a package or on a single chip with the timing
processor offers unique benefits in form factor and performance as well as in cost. As with
most emerging technologies, MEMS oscillators are likely to achieve initial success in high
performance niches, such as mobile platforms where size, power, and cost are critical.
Companies
Large corporate development of MEMS oscillators has mostly been associated with
European companies such as:
NXP
STMicroelectronics
Robert Bosch
Japan's Seiko Epson, the dominant supplier of quartz crystal oscillators has fired a
preemptive shot by introducing their hybrid quartz-MEMS [QMEMS™] technology.
Finland’s VTI has a long time position in the automotive inertial market and was the first
to adopt wafer-level packaging in a compact 3-axis unit in 2009. In October, 2010 VTI
announced its intention to enter the market for silicon MEMS timing devices.
Ecliptek is a longtime southern California supplier of frequency control products and has
used MEMS implementations for some of its clocking solutions for Fiber Channel, Gigabit
Ethernet and other networking applications. In Q2.10, Ecliptek launched a new line of
MEMS voltage-controlled oscillators.
39
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Acquisitions
In the first-third of 2010, acquisitions by $½ Billion digital media IC public companies
provided an exit for two of the four venture-backed MEMS oscillator companies
• Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [NASDAQ: IDTI] acquired Mobius Microsystems, both
of Silicon Valley, in January 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Mobius, like Discera, spunout from University of Michigan, developed an inductance/capacitance harmonic (LC)
oscillator design that, similar to RedShift's infrared detector, isn’t very "mechanical", but
is an ultra-miniaturized, complex, all-CMOS design that could similarly substitute for more
traditional assembled-quartz timers although not canonically "MEMS". It launched its first
products in 2008.
•
Silicon Laboratories, Inc. [NASDAQ: SLAB] acquired Silicon Clocks, Inc of Fremont, CA in April
2010 for an undisclosed amount. SLAB is a $½ Billion vendor of high-performance A-to-D
mixed-signal ICs and acquired Silicon Clocks for its proprietary CMEMS™ technology, which
fabricates the MEMS resonators and sensors on top of standard CMOS circuitry enabling
the integration of CMOS timing control and oscillators onto SLAB’s timing ICs. The company
had raised $19 million in two rounds.
Smaller Ventures:
•
Discera Corporation, originally launched in Michigan, now in Silicon Valley, started
shipping its first MEMS product in 2005, a 1.6GHz tunable oscillator, based on IP from
Michigan and Berkeley, albeit in very small volumes. In 2007, Discera partnered with
Vectron International of Hudson, NH in the development of a high-shock timing system
for military applications launched in 2008. In 2009 Discera launched oscillators for
industrial grade temperatures and forward integrated into a handheld programmer for
real-time for system verification and optimization in lab or field. Discera has raised
over $50 million in 4 rounds to date. Discera’s founder and lead investor was recently
elected Governor of Michigan.
•
SiTime Corporation, located in Sunnyvale, launched a 5.1MHz MEMS oscillator in
2006 based on a process licensed from Robert Bosch GmbH. The company fabricates
its oscillators in the base wafer and seals the oscillator under a layer of polysilicon,
creating a reliable vacuum seal and increasing the durability and reliability of the
oscillator. A further advantage is that circuitry can be fabricated with a conventional
CMOS process on top of the buried oscillator, for single chip timing solutions. The
company offers a wide range at frequencies starting at 200Mhz, with a new 1KHz
oscillator launched in September 2010. By mid-2010, siTime had shipped 20 million
units and claims an 85% share of the MEMS timing market.
•
Sand9 was launched in 2008 out of Boston University and announced at the end of
2009 the intent to ship by the end of 2010 a new high-performance oscillator that
would for the first time match the performance of temperature-compensated
crystals and integrate multiple frequencies on the same die.
40
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 4: MEMS Timing Device Companies
Timing Device Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Bosch Sensortech
GERMANY
STMicroelectronics
FRANCE
VTI
FINLAND
NXP
NETHERLANDS
Ecliptek
Costa Mesa, CA
Voltage Controlled Clock Oscillators
Silicon Laboratories, Inc.
Austin, TX /
Fremont, CA
Transaction History
Investors
Integrating multiple resonators and
electronics on a single-system-chip
Acquired Silicon Clocks, Inc.
in April 2010 after SCI received
nearly $20M in venture funding
IN SILICON CLOCKS, INC.
Sunnyvale, CA
Ann Arbor, MI
LC oscillator design in all-CMOS
Acquired Mobius Microsystems
in January 2010 after MMI received
over $10M in venture funding
IN MOBIUS MICROSYSTEMS, INC.
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Investors
Sand9
Boston, MA
Claim of performance equal to tempcompensated crystals with multiple
frequencies on the same die
$12M Series B, May 2010
$8M Series A, 2008
Commonwealth Capital Ventures
Flybridge Capital Partners
General Catalyst Partners
Khosla Ventures
Discera
San Jose, CA
Ann Arbor, MI
$11M Series D, January 2010
$17.5M Series C, March 2007
Scale Venture Partners (lead)
Lurie Investments
Ardesta LLC
3iGroup
Qualcomm Ventures
Partech Int’l
Horizon Ventures
Scale Venture Partners
SiTime Corporation
Sunnyvale, CA
Integrated Device Technology, Inc.
Description
Entering MEMS timing market 2011
Claim of thinnest clock oscillator at
0.25mm thick, in 3.5 x 3mm package
announced September 2008. Core
technology licensed from Bosch
$20M Series C, May 2007
$12M Series B, March 2006
$11.5M Series A, Dec. 2004
Lux Capital
Charles River Ventures
Formative Ventures
Tallwood Venture Capital
Silicon Laboratories, Inc.
Foundation Capital
Menlo Ventures
RPM Ventures
Robert Bosch Group
New Enterprise Assc.
CID Group Taiwan
Grazia Equity GmbH
41
Greylock Partners
Camp Ventures
Jafco Ventures
Northgate Capital
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A5 – Silicon Microphones/Speakers
Another MEMS device you might find in
your next laptop or phone, after RF
switching and timing oscillators, is
another kind of ‘oscillator’ that has
received substantial investment in
recent years: the MEMS microphone,
which is replacing traditional miniature
condenser units, and in the near future
its obverse, the MEMS speaker.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
Among the earliest players were longtime acoustic electronics manufacturer Knowles
which launched its first MEMS microphone in 2002 with early adoption in the first
Motorola RAZR. Thereafter, Akustica, Inc. and MEMStech Bhd, both formed in 2001,
had initial shipments in 2003-04. The large Danish hearing aid company, Sonion A/S,
launched a Si-microphone in 2006.
This quartet has dominated the market despite a spate of patent infringement lawsuits
and complaints: Knowles against Akustica; and MEMStech, Sonion and Analog Devices
against Knowles.
Knowles is estimated to have over 50% market share, announcing in 2009 that it had
shipped over 1-billion SiSonic™ MEMS microphones. Last year, Knowles received a
dismissal of Analog Devices’s infringement suit re: Knowles, and also received a
favorable International Trade Commission judgment against MEMStech BhD of Malaysia
for infringement. MEMStech separately suffered an earnings-restatement scandal
leading to trading suspension, followed by a re-capitalization plan announced in Q3.10
In the latter-000s, as befits a maturing application, large electronics firms entered the
MEMS microphone space including Infineon, Analog Devices, Inc., Panasonic and
Omron. Wolfson bought-in in 2007 acquiring fellow Scot-startup Oligon. The
microphones of Danish acoustics specialist Sonion, went through an acquisition by
Technitrol and then were spun out the other side to TDK-EPC [EPCOS AG] in 2009. In
Q2.10, TDK-EPC launched what it claims is the smallest commercially available MEMS
microphone with an integrated digital interface.
Later in 2009, the heaviest weight in MEMS – Bosch Sensortec -- acquired the leading
start-up – Akustica in the USA – adding a CEO from within Bosch’s Automotive
Electronics Div. In early 2010, OMRON announced volume production, reportedly in
collaboration with STMicro, of what it claims is the first MEMS sensor with an operating
frequency range down to 20Hz -- the lower limit of human audible range – compared to
other MEMS mikes that degrade below 100Hz.
42
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
The obverse of the microphone is the SPEAKER. Various concepts for MEMS speakers
have been in development since the mid-000s. The first venture to demo a solid concept
is AudioPixels Ltd. of Israel which showed their prototype at the 2010 CES. Before 2010
was over, they sold a majority interest to an Australian investment company and received
funding to further develop their product and ramp their commercialization activities.
The market for interactive ICT appliances is still expected to grow and require increasing
installations of MEMS microphones. Earlier forecasts showed growth from ~$100M in
2006 to nearly $400M by about now. The recession has pushed that back, but analysts
shown in Figure 22 are still estimating such market growth in demand, however with the
$300M level not achieved until 2013 and $400M by 2015.
Figure 25: MEMS Microphone Market Forecasts
Source: Yole Developpment
43
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 5: Silicon Microphone Companies
Silicon Microphone Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Bosch Sensortech
GERMANY /
Pittsburgh, PA
Description
Transaction History
Investors
Acquired Akustica in August 2009
after Akustica received $15M in
venture funding
IN AKUSTICA
Rangos Investments
Mobius Technology Ventures
Chamberlain Investments
Knowles
Itasca, IL
Norwood, MA
Infineon
GERMANY
Panasonic
JAPAN
Omron
JAPAN
Yamaha
JAPAN
EPCOS AG
GERMANY/
DENMARK
Q1.2010 --World's smallest MEMS
mike with a digital interface.
EPCOS acquired the MEMS mikes of
Technitrol after Technitrol acquired all
of Sonion in Q1.2008 for $425 M
Wolfson Microelectronics
SCOTLAND, UK
New DIGITAL microphones launched
2H.2010 to complement previous
ANALOG mikes
Wolfson acquired Oligon in
2007 for £2.9 million
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Investors
Solid State System Co., Ltd. (3S)
TAIWAN
MEMS microphone due 2H.11
Established revenue stream from
memory products since 1999
Privately held
MEMStech Bhd
MALAYSIA
PosiSound™ avail.in Ball Grid Array (BGA)
or Multi Lead Package (MLP)
Lityan Holdings BhD
AudioPixels Ltd.
ISRAEL
MEMS SPEAKERS
Sold majority interest and received
investment, Q3.2010
$4M Series A, Q1.2007
Global Properties Ltd.
New Hi-Fidelity microphones launched Q2.2010 with lowest signal-to-noise ratio and wide frequency response
World's first MEMS sensor capable of detecting the lower limit of human audible frequencies
Exited market in 2009
44
SERIES A
Lightspeed Ventures
DCM
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A6 – Optical/Photonic MEMS or MOEMS
Optical MEMS, or MOEMs, involves the mechanical part of MEMS interacting in some
way with light waves, usually either by using mirrors for reflective alteration or a nanoscale grating for refractive alteration of the light. The applications of reflected and
refracted light are usually divided into:
•
Network communications, including optical line switching, optical attenuation,
and wavelength filters
•
Sensors such as bar code scanners and infrared thermal sensing
•
Projectors, such as TI’s Digital Light Projection®, retinal projection and pico-projection
We will first review the classic ICT category of optics and also the newer segment of barcode scanners. We will cover the projectors segment below in §7 “Displays/Imaging:
Visible Spectrum” which will also include refractive/reflective displays. We will review
thermal sensors in §8 “Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum.”
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
Since light can transmit information faster and at higher density than electrons, optical
fiber communications has become the preferred method of data and voice transmission in
long haul, metropolitan, local, and enterprise networks. Initially, switching envisioned
converting optical information to an electronic state so that it can be manipulated by
routers and switches, which use electronic switching and computing technology. A longrange vision has been optical computing technology as a higher speed alternative to
electronic computing as well as eliminating the need for the optical-electronic (O-E)
interface. While it has been impractical to implement high density, highly sophisticated
optical computing systems, optical switching techniques are feasible to provide fast
switching of optical signals, a key function of telecom and networking equipment. A
variety of MEMS designs have been developed for manipulating photons including:
•
•
•
•
•
Micro-mirror arrays to form optical crossbar switches
Linear arrays of tilt mirrors that can function as an add-drop multiplexers (ADM)
Pivots or deflectable membranes used to form tunable cavities for interferometers
Diffraction gratings as tunable filters
Adaptive optics -- adjustable optical distortion compensation
A number of companies were started in the late 1990s with the extravagant funding of
that era, which crashed in the crash of the early 000s. A second generation of companies
were started during the early 000s which are now coming to fruition in the field of
wavelength selective switching (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers
(ROADMs). At the low-end of scale and performance, these typically harness liquid
crystals to respond and actuate, but at the higher-end, a number of ventures are
experimenting with various MEMS pivoting-mirror devices.
45
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Exemplar of the first wave was Silicon Light Machines, whose fundamental technology
was the development of its patented Grating Light Valve™, illustrated in Figure 26.
Figure 26:
Grating Light Valve: Schematic (left)
and SEM of Actual Device (right)
The GLV™ is an array of reflective silicon
nitride ribbons fabricated on a silicon chip.
The ribbons can be made to flex up and
down through the application of an electric
potential, causing them to act as a
controlled diffraction grating, capable of
switching, attenuating and modulating light.
The main differentiation of the GLV™ is that
Source: Silicon Light Machines
it uses very small amplitude ribbon flexion to
dynamically change the diffraction pattern,
rather than complex MEMS mirrors. The benefits of this approach are faster switching
speeds, and simplified fabrication, which implies lower cost and higher reliability. The
company applied its technology to optical communication switches and optical attenuators,
high resolution displays, and high resolution computer-to-plate printing applications.
SLM was acquired by Cypress Semiconductors at the top of the market for about $170M in
2000, but demand never materialized and Cypress sold SLM in 2008 for an undisclosed by
doubtless fractional sum to Dai Nippon Screen Manufacturing [Tokyo: 7735].
Perhaps spurred by the SLM acquisition, several companies were founded within a few
months of each other in 2000 to work on the next wave of optical switching - - generally a
mix/competition between liquid crystal technologies and MEMS mirrors. It’s generally
viewed that MEMS is more effective in large scale multiplexing as illustrated in Figure 27,
which diagram was used to justify the Xtellus acquisition cited below.
Figure 27: MEMS and LCD in WSS/ROADM
Source: Oclaro, Inc.
46
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
CoAdna is a Chinese-centered company which bases its switches on liquid crystal technology,
and operates in the smaller scale of multiplexing and lower end of the cost curve.
Xtellus, Inc. was started in New Jersey with R&D in Israel. Its earlier products through
most of the 000s were also liquid crystal based. But, in newer products with large multiplexing,
Xtellus combined 1-Axis MEMS mirrors to switch across high port counts, with liquid crystal
for attenuation. They labored at this for nearly 10 years, raising about $30M along the way.
At the end of 2009, they were acquired by Oclaro, itself a roll-up of Avanex and Bookham,
for between $25M and $30M (payback but no multiples) to augment the new Oclaro's optical
components, modules and subsystems.
Capella Photonics, Inc. is considered the most pure-MEMS in this space, and has again
labored for most of a decade, burning through $70M in investment and amassing nearly
30 patents. In Q1.2010, it announced a collaboration with 4th or 5th ranking independent
MEMS foundry IMT of Santa Barbara for production.
The latest (and last?) WSS vendor to start-up is Nistica in New Jersey. They received about
$20M in a combination of venture funding and government grants. Their earlier smaller
products were likely LCD, but in 2008 they launched a high-capacity product developed in
partnership with Texas Instruments using their DLP® MEMS mirrors. Finisar is a 23-year
old publicly traded vendor of a variety of optical components, modules and subsystems.
Its own WSS/ROADM products use a proprietary liquid-crystal-on-silicon technology which
it markets as superior to MEMS. But Finisar has also been an early investor in Nistica, no
doubt as a technology hedge.
Lastly, at the large-corporate end, JDS Uniphase is seen as the dominant player in this
space with nearly a 40% market share overall. It has wide-experience in MEMS and
includes MEMS as one portion of an array of technological solutions it provides for various
WSS/ROADM configurations.
Bar-code scanners
Laser or LED scanning of bar-codes has been around since the 1970s, using macroassembled, though still miniature, pivots and reflectors. As techniques for micromachined mirrors developed as an outgrowth of image projection technology at TI and
elsewhere, application of simple single or double mirror MEMS devices to bar-code
scanning was a natural progression and arose almost simultaneously in Asia, Europe, and
America in the 1999-2000 time frame.
In Asia, Nippon Signal Co., Ltd., primarily a developer of traffic signaling systems, but
also automated train ticketing systems, developed a family on one- and two-axis micromirror systems which are used in bar-code scanner and other applications.
In Europe, Fraunhofer, one of Europe’s largest contract research organizations with a
major division working on photonics, ASICs and MEMS, began work on a bar-code
scanner that would be less than 2% the size of traditional laser scan systems with 10x to
100x the scan rate.
47
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
In America, the retinal-scanning start-up Microvision, near Seattle, adapted its micromirror system to bar-code scanners starting in 2002, mostly as a brand-extension to
generate volume and revenue for its MEMS fab. Meanwhile, just a few miles down the
road, Intermec, Inc., one of the long-time leaders in industrial data collection
technology, teamed up with Fraunhofer’s micro-mirror development efforts in Europe.
•
Nippon Signal launched their ECOscan product in 2004 as a stand-alone scanner
component. Systems modules are under development. Parts are made at contract
foundries in Japan.
•
Intermec launched its Intellibeam product in 2005 with the MEMS part apparently
sourced from Fraunhofer. The following year, Intermec won a Frost & Sullivan award
for Supply Chain Management Technology achievement. It continues to expand
its Intellibeam line and has recently added auto-focus features allowing scanning at
up to 15m distance.
•
Microvision launched its second generation MEMS scanner under its own brand in
2007 and in April 2008 signed a distribution agreement with Brightpoint, a major
wholesaler and contract channel management organization.
Near-infrared (NIR) Spectrometry
At least three firms formed recently have developed MEMS optical diffraction grating
technology analogous to Silicon Light Machines (see Figure 26) and implemented as
near-infrared spectrometers for materials analysis. Polychromix, Inc. is a spin-out from
MIT; HiperScan is a spin-out of Fraunhofer-Institut für Photonische MikroSysteme and
MicroParts is a division of the Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceuticals company.
Auto-focus cameras
A new area of micro-optics has emerged recently with applications in auto-focus units
for digital cameras, either portable or embedded in mobile phones. Three quite
different approaches are taken. Two are termed “liquid lenses” but are quite different
from each other. The system by Varioptic, in France uses an “electro-wetting” process
where a mixture of oil and water is the refractive medium, manipulated via electric
charges on hydrophobic substrates. This is similar to flat-panel display technologies by
two other European companies discussed in §7 on displays. The system developed by
Rhevision of San Diego, has a flexible diaphragm lens “inflated” or “deflated” to the
desired refraction by fluid controlled by a MEMS micropump. A variation on that is the
polymer film lens developed by Polight of Norway. In this case, a piezo material is
bonded to a flexible polymer. A charge applied to the piezo material flexes it,
deforming the polymer to the desired refraction, as with the Rhevision diaphragm. The
other approach is an all-mechanical arrangement using a sliding spring-loaded stage to
move a mounted optical element, which has been developed by Siimple Corp. recently
acquired by Tessera Technologies. A recent MEMS project by the Belgian research
center IMEC showed a zoom lens system for digital single lens reflex cameras based on
micro mirrors See Figures 28 to 31 below.
48
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Figure 28: Different Lens Approaches
Rhevision Approach
Varioptic Approach
Source: Rhevision, Varioptic
Stage
Silicon Spring
Stage with Spring in Packaging
Source: Siimple Corporation
Source: Polight
Figure 31: Micro-mirror zoom lens system
Source: IMEC
49
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Biomedical Devices
A new application of MEMS multi-axis mirrors is for endoscopic medical imaging as an
alternative to biopsies. In an article in MEMS Investor Journal, a multi-MEMS-mirror
endoscopic head is outlined by Fraunhofer IPMS. The initial attraction was that:
“MEMS (can) magnify even the smallest object fields including cells without the need for a large lens”
Figure 32 – Micro-mirror endoscope concept
In light gray to the right are the carrier and
the scanning mirror and in green the tilted
mirror. The two lenses for focusing the laser
beam are shown in dark grey. All other parts
are passive mechanical structures to support
the parts in their proper position.
Source: Fraunhofer IPMS via MEMS Investor
Journal, June 17, 2010
Next-generation MOEMS designs
At Micromachine/MEMS in Tokyo in Q3.10, Fraunhofer IPMS released a paper on a
shock-resistant ultra-long-stroke micro-mirror for IR spectrometry, but also widely
applicable to other MOEMS applications. Cited in MEMS Investor Journal, Fraunhofer
described the design as follows:
“To address deformation... by springs, we designed a pantographic spring suspension… that
translates bending to torsion. It uses a solid body mechanism (thus) deformation and
mechanical stress can be kept very small even for large deflections. Secondly, inertial forces
were addressed by adding silicon structures to the mirror to serve as added mass. And, thirdly,
to counteract limits in stroke by air friction a special vacuum packaging was developed”
Figure 33 – Pantograph long-stroke micromirror concept
Source: Fraunhofer IPMS via MEMS Investor Journal, July 15, 2010
50
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
While the overall ICT equipment market is huge and the portable bar-code scanner
market is estimated at just under $1 billion, the various forecasts for growth of the
specifically micro-mechanical implementations of specifically optical components
remains very much a niche, growing from a total of $100M in the 2009-2010 period to
around $200M to $300M by mid-decade at a decent but not spectacular rate which both
iSuppli and Yole peg at under 20% CAGR (between 17% and 19%). More exotic markets
like the auto-focus or biomedical are very promising, but unlikely to hit the ‘hockey stick’
before the mid Twenty-teens.
Figure 34 – MOEMS Market Forecasts
Source: iSuppli and Yole Developpément
Companies
MOEMS has been a busy segment for M&A activity during the 000s. Silicon Light Machines
was an early MOEMS venture (originally started as Echelle, Inc. in 1994 and funded for
around $50 million through 4 rounds) that developed a design for an adjustable diffractive
grating device called the Grating Light Valve™ (GLV™). In 2000 SLM became a subsidiary of
Cypress Semiconductor. In 2003 Analog Devices, Inc. acquired Onix Microsystems, Inc.
(funded over $130 million in 3 rounds), developer of an oft-cited mirror-array crossbar
switch. In 2006, Jenoptik GmbH acquired MEMS Optical, Inc. of Alabama (funded nearly
$20M) specializing in micromachined lens techniques and pivot-mirror devices.
NeoPhotonics Corp. acquired Silicon Lightconnect, Inc. (funded over $34M in 3 rounds)
specializing in refractive variable optical attenuators and at the same time acquired some
MEMS patents from MEMX Corp.
In 2007, API Electronics acquired NanoOpto Corp. of New Jersey (funded over $50M in 4
rounds) specializing in nano-coated diffractive grating devices. In 2008, Silicon Light Machines
was sold a second time, this time by Cypress to Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd. who
had been the largest customer of the Grating Light Valve™ devices, while keeping one GLV
application within Cypress.
Recent Acquisitions 2009-2010
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51
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Recent Acquisitions
Volcano Corporation [NASDAQ: VOLC] acquired Axsun Technologies, Inc., both outside
Boston, in late 2008. Axsun had a MEMS tunable optical filter and lens applied to nearinfrared and Raman spectrometers with the fastest time-to-measurement in the market
Volcano wanted for its application to their image-guided endovascular therapy products.
Oclaro, Inc. [NASDAQ: OCLR] acquired Xtellus, Inc. in late 2009. Xtellus has a solution for
(ROADMs) that combines 1-Axis MEMS mirrors to switch across high port counts, with
liquid crystal for attenuation.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. [NYSE: TMO] acquired Polychromix, also both on Route 128, in
May 2010. Polychromix, formed in 2001 out of MIT, developed an optical diffraction
grating technology implemented in standard CMOS analogous to Silicon Light Machines.
This has been implemented into a range of near-infrared spectrometers for materials
analysis, which were runner-up in the “SmallTimes” SmallTech Application of the Year
Award in 2007. Earlier in 2010, TMO acquired Ahura Scientific, also outside Boston, a
maker of rugged, miniaturized Raman and Fourier-Transform InfraRed spectroscopy
instruments used worldwide for military, civilian and medical applications. Mid-year010, TMO combined Polychromix and Ahura in a new business unit called “Thermo
Scientific – Portable Optical Analysis”
Tessera Technologies, Inc. [NASDAQ: TSRA] from San Jose acquired Siimpel* of Southern
California in Q2.10 for $15 million. Siimpel was spun-out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in
2000 as SiWave Corporation developing optical switches, navigation sensors and laser
ranging systems for applications such as the Mars Rover. Reorganized as Siimpel in 2004, it
is now targeting the consumer digital camera market and has since received investment by
Motorola and Qualcomm and recent deployment on a next-gen Motorola handsets. Siimpel
recently disclosed a 2nd-gen design combining actuation and motion control in a single chip
enabling wafer level packaging of the complete system.
*correct spelling with 2 “i”s
Smaller Ventures
•
Agiltron, Inc. also north of Boston, is a supplier of optic components formed in 2001
from assets of Corning/NZ Applied and JDS Uniphase. Among their traditional
products are some MEMS-based variable optical attenuators. They also recently
purchased Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII) of New Jersey which has an infrared
sensing MEMS device described in §7 below, as well as likely-non-MEMS
spectroscopic ventures Raman Systems Inc. and SensArray Infrared.
•
Boston Micromachines Corporation, of Cambridge MA partnered with Boston
University photonics center to develop deformable micromirrors for adaptive optics
distortion correction. In Q1.10, BMC received two Phase 1 SBIRs from NASA for
52
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
applications in space-based high-contrast imaging instruments. Later, in Q3.10, an
academic consortium led by BMC won an R&D 100 award for development of a
MEMS-based Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography instrument permitting
ophthalmologists to see the retina at the individual cell level.
•
Capella Photonics, Inc. of San Jose CA formed in 2000 to develop MEMS solutions to
(ROADMs). In Q1.2010, it announced a collaboration with 4th or 5th ranking
independent MEMS foundry IMT of Santa Barbara for production.
•
Varioptic SA of Lyon, France founded in 2002 out of the French National Center for
Scientific Research and two local universities, has developed an “electro-wetting”
adjustable lens system as auto-focus optics for cameras. In 2006, Varioptic signed a
manufacturing agreement with Creative Sensors Taiwan, and more recently revealed
mass production by Seiko Instruments Inc., (SII) in Japan. In 2009, Varioptic announced
a series of wins including a Kodak dental camera, a Taiwanese digital camcorder, a
barcoder from Microscan and ID readers from Cognex. In 2010, Varioptic expanded the
Cognex relationship to a full licensing partnership, and also demo’d an image-stabilization
liquid lens at the Barcelona Mobile Congress (whose press release is archived only in Japanese!)
Following this, in Q3.10, Varioptic raised an additional (probably 4th) funding of €2 Million.
•
Microsaic Systems in Britain was spun-out of the Optical and Semiconductor Devices
Group at Imperial College London in 2001. It has developed a MEMS tunable external
cavity laser diode to be an agile frequency source in dense wavelength division
multiplexed (DWDM) optical systems. It has also developed a non-optical MEMS
spectrometry system based on quadrupole mass analysis applying specific RF and DC
fields in focused ion beam channels. In Q3.10 a Microsaic consortium received a major
EU research grant to integrate its chip-scale mass spectrometry technology into
advanced, miniaturized analytical instrumentation for the analysis of ‘messy’/’sticky’
health/medical samples in partnership with Universitätsmedizin Berlin and UK Food
Environmental Research Agency (FERA).
•
Sercalo Microtechnology, Ltd., of Liechtenstein is an all MEMS company with unique
IPR from the University of Bern Institute of Applied Physics for switching and VOA with
a refractor or diffractor variably inserted into a waveguide by a comb actuation, which
they claim significantly reduces actuation latency compared to other MEMS designs.
•
Polight AS, is a Norwegian tech venture, spawned by a number of other telecoms ,
micromaterials and photonics ventures that, since 2007 has been working on flexible
polymer film autofocus lens development.
continued
next page
53
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
•
Nistica of Bridgewater NJ is a developer of wavelength selective switching (WSS).
Their new large-scale products, announced in 2008, were developed in partnership with
Texas Instruments using their DLP® MEMS mirrors.
•
Iris AO, Inc. of Berkeley CA contains a number of staff who moved over from Onix
when it was bought by Analog Devices. Iris's product is a matrix of deformable
diaphragm micromirrors to provide adaptive optics distortion correction. In the past
year, Iris AO has racked up a number of research wins for its deformable diaphragm
micromirrors including:
Astronomy imaging trial in California 7/10
NSF Science and Technology Center for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz 5/10
NASA high-contrast visible nulling coronagraph developed as part of the Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concept Study 5/10
Abbott Medical Optics includes AO in demo 5/10
NSF Phase 1 SBIR 4/10
•
Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on
specialized MEMS solutions including optical switching applications.
•
Rhevision, Inc. is a 2006 spin-out from the Defense Department's Multidisciplinary
University Research Initiative (MURI) program work at UC-San Diego and has gotten 2
rounds of funding from the CIA's venture fund. It has developed a microfluidicdiaphragm camera lens. Rhevision launched work in ‘09 on a $1.5M DHS contract for
development of its tunable liquid lens technology. News reports in 2010 suggest
Rhevision's application is a kind of "artificial nose" for sniffing chemical threats -- a piece
of porous silicon that changes colors in the presence of certain molecules, which can be
read spectrographically via its tunable lens.
•
HiperScan GmbH., of Dresden was formed in the mid-000s out of Fraunhofer-Institut für
Photonische MikroSysteme and primarily produces OEM MEMS laser scan engines in 1D
or 2D and more recently expanded its implementation to an OEM scanning grating
spectrometer for near-infrared (NIR)
Table 6a: Large Optical MEMS Companies
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54
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 6a: Large Optical MEMS Companies
MOEMS Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
JDS Uniphase
USA
MEMS optical switchgear – considered market leader in WSS ROADM w/ nearly 40% share, but only a portion of that
product line is MEMS
Texas Instruments
USA
Partnership with Nistica for applying DLP®
mirrors to optical switchgear (see below).
Hewlett-Packard
USA
Robert Bosch
GERMANY
Analog Devices
Norwood, MA
Boehringer Ingelheim MicroParts GmbH
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Tessera Technologies
Oclaro / Xtellus
GERMANY
Waltham, MA
San Jose/Arcadia, CA
San Jose, CA /
Denville, NJ /
ISRAEL
Mirror-array crossbar switch
Transaction History
Investors
Acquired from Onix Microsystems, Inc. in 2003
Diffractive grating device applied to near-infrared spectrometers
adjustable diffractive grating device
applied to near-infrared spectrometers
Acquired Polychromix in Q2.10
after Polychromix had received
$15M in venture funding
IN POLYCHROMIX
applied to near-infrared spectrometers
Acquired Siimpel in Q2.10 after
unspecified financings in ’04 and ‘07
IN SIIMPEL
Acquired Xtellus WSS ROADM products
use MEMS for higher output multiples,
LCD for lower multiples.
Acquired Xtellus in Q4.09 for $33M
after Xtellus had received between
$25M and $30M in funding
IN XTELLUS
Seed Capital Partners
Siemens Venture Capital
Vanguard Ventures
Navigator Technology Ventures
Pyramid Technology
Bain & Co
Hale and Dorr.
Oclaro formed in Q2.09 by merger of
Bookham and Avanex
Motorola
Qualcomm
Micron Technologies
NanoDimension LP
Alta Berkeley
Israel Seed Partners
Goldman Ventures
Jenoptik GmbH/MEMS Optical
GERMANY/ USA
Mirror-array devices
Acquired MEMS Optical, Inc in 2006
Dainippon Screen Manufacturing
Kyoto / San Jose
Acquired Silicon Light Machines from Cypress Semiconductor in 2008
NeoPhotonics Corporation
San Jose, CA
refractive variable optical attenuators
Pre IPO S-1 filed April 2010
Acquired Silicon Lightconnect, Inc and MEMX Corp. in 2006
$46.2M Series D, ~2009
>$50M Series C, June 2006
(>$130M total to date)
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Mitsubishi Capital
Shanghai Industrial Hlng
International Finance Corporation
Needham Capital Partners
DuPont Capital
Harris & Harris Group
ATA Venture Partners Masters Capital
Oak Investment Partners
Nippon Signal Company, Ltd.
JAPAN
2D micro-mirror scanning element with reflection sensor for ‘touch image’ control – Q4.09
Intermec
Everett, WA
3D micro-mirror scanning elements designed and fabbed by Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer IPMS
GERMANY
Variety of MEMS sensing components, new large-aperture array – Q4.09
MOEMS Producers – Newer Ventures
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 6b: Large Optical MEMS Companies
MOEMS Producers
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Agiltron, Inc.
Woburn, MA
Variable optical attenuators
Formed in 2001 from assets of Corning/NZ Applied and JDS Uniphase
Boston Micromachines Corporation
Cambridge, MA
Deformable micromirrors for distortion
correction in adaptive optics
Private funding and SBIR/STTR grants
Capella
San Jose, CA
MEMS for wavelength selective
switching in reconfigurable optical
add/drop multiplexers. 27 patents.
Fab’d at IMT Santa Barbara
$15M, Series E, January 2008
$20M, debt/equity, March 2007
$10M, Series D, September 2005
$6M, Series C, October 2004
$7M, Series B, April 2003
$15M, Series A, July 2001
Boston Micromachines Corporation
Cambridge, MA
Deformable micromirrors for distortion
correction in adaptive optics
Private funding and SBIR/STTR grants
Varioptic SA
FRANCE
Electro-wetting lens device
€2M Round, July 2010
Unspecified financings in 2006, 2004
and 2003
Iris Capital
XAnge
CNRS
Investors
Formative Ventures
Levensohn Venture Partners
Lucas Venture Partners
Rustic Canyon Partners
Silicon Valley Bank
Sofinnova Partners
PolyTechnos Venture Partners
NIF Ventures Co (Japan)
Université Joseph Fourier
Dow Corporate Venture Capital
Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon
Microsaic Systems
BRITAIN
MEMS tunable laser diode for DWDM
and non-optical ion-beam QMS.
Chip-scale mass spectro. components
Unspecified financings
Sercalo Microtechnology, Ltd.
LIECHTENSTEIN
Comb-driven refractor for variable
optical attenuator, 3D micro-mirrors
Privately held – Undisclosed
Polight AS
NORWAY
Piezo activated flexible polymer-film
autofocus lens
Unspecified financings
Viking Venture III AS
Alliance Venture Polaris AS
Ignis ASA
SINTEF Venture III
Microvision, Inc.
Bothell, WA
Mirror-guided single-laser barcode
scanner engine and end-product
$12.4M drawn from EFF, Q3.10
$60M equity financing facility, Q2.10
$21M public offering, closed Q4.09
$15M equity sale, closed Q2.09
$26M public offering of stock and
warrants, closed Q2.08
Equity facility –
Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd. UK
Equity sale –
Walsin Lihwa, Taiwan
First IPO in 1996
Nistica
Bridgewater, NJ
Uses Texas Instruments DLP® MEMS
mirrors for high-end product line
$6.5M Series C, March 2010
$4M, debt/equity, December, 2008
$10M, Series B, February 2008
$1M, Edison Innovation Fund, 2007
~~, Series A, May 2006
Battelle Ventures
NTT Electronics Corp.
Fujikura, Ltd.
Battelle Ventures
Novitas Capital
Technology Venture Partners
Finisar Corporation
New Jersey EDA/Edison
Innovation Fund
PA Early Stage
RBC Bank
Iris AO, Inc.
Berkeley, CA
Micromirrors for adaptive optics
Appears bootstrapped on SBIRs and grants from NSF, NASA, DoD and NIH.
Rhevision, Inc.
San Diego, CA
Sporian Microsystems
Layfette, CO
Optical-switching MEMS
HiperScan GmbH
GERMANY
1D and 2D micro-mirror scanning elements and adjustable diffractive grating
device applied to near-infrared spectrometers
Draganfly Investments
Ludgate 181 (Jersey) Limited
Unspecified financings in 2007, 2006
In-Q-Tel Ventures
EDF Ventures
Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts
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A7 – Displays/Imaging: Visible Spectrum
MEMS are applied to image displays in two significantly different modes. The earlier, and in
some ways more complex, mode is the massively parallel micro-mirror array, exemplified
by the now ubiquitous Texas Instruments Digital Light Projector - DLP®. This technology
was first studied in the early 1980s, and began wider commercialization in the late 1990s.
Figure 35: Diagram of a DLP Element
Source: Texas Instruments
The basic idea is to use a separate gimbal-pivoted mirror for one or a group of pixels in an
image, as illustrated in Fig.26. The mirrors are electrically actuated to pivot to 2 positions reflect or deflect – correlating to the pixel-on or pixel-off state. For color images, a variety
of techniques are used including sequential imaging scanning with color wheels, and
multiple mirror arrays for different color sources, such as pure color LEDs or lasers.
Depending on the set-up, a single microprojector device can contain tens of millions of
separately actuated micromirrors.
Micromirror display engines have made significant inroads in the conference room
projector, rear projection TV (RPTV), and theater projection system markets. The high
volume driver in the last several years has been the RPTV market, but rapid price declines
for LCD and plasma flat panel TVs is rapidly eroding RPTV market share, and within a few
years RPTVs could be virtually eliminated from the market.
Texas Instruments DLP® products account for the lion’s share of the visible imaging display
market, perhaps as high as 90%. TI has dominated the 2 highest volume markets for
microdisplays, the RPTV and conference room projector segments. Two smaller ventures
that have focused on micro-mirror display applications are Microvision, Inc. in the USA and
Lemoptix SA (née Scanlight Imaging), in Switzerland.
Microvision, Inc. started with a direct retinal display developed 15 years ago at the
University of Washington, while Lemoptix is a much more recent (2006) spin-out of the
Swiss and French research centers EPFL and CNRS which is developing bare micro-mirror
components. Microvision struggled with retinal displays for many years, aiming them first
at PDAs, then at virtual reality gaming systems, then at automotive maintenance, and
recently at specialized military applications. In late 2009, Microvision entered the
commercial pico-projector market with the SHOWWx™ product incorporating its PicoP®
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projection-engine. In Q2.10 Microvision announced an $8.5M purchase of PicoP’s for a
consumer electronics OEM for the ‘010 Holiday season. In mid-2009 Microvision received
a $15M investment by Taiwanese contract fabricator Walsin Lihwa. Subsequently,
Microvision closed a $21.5M public offering in 2009 and opened a $60M equity financing
facility with British private-equity fund Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd in mid-2010, of which it
drew down $12.4M at the end of Q3.10.
Lemoptix SA started promoting it’s pico-projector MEMS for both industrial LCD replacement and 3D-pico-holography in 2008. More recently, in Q3.10 it started publicizing a
1cm3 head pico-projector that would be available in 2011 for industrial applications and in
2012 for consumer electronics. Also in Q3.10, Lemoptix closed on an additional round of
angel funding.
Two pico-projector ventures have formed in Israel. The first bTendo, showed its first demo
in summer 2008, claiming a patented dual uniaxial mirror design with cost and power
benefits over existing designs. The second formed around mid-08, Maradin focuses on a
micro-laser module and collaborates with Israeli MEMS fab SCD. Maradin has received
$4M in seed funding and announced in late 2009 collaboration with Hong Kong-based
iView Ltd., an OEM of display systems including digital headgear for gaming, digital TV, and
3D applications, plus pico-projectors.
About a decade newer in its development track is the refractive cavity display. The leader
in refractive interferometry MEMS was Iridigm Display Corporation of San Francisco,
purchased by Qualcomm for $170 million in cash in 2004. The operation was renamed
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. (or QMT) and the technology branded as Mirasol™,
which launched its first monochrome displays on Korean handsets by Ubixon in 2007,
and launched full-color displays at the Society for Information Display Conference in May
2008. Color displays were first installed on MP3 players by Freestyle Audio of San Diego.
That same month, QMT announced plans for volume production of Mirasol™ displays via
Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd., in Taiwan. In summer 2010, reports from Taiwan
circulated of plans for a $2Billion fab dedicated to Mirasol™ displays to start volume
shipments in 2012, likely in a 14.5cm form factor.
With refractive interferometry MEMS, the idea is to use a chamber which reflects from
two surfaces, and the offset distance of the surfaces is very precisely sized to create
interference between the two reflected wavelengths such that only one precise wavelength results from the blending. Each pixel or pixel group is switched on and off by the
electrostatic or piezo-deflection of a flexible membrane that forms one side of the
reflective chamber, so that in one setting the interference is constructive (pixel-on) and
in the other diaphragm positioning the interference nulls both wavelengths, or is
destructive (pixel-off). Figure 36 illustrates how Qualcomm’s Mirasol™ display works.
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Figure 36: How the Qualcomm Mirasol™ Display Operates
Source: Qualcomm
A variation on this is a MEMS-actuated refractive chamber for TFT displays developed by
Pixtronix, Inc. in Massachusetts which was introduced in Q3.08. In October, 2010
Hitachi announced a display using Pixtronix MEMS which Hitachi prototyped on their
production line for low-temperature polycrystalline silicon in Chiba Prefecture. Hitachi
claimed double the power efficiency of LCD displays, and that it will release the display
between the end of 2011 and the beginning to 2012 for mobile phones, smart phones,
tablet PCs, digital cameras and other mobile devices equipped with a 10” or smaller display.
A competing display technology is a micro-electrical layered device with no mechanical
aspect. So, while it probably does not count as MEMS strictly speaking, it is a competitive
entry in the micromachined-reflective display market place. This is electro-wetting
technology published by Philips in 2003 and spun-out into a venture-backed firm called
Liquavista and branded as High Efficiency Optical System (HEOS™). Similar to what
Qualcomm Mirasol™ does with air and vacuum, Liquavista accomplishes with a mixture
of oil and water as the refractive medium and manipulates it via electric charge to
hydrophobic substrates.
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Liquavista has focused on the eBook/pad
market during 2010, launching a new color
display in January, collaborations with TI
and Freescale, plus developer kits. In
October 2010, in conjunction with Dutch
process engineers VDL ETG Projects,
Liquavista released a new production
machine that enables high volume filling
and coupling of its electrowetting displays
with the aim of demonstrating that their
technology can be slotted directly into
existing LCD manufacturing lines. Also
during 2010, Liquavista closed a €7million
D-round of funding to support a ramp to
commercial shipments in 2011.
Source: Liquavista
In 2006, a German/Swiss company emerged on the scene called ADT for “advanced
display technology” which is developing an even simpler electro-wetting display
technology, which they term Droplet Driven Display or D3™. They most recently
displayed at the Society for Information Display show in Seattle in Q2.10.
Projector/Imaging
The overall market for visible imaging MEMS is estimated at about $½ billion. TI is the
dominant leader in microdisplays, and has shipped over 16 million DLP® units over 12
years of commercial sales. TI's major market segments have been conference room
projectors and rear-projection TVs. In recent years, the RPTV market has evaporated
and the basic-projector market is well developed and saturated.. TI is working to
develop new markets to replace declining RPTV sales, and has shifted its focus to more
industrial niche markets such as medical visualization, PCB manufacturing direct imaging
systems, telemetry-and-measurements systems, and others. An example is the
application of DLP® for the ICT market of wavelength selective switching (WSS) for
reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), where MEMS mirrors are
generally more effective in large scale multiplexing – 1x10, 1x20 and above. In this
market the youngest entrant, Nistica noted above in §6, outsourced the MEMS and
partnered with TI to use their DLP® modules as the core of their ROADMs.
Another application that has attracted attention, analysis and investment due to the
potential for mainstream consumer-electronics volumes is the “picoprojector” : a very
small projecting device which can be connected to a mobile handset, and ultimately
embedded in the handset, much the same way that digital cameras have been.
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The picoprojectors currently being demonstrated use some sort of micro-device, such as
reflective mirrors or diffractive elements, and use either LEDs or semiconductor lasers as
the light source. The draw for picoprojectors is the ability of the user to effectively
expand/extend the display size/scope beyond one’s palm when watching video content,
playing games, or making a business presentation. This could be an attractive feature to
the new demographic that is increasingly using a ‘mobile appliance’ as an all-purpose
multimedia and communication device.
So far, picoprojectors remain speculative. Current products are little more than
demonstration vehicles, high priced with poor performance. Before the market can take
off, models need to come down significantly in price, and need to offer the right
performance such as acceptable brightness, color and contrast, and reasonable battery
life. Yole’s recent cellphone estimates show micromirrors remaining in sampling mode
for embedding in mobile devices through 2012. Other analysts project rapid growth in
picoprojectors once the technology has stabilized. There is a great deal of uncertainty at
this point, but the potential for cellphone volumes is attractive a great deal of attention
and development effort.
Refractive Displays
Meanwhile, the main illuminated display in phones cum mobile ‘pads’ cum e-readers
remains a pivotal component of all these consumer devices and just providing those
screens generates somewhere around $3+ billion in revenues annually. Low power
high-resolution displays such as OLEDs are expanding both available applications and
customer satisfaction admirably and, even as Qualcomm, Hitachi/Pixtronix and
Liquavista move towards commercial deployment, most analysts see the more complex
MEMS solutions as remaining niche for some time to come and not exceeding even 5%
of the total handheld-display-screen market by 2015.
Figure 38: MEMS Visible Imaging Market Estimate
Source: Yole Developpément
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Table 7: MEMS Display / Visible Imaging Producer
MEMS Display / Visible Imaging Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Texas Instruments
Dallas, TX
Massive micro-mirror arrays and
new pico-projector module – Q2.10
Also, partnership with Nistica for
application to optical switchgear.
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc.
San Diego, CA
Reflective/Refractive cavities
Acquired Iridigm Display Corporation for $170M in 2004
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Microvision, Inc.
Bothell, WA
Mirror-guided single-laser retinal display
pico-projector systems
$12.4M drawn from EFF, Q3.10
$60M equity financing facility, Q2.10
$21M public offering, closed Q4.09
$15M equity sale, closed Q2.09
$26M public offering of stock and
warrants, closed Q2.08
bTendo
ISRAEL
Dual uniaxial mirror and
pico-projectors
undisclosed initial financing, 2006
BlueRun Ventures
Carmel Ventures
Maradin
ISRAEL
Unique electro and magneto actuation
for miniaturized laser-diode projector
$3M financing, March 2009
$1M seed round, 2008
Physical Logic AG, Switzerland
Startup Factory, Israel
Lemoptix SA
SWITERLAND/
FRANCE
Micro-mirror components and
pico-projectors
CHF1.4M
Angel investors and previously from
Swiss and French university spin-out
funds
Pixtronix, Inc.
Andover, MA
MEMS shutters integrated with TFT
$20M Series B, June 2007
Atlas Ventures
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
DAG Ventures
Gold Hill Capital
Adt
SWITERLAND/
GERMANY
Electro-wetting reflection display
undisclosed
undisclosed
Liquavista BV
NETHERLANDS
Electro-wetting reflection display
€7M Series D, April 2010
€5M Series C, May 2009
€8M Series B, March 2008
€12M Series A, December 2006
Amadeus Capital Partners
GIMV
New Venture Partners LLC
Prime Technology Ventures
Applied Ventures
Transaction History
CHF700K
financing, Q3.2010
financing, 2009
Investors
Investors
Equity facility –
Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd. UK
Equity sale –
Walsin Lihwa, Taiwan
First IPO in 1996
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A8 – Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum
A variation on the imaging and display of visible light is the handling of wavelengths in
the infrared (IR) spectrum relating to temperature. Here the role of MEMS is in image
capture, roughly the IR equivalent of the image sensors in visible light digital cameras.
Traditional IR detectors use various exotic sensor materials often treated cryogenically to
increase sensitivity and the signal-to-noise ratio. More recently, pixel by pixel detectors
have been developed using variations on a surface micromachining bridge and cavity
process. An IR-absorbing material that generates a variable electrical signal is bridged
over the substrate to thermally isolate it, and a reflector is often added to concentrate
the absorption and thus boost the signal. Amorphous Si and vanadium oxide (VO2) are
the most commonly used materials for the IR absorption layer.
Figure 39: Schematic Diagrams of MEMS IR Thermal Sensors (Microbolometers)
Sources: Wikipedia, Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, Sensor Review, Vol. 27, Iss4
IR thermal imaging systems are used in various applications including night vision systems,
military applications, search and recovery, surveillance, and a variety of scientific and
medical applications. The largest segments by far are the security markets both civilian
and military, with automotive growing significantly this decade.
The exact size of the overall market is difficult to pinpoint, and different estimates vary
widely. The total market for IR imaging systems is cited variously between $2.5 and $4
billion; the sensor market is estimated at approximately 5% of the total systems revenue,
which implies a market size for the “microbolometers” of between $100M and $200M.
Growth in the IR sensor market is likely to be driven by newer applications, such as
night-vision for passenger cars, security and surveillance, industrial sensing and control,
environmental monitoring, and others. As prices come down for MEMS uncooled sensors,
new applications are enabled in the consumer and commercial markets. CAGR estimates
range in the 20s percent for unit volumes and in the TEENS percent for revenue, due to
price/performance improvement. Forecasts for total IR MEMS revenues mid-decade are
between $300M and $400M.
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Companies
Companies involved with infrared MEMS include large defense contractors such as:
BAE Systems Raytheon
DRS Technologies
Other producers of thermal MEMS products are:
The infrared division of L-3 Communications, a defense C3 contractor rolled up from
units of Lockheed Martin, which produces an amorphous Si device.
• Fluke Corp., based in Washington state and owned by conglomerate Danaher Corp, has a
proprietary image capture mechanism that allows mixing of visible and IR, called IR-Fusion®
•
FLIR Corp., based in Oregon, produces VO2 based imaging arrays is listed by several analysts as
among the top 25 of all MEMS producers
• ULIS SA, based near Grenoble, France was spun-out from Sofradir, a manufacturer of traditional
IR sensors, with MEMS technologies developed at the Electronics and Information Technology
Laboratory of the French Atomic Energy Commission. A new 17μm pixel-size sensor was
launched in Q2.2010.
• SCD SemiConductor Devices, based in northern Israel, makes MEMS IR devices (and also lasers).
In 2009, it launched a biopharma spin-off called DIR (Detection IR) Ltd., with a US investment
fund, for non-contact pharmacological testing related to both narcotraffic interdiction and
pharmaceutical process quality control.
•
Cantilever MEMS design
A start-up in the Bell Labs corridor of New Jersey, Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII) published
papers in the mid-000s on a more complex cantilever MEMS design with supposedly better
sensitivity, range, and adjustment performance. In 2008 MII was acquired by Agiltron, a photonics
company whose portfolio also includes a MEMS optical attenuator, and who subsequently
acquired SensArray Infrared a longtime supplier of lead-alloy IR detectors and IR arrays.
Wavelength Conversion design
A spin-off of Aegis Semicon near Boston called RedShift Systems aimed to eliminate complex
micromachining by offering a layered array that converts infrared signals into visible signals then
passed to off-the-shelf digital camera sensors. In 2009, they reported a strategic investment
from diversified electro-mechanical component company Emerson, but by 2010 their website
states “not currently taking orders or providing quotes”
Uncooled LWIR design
Fraunhofer, which already produces laser-scanning micromirror and diffraction grating devices,
and spun-out HiperScan (see section §6) for near-infrared spectrometry, released a paper in Q310
for a long-wave infrared range MEMS-array that detects with neither cooling nor an A-to-D
converter, allowing for higher resolution automotive and mobile applications. Analysts
estimate samples within 1 year.
Other vendors moving into the market
MEMS players of all sizes are watching the increase in civilian applications and preparing to
expand beyond inertial and pressure sensors: the largest: Bosch Sensortec, newly
independent Sensornor, Swedish design shop Faun AB, and the American Agiltron with the
MII and SensArray acquisition are all reported to be developing new MEMS thermal sensors
for sampling in 2011 or 2012.
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Table 8: MEMS Thermal Imaging Companies
Thermal Imaging Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Transaction History
Investors
Raytheon
BAE Systems
DRS Technologies
Emerson
Investment in RedShift Systems tunable optical filter (below)
Bosch Sensortec
Anticipated in 2011 or 2012
Mid-range Corporations
L3 Communications
Dallas, TX
Amorphous Si imaging devices
Fluke Corp./Danaher Corp.
Everett, WA/ Wash DC
Proprietary visible/IR on same device
FLIR Corporation
Tualatin, OR
VO2 specialized systems
ULIS/Sofradir
FRANCE
Amorphous Si imaging devices
New 17µm pixel sensor – Q2.10
SCD SemiConductor Devices
ISRAEL
VO2 specialized systems
Sensornor
NORWAY
Agiltron, Inc.
Woburn, MA
Cantilever MEMS actuator
New biopharma spin-out, DIR, Ltd.
for application to non-contact
pharmacological testing
In DIR LTD
Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII)
IN M.I.I.
acquired in 2008 for undisclosed
amount
SCP Vitalife, investment fund of
SCP Partners
SAS Investors
Rho Capital Partners
Spencer Trask
Batelle Ventures
Innovation Valley Partners
Non-MEMS but related PbSe and PbS
infrared detectors and infrared arrays
Acquired SensArray Infrared in
2009 for undisclosed amount
Investors
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Faun AB
SWEDEN
Mikrosistemler San. veTic. Ltd. Sti.
TURKEY
Low-cost CMOS 128x128 Array sensor
Dormant ?
Location
Description
Investors
RedShift Systems
Burlington, MA
Thermal Light Valve™ (TLV), tunable
optical filter that translates thermal
energy into visible images
$6M Series B, February 2009
$12M Series A, January 2006
Emerson Corporation
InterWest Partners
Vesbridge Partners
Alta Partners
Technology Venture Partners
Megunticook Management
YankeeTek Ventures
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A9 – Microfluidics
A logical extension of MEMS technology from interactions with vacuum, gas, and
photons, is to develop MEMS devices to interact with liquids. As with other MEMS
applications, the initial work in fluidic MEMS goes back decades. Some of the earliest
versions of pressure sensors used in automotive and blood pressure sensing applications
were, in fact, measuring fluid pressure. Pressure sensors have led to the broader
category of flow sensors and also integrated measurement systems, where the micromechanics is integrated with on-chip processing for calculation and communications.
The medical space is probably the largest market for microfluidic sensors because it’s
essentially a “consumer good” and typically involves relatively simple designs until you
get into the more recent emerging area of implantable devices.
The industrial market for sensors for fluids, including volatile fuels, and non-corrosive
industrial gases, is more a niche because of fewer application sites and more challenging
requirements. We will review these two markets in the first part of this section.
Another application of microfabrication to fluid processing is termed “lab-on-a-chip” or,
alternatively, “Micro Total Analysis Systems” or µTAS. Fabrication of these devices is
often quite different from usual semiconductor-based processes and materials, and often
may not utilize the mechanical flexion typically associated with MEMS devices. These
are complex microsystems that can take in several fluid streams, measure properties
such as pressure, flow rate or temperature, can control mixing and reaction processes,
and more. Typical applications include life sciences research, gene sequencing, blood gas
analysis, disease diagnostics, and others.
These µTAS micro-chemistry concepts have, more recently, been taken beyond medicine
into the realm of bulk industrial chemistry with the concept of “microreactors”. Mostly still
in the research phase, the concept stems from the fact that most chemical reactions and
catalysis take place at surface interfaces, and the inefficiencies in achieving ultra-complete
mixing in bulk reaction vessels can be overcome through the use of miniaturized chemical
reaction systems. One specific twist on this notion is the miniaturization of fuel cell
reactors, which at least two start-up ventures are working on, along with some large
Japanese companies. We will review these two areas in the second part of this section.
Medical Pressure/Flow Fluidics
IC Transducer had the first MEMS blood pressure sensor. Another firm initially developing
automotive manifold sensors – IC Sensors, founded in 1983 – hired Janusz Bryzek from ICT
to work on a blood application and, soon, blood pressure sensing became ICS’s most
successful product. Many mergers later, ICS is now part of Measurement Specialties, Inc.,
a global instrumentation company also offering MEMS inertial sensors. The same year (1983)
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Motorola’s semiconductor unit launched several MEMS designs including a blood pressure
sensor. Today, medical sensors remain a mainstay of Freescale’s MEMS product line. Two
years later, NovaSensor was launched, also with early input from Janusz Bryzek, and medical
has become one of its strongest segments - continuing today as part of GE’s Measurement
and Sensing Group. Shortly after that, Omron became one of the earliest Japanese entrants
into this market, and is today Japan’s leader in the medical MEMS market.
An extract from a brochure by Measurement Specialties, Inc. shows a sample of the
wide range of current applications of MEMS to the clinical market.
Table 9: Clinical Market Applications for MEMS
ARTERIAL TONOMETRY
MEMS pressure sensor
measures heartbeat and
blood pressure at wrist
BP CUFF
measures inflation pressure
DISPOSABLE BP SENSOR
Low-cost MEMS pressure
sensor in-line with IV to measure
backpressure
ANGIOPLASTY PUMP
measures inflation of
angioplasty balloon
ANGIOPLASTY DIE INFUSION
controls injection of contrast
media during surgery
OXYGEN CONSERVER
detects inhalation and opens
oxygen flow valve
VENTILATOR/RESPIRATOR
measures air flow in breathing
machine
CRYOGENIC ANGIOPLASTY
Si-MEMS based stainless steel
sensor measures pressure of
cryogenic gas used to decease
clogged arteries
GAS MONITORING
MEMS pressure sensors detect
gas flow in hospital gas systems
INFUSION PUMPS
MEMS diaphragm used to
drive fluids at very slow rates.
INFUSION PUMPS
MEMS pressure sensor to
detect presence and/or flow
SPINAL COLUMN TESTING
MEMS pressure sensor used for
spinal column die testing
BLOOD TRANSFUSION
Si-MEMS based stainless
steel pressure sensor used in
blood separation device
INTRA-UTERINE SENSOR
Low-cost MEMS pressure
sensor monitors contraction
frequency and amplitude during
labor
OCULAR SURGERY
maintains fluid pressures in
eyeball during surgery.
BABY DELIVERY SYSTEM
MEMS sensor monitors pressure
on vacuum-assist baby delivery
system
KNEE SURGERY
Low-cost MEMS sensor
measures knee pressure
during surgery
BODY HEAT EXCHANGE
MEMS very-low-pressure sensor measures
partial vacuum used to expand blood vessels for
quick heat exchange
SYRINGE/INFUSION PUMP
MEMS force sensor and strain
gage detects blockage of
medication flow
SLEEP APNEA
MEMS low-pressure sensor maintains positive
airflow to breathing mask
Source: Measurement Specialties, Inc.
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Another example is using MEMS as a thermal flow sensor for monitoring changes in a
patient’s body temperature as a warning indicator. Omron has a high-sensitivity
thermal flow device for detecting changes in human breathing patterns. The MEMS
sensor detects the flow of gases as low as 1 mm per second by detecting the
temperature change of a built-in heater. The sensor is used in respirators controlling
oxygen flow during surgical operations. To increase the sensing area and prevent heat
from escaping, Omron uses a "crepe structure" which has an inverted trapezoidal dent
formed through micromachining, which allows the sensing area to be enlarged while
maintaining the cubic volume of the silicon substrate at the same level as that of a
conventional sensor.
While blood pressure is an early MEMS application, a sensor for blood viscosity was
recently introduced by Microvisk, Ltd., using a cantilever as basically a “stick in the
water” and measuring the bending moment caused by the blood flow.
While standalone sensors have many applications, the real benefit of MEMS will be when
the mechanical sensor is integrated on the same substrate with electronics for calculations
and communications. An example of this concept is CardioMEMS, Inc., an Atlanta venture
based on IP from Georgia Tech. In 2006 it launched the first implantable MEMS device to
receive FDA clearance for general use. It combines a MEMS pressure sensor attached to a
blood vessel stent and an RF wireless transmitter, allowing regular check-ups to be
performed by waving an antenna in front of the patient’s chest, from which a low-power
RF signal activates the RF chip which relays a log of pressure measurements to an external
receiver and monitor. The results have been sufficiently promising for the company to
have received over $120 million in financing through 6 rounds.
Another university spin-off, in Michigan, Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS), is likewise
developing implantable wireless heart and brain monitors. While still far from approval,
ISSYS announced a development agreement with a leading manufacturer of implantable
medical devices – Greatbatch, Inc. – in July 2008.
A novel application by Sensimed AG in Switzerland is a soft contact lens incorporating
a MEMS pressure sensor embedded along with a microprocessor and RF antenna for
real-time monitoring of intraocular pressure, an important indicator of eye disease.
Figure 40:
Sensimed RF pressure sensor contact lens
Source: Sensimed via theEngineer(UK)
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Industrial Fluidics
The typical application here is flow sensing. For decades macro scale flow sensors have taken
measurements based on thermal differentials, often based on heaters surrounding capillaries.
When shrinking this to chip-level scale, typically some heating element is placed in a channel with
temperature sensors mounted symmetrically upstream and downstream from this heater, not
unlike an acoustic wave sensor. Figure 41 shows several illustrations from both the large
incumbent in the space -- Omron of Japan -- and a newer 1998 Swiss venture -- Sensirion AG.
Sensirion’s CMOSens® products use gas-flow sensors that consist of a pressure-stabilized
membrane, which has a glass-passivation layer and which is closed from the front, is etched into
the silicon chip from below. A controllable heater element is mounted in the middle of this
pressure-stable membrane and temperature sensors are mounted symmetrically upstream and
downstream from this heater element in the direction of flow. Any flow over this membrane
causes a transfer of heat and thus generates a precise measurable signal. Thanks to the low
thermal mass of the membrane, the sensor reacts to changes of the gas flow within only 1.7 ms.
Figure 41: Schematic Diagram of MEMS Infrared Thermal Detectors
Omron Electronic Components
Sensirion AG
Source: OMRON, Sensirion
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Microfluidics Market Forecasts
Microfluidics is a tough market to get your arms around. Most forecasts, such as Yole, focus
on what is sometimes called lab-on-a-chip, which we are covering in §9.1. The listing of
ventures alone indicates the preponderance of entrepreneurship applied to lab-on-a-chip,
and the heavy cost and infrastructure burden of current bio-diagnostic methods suggests the
upside to be gained by the deployment of small, light, efficient, portable diagnostics
promised by microfluidics.
Yole’s estimates for just ‘production’ diagnostics show microfluidics already near the top of
the “MEMS” segments and, with a 25% CAGR, aiming to be nearly as large as the combined
accelerometer/gyroscope market by 2015. The market for research applications is seen
growing even faster, at over 30% CAGR. Those two alone are estimated to amount to nearly
$3½ Billion by 2015.
There are no precise forecasts for “other” microfluidic applications like medical pressure/
flow fluidics or the industrial fluidics MEMS devices outlined in this section. About the only
thing certain is that the applications of our §9.2, the micro-reactor or micro-electro-chemicalsystem [MECS] markets are very early stage and unlikely to ‘break out’ in the next half-decade.
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Companies
The market is dominated by several large firms in the U.S., Japan, and Europe:
Freescale
GE NovaSensor
Measurement Specialties OMRON
Honeywell
Schneider Electric SA
Bronkhorst Hi-Tech BV
MEMSCAP
Smaller Ventures
•
Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS), of Michigan, founded in 1995 and self-funded
through angels and research grants, started with flow sensors and is now developing
an implantable medical sensor. Between Q3.09 and Q2.10, ISSYS received 3 Patents
for new microfluidic designs using resonating micromachined tubes to produce
Coriolis mass flow meters, density and chemical concentration sensors, drug infusion
systems, fuel cell concentration sensors, and other devices.
•
Microvisk Ltd., of England is developing a blood viscosity sensor using a MEMS cantilever.
Having launched with £800K in 2006, Microvisk recently raised another £4.5M in 2010.
•
Debiotech SA of Switzerland has developed a wearable MEMS insulin pump in
collaboration with STMicroelectronics. Now branded as the JewelPUMP™, it won
“Best in Show” at the 2010 annual conference of the American Diabetes Association.
•
Sensimed AG in Switzerland developed a soft contact lens that incorporates a MEMS
pressure sensor embedded along with a microprocessor and RF antenna for real-time
monitoring of intraocular pressure. Now branded as Triggerfish®, the product and
company gained new recognition and financing in 2010. During the summer,
Sensimed won 3 prestigious awards and closed on a Series B financing so successfully
oversubscribed, that they nearly doubled the closure at the end of Q3.
•
Sensirion AG, of Switzerland, founded in 1998, holds patents on a process to combine
logic circuits with the microsensor on the same chip, which they brand CMOSens® and
apply to both medical and industrial applications. Sensirion technology came from
ETH, where the founders won the first ETH Business Plan competition in 1998.
•
Theon Sensors is an 11-year old specialized sensor firm in Greece that launched a
MEMS division in 2004. Its first products are a mass air flow sensor and capacitive
pressure sensors (see §1).
•
Siargo, Ltd. Is apparently based in China, with US offices in Silicon Valley and
apparently was founded in the 2006-time frame. The company is promoting flow
sensors for both medical and industrial applications. In 2H 2008, Siargo announced
mass deployments in gas meters with a Chinese utility and a distribution agreement
with a Japanese trading company. Production of their 2nd generation of sensors was
announced for the start of 2010.
•
CardioMEMS, Inc. of Atlanta, GA, founded in 2000, which received FDA approval for an
implantable RF MEMS sensor in 2006. Funded through six rounds to over $120M, it
completed a major clinical trial in Q2.2010 meeting its goal of a 30% reduction in heart
failure hospitalization rates at 6 months with patients using their implant.
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•
Ion Optics of Massachusetts was founded in 1996 and developed MEMS gas sensors
aimed at sensing specific gas types, for leakage and containment purposes. Ion Optics
was acquired in 2005 by ICX Technologies and renamed ICX Photonics in 2007. ICX
was acquired by FLIR of Oregon, originally an infrared sensor specialist, in Q4.2010.
•
Microstaq, Inc. of Texas offers a micromechanical hydraulic valve. The founders came
from the drive train components group at GM/Delphi, so they well understood the
limitations and opportunities regarding macro-scale hydraulics. Launched in 2000 as
AluminaMicro, it settled in northwestern Washington State in 2002 and received initial
venture funding from Yaletown Partners in Vancouver, BC. In 2007, Microstaq moved
to Austin, TX and in early 2008 announced a partnership with Freescale to develop an
intelligent refrigerant superheat control system combining Freescale's process controls
and MEMS pressure sensors with Microstaq's MEMS valves. More recently, Microstaq
has moved strongly into the CHINA market, starting with a manufacturing agreement in
2008 with Taiwanese OEM Quanmax, thence to Shanghai-based Semiconductor
Manufacturing International Corporation [SMIC] in late 2009, and in Q2.2010 opening
its own Microstaq-license sales office in Guangzhou Science City.
•
Bartels Microtechnik GmbH, a German product development contractor focused since
1996 on microfluidics, launched its first branded product in 2006, a MEMS micropump,
and formed an early partnership with Nitta Corporation, a large Japanese industrial
equipment firm. A second generation of MEMS micropump was launched at the 2008
Hannover Fair
•
Eksigent Technologies, Inc., was founded in Silicon Valley in 2000 by a team from
Sandia National Laboratories. Its first microflow product was launched in 2002 and its
first electro-kinetic micropump product in 2004. In 2003, it won a $2 million NIST grant
for chip-based high performance liquid chromatography. A 2nd generation product was
introduced in 2008 to such success that it ramped production 40% in 2009.
In Q1.2010, Eksigent was acquired by AB SCIEX, an instrumentation joint-venture
between Life Technologies Corp. and MDS, Inc. which was itself just recently acquired
by Danaher Corp. (who also owns FLUKE with infrared MEMS IPR) in Q3.2009
Figure 41: Various Miniaturized Hydraulic Valves and Pumps
Source: Microstaq, Eksignet Technologies, Bartels Microtechnik
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Table 10: Fluidic MEMS Companies
Fluidic MEMS Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Transaction History
Investors
Austin, TX
Medical and industrial flow sensors
Internal development starting at Motorola in the early 1980s
GE Meas. and Control Solutions
USA
GE Measurement and Sensing Grp buys NovaSensor from TRW in 2002
TRW gets NovaSensor as part of its acquisition of Lucas (England) in 1999
Lucas acquires privately held NovaSensor in 1990.
Measurement Specialties /
Visyx
ICSensors
Norfolk, VA /
Fremont, CA /
CHINA
Sensors of fluid properties including
density, viscosity & dielectric constant
Acquired Visyx in 2007. Visyx was spun-off from R&D firm Symyx in
2006.
MEMSCAP
RTP, North Carolina
Acquired Cronos subsidiary of Sensonor for €10M in 2001
Honeywell A&CS Group
USA
IDEX Health & Science Group
Oak Harbor, WA
Nanoliter flow instrument
using Honeywell MEMS flow sensor
Honeywell acquired Invensys in 2002.
Invensys was spun-off from Siebe when Siebe merged with Foxboro in 1997.
Foxboro acquired ICTransducers in 1974.
Schneider Electric/Kavlico
Moorpark, CA/
FRANCE
Bronkhorst Hi-Tech BV
NETHERLANDS
Industrial flow sensors
OMRON
JAPAN
Danaher / AB SCIEX /
Eksigent Technologies, Inc.
Dublin, CA
Micropump and micro-chromatography
Acquired Eksigent in Q1.10
KWJ Engineering/
Transducer Technologies, Inc.
Newark, CA
MEMS gas contaminant sensors
Acquired Transducer Technologies, Inc.in 2007
FLIR / ICX Photonics/Ion Optics
Oregon, Billerica MA
MEMS gas pressure sensors (e.g. CO2)
FLIR acquired ICX in Q4.2010. ICX acquired Ion Optics for $4.6 M, 2005.
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS)
Ann Arbor, MI
Flow sensor and develops implantable
RF MEMS cardiac and cranial sensors.
Funded through angles, commercial partnerships, government grants and
revenues
Medical and industrial gas and liquid flow sensors
Acquired IC Sensors in 2000 from Perkin-Elmer née EG&G in 2000.
EG&G acquired ICSensors from its founders in 1994
Schneider Electric acquires Kavlico from Solectron for $200m in 2004
Solectron gets Kavlico as part of its acquisition of CMAC (Québec) in 2001
CMAC acquires independent Kavlico in 2000
Participated in initial Japanese µsensor development program in late ‘80s
Investors
Expanded MEMS fab completed Q4.10
Microvisk, Ltd.
ENGLAND
MEMS viscosity sensor for blood
£2.5M rights issue, July 2010
£2M round, January 2010
£800K early round, 2006
Debiotech SA
SWITZERLAND
MEMS micropump for insulin
Primary business is contract research and engineering of medical devices for
therapeutic and diagnostic purposes
Sensimed AG
SWITZERLAND
MEMS pressure sensor embedded
within soft contact lens
CHF10M
CardioMEMS, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
Implantable blood pressure Stent
sensor combined with remote wireless
telemetry capabilities
$37.9M Series F, May 2010
Arcapita Ventures (lead)
$33M Series E, December 2007
Boston Millennia Partners
(>$120M total to date)
Medtronic, Inc. ArboretumVentures
Easton Capital Partners Foundation Medical Partners Guidant Corp.
Deerfield Capital Management Vision Capital Advisors Aperture Ventures
Rockport Venture Securities
Johnson & Johnson Development
Sensirion AG
SWITZERLAND
Medical and industrial flow sensors with integrated on-chip controls
Siargo, Ltd.
Santa Clara / CHINA
Industrial flow sensors /gas metering
Not disclosed
Theon Sensors
GREECE
MEMS mass air flow sensor
Privately held, longer established business supplying traditional sensors
Microstaq, Inc.
Austin, TX
MEMS hydraulic valves
Partnerships for HVAC markets with
$12.5M Series B, September 2008
(>$22.5M total to date)
Bartels Microtechnik GmbH
GERMANY
Rainbow Seed Fund
Rising Stars
Acceleris
Welsh National Assembly.
Series B, July 2010
raised to CHF18.5M in September
CHF8M Series A, January 2008
Not disclosed
FREESCALE, QUANMAX, SMIC
MEMS micropump
Wellington Partners
Vinci Capital - Renaissance PME
Agate Medical Investments LP
New Value AG
MonaLisa/Swisscom
Blue Ocean Ventures
Good Energies (lead)
Yaletown Venture Partners
Polygon Group
Primary business is product engineering services re: microfluidics
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A9.1 – Lab-on-a-Chip / Micro Total Analysis Systems / µTAS.
This area differs from other MEMS applications in that the primary pathway of activity is
a fluid channel or capillary, and often the primary substrate is glass or polymer rather
than silicon and metal. While there are micron-scale features, these are often derived
from micro-grinding or even injection molding rather than typical semiconductor
chemical etching and deposition processes. While features are often “doped”, in the
case of biolab or µTAS chips, they will be “doped” with bio-reactive materials, such as
proteins and the like, to create specific reactions. Often these µTAS chipsets are singleuse or few-use and disposable because the “doped” biocatalyst is consumed and/or the
capillary is contaminated by the test fluid passing through. Thus some businesses
produce whole µTAS systems; others produce just the chips in a consumable ‘razorblade’ business model, while others focus on customizing chips with specific dopants.
The simplest analogy is to consider the wire racks of 10~15ml test tubes which you used
to see in medical labs or biology classrooms, perhaps a 10x10 rack of 100 tubes. A
person would manually pipette samples into each tube and then manually, or in a
vibrator, swish around the entire rack to mix and generate a set of reactions.
Fundamentally, µTAS simply shrinks the test tube rack down to sub-thumbnail size and
expands the number of ‘tubes’ by 2 to 10 fold, but performing essentially the same
operation. The test tube now becomes the “micro-well”, literally a micro-machined
cavity that typically holds picolitres of a fluid sample. The rack becomes the so-called
“microarray” which can look, even to the naked eye, like an evenly polka-dotted slice of
glass with hundreds or thousands of micro-wells lined-up across its surface.
A network of micro-capillaries similar to semiconductor circuit traces, convey fluids to
the microwells. That conveyance can involve pressure which may come from gravity, a
manual bubble-button pump, or some kind of MEMS diaphragm which may or may not
be part of the same microwell fabrication. Fluids may also be conveyed using laminar
flow effects which significantly affect fluid dynamics at dimensions so small that surface
tension effects won’t develop.
Along the way, electricity or light, laser or otherwise, may be applied to the fluid in flow
or stationary in the microwell for either catalysis or resistance/refraction measurement.
MEMS switching or optical micro-mirrors can be utilized at this step also.
Continued
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Beyond this example, there are endless variations. Microfluidics today is very much in the
“let a thousand flowers bloom” stage similar to where microelectronics was in the 1970s or
optical ICT was in the 1990s. As with other microsystems, pioneering work was done decades
ago, but didn’t really progress until the mid-90s, especially when breakthroughs in genomics
created heavy demand for speedy analysis of high-volumes of DNA. µTAS engineering has
taken off more recently. An annual conference on “miniaturized systems for chemistry and
life sciences” begun in 1996, only crossed the 1,000 attendee threshold in 2008.
There is a wide variety of test equipment vendors and microarray suppliers making
commercial sales, each one with a unique piece of microfluidics innovation. Following is a
summary of some microfluidics players that have developed significant technology.
Table 11: Microfluidic Companies
Microfluidic Companies
Large Corp. -Themselves
Location
Description
Agilent
Palo Alto, CA
Microfluidic chips for the Bioanalyzer 2100 are supplied exclusively by
Caliper Life Sciences (see below)
Affymetrix, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA
Among original lab-on-chip firms, combining semicon fab w. chemistry, now
has leading market position with GeneChip™ µTAS systems and supplies.
New desktop “personal” system launched Q1.2010
$90M IPO in 1996
Caliper Life Sciences
Hopkinton, MA
LabChips contain networks of microfabbed channels. The instrument and
software control the movement of fluids via pressure or voltage. Reagents
are dispensed from reservoirs on the chip and mixed w.compounds in the
channels. Reactions occur in the channels and the resulting reactant and
product are separated by electrophoresis. Finally, the signals are measured
by laser-induced fluorescence.
$72M IPO in 1999
October 2010 – new 7 year agreement
to be the Agilent’s exclusive supplier of
µfluidic chips for [A]’s 2100 platform.
January 2010 – Caliper’s IP portfolio
licensed to Becton Dickinson for their
next gen molecular diagnostics system
Cepheid
Sunnyvale, CA
Also among original lab-on-chip firms, co-founded by MEMS pioneer Kurt
Petersen, now has two volume platforms -- SmartCycler and GeneXpert –
which can perform rapid molecular testing for a number of purposes, inclu.
diagnosing infectious diseases and cancer, testing food and agricultural
products, and detecting biothreats such as anthrax.
Upgraded system revision launched Q2.2010
$30M IPO in 2000
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Large Corp. -ACQUISTIONS
Location
Description
Boehringer Ingelheim MicroParts GmbH
Germany
Combination of precision microscale injection molding of polymers for wells
and capillaries plus micro-optics spectrometry for analysis result in assay
card called the Lilliput® Chip, now nearly 10 years since launched.
Technology derived from STEAG’s work with inkjet print MEMS.
STEAG microParts GmbH acquired
by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2004
FLIR / ICX Nomadics
Oklahoma City, OK
Microfluidics and microsensors combined for surface plasmon resonance
analysis tool for specific analysis applications including binding specificity,
kinetics, affinity, concentration assays and binding stoichiometry. Now
branded as SensIQ®
Acquired by FLIR, Q4.2010
ICX holding company formed in 2003
through multi-way merger.
Bayer/Zeptosens AG
SWITZERLAND
SensiChip System uses planar waveguide technology whereby a laser
beam is directed into the thin PWG layer by a coupling grating. The light
propagates within this PWG layer and generates a strong electromagnetic
field. This evanescent field decays exponentially in relation to the distance
to the PWG layer, limiting its penetration depth to approximately 300 nm.
Detection of fluorescent molecules is restricted to the sensing surface with
the capture probes and their bound target molecules with no background
noise beyond the penetration depth of the field.
Q4.2009 - new software rolled out. Q3.2010, reverse protein array product
portfolio completed, creating full solution provider for reverse protein arrays.
Acquired by Bayer in 2005.
Spin-off of Novartis in 1998
Analytik Jena /
AJ eBiochip Systems GmbH
GERMANY
Proprietary electrical biochip technology and microfluidic systems
supports electrical detection of biological recognition events which
enables construction of integrated and highly sensitive analytical systems
for nucleic acid-based assays, immunoassays and other binding assays.
Acquired by Analytik Jena in 2007.
Spun-out of Fraunhofer Institute in 2000
Immucor/
BioArray Solutions, Ltd.
Norcross GA /
Warren, NJ
The BeadChip™ format combines micro particle bead chemistry with
semiconductor wafer processing to deliver a flexible, universal array
format for complex nucleic acid and protein analysis. European CE
approval received Q2.2010
Acquired by Immucor in March 2008
for $117-million in cash.
Beckman Coulter / Advalytix AG
GERMANY
Surface acoustic wave fluidic controller chips with electromechanical
transducers and optional integrated thermal MEMS sensors for
manipulating liquid volumes ranging from picolitres to microlitres.
note- Advalytix brand phased-out Q3.2010.
Olympus Life Sci Europa Gmbh
acquired by Beckman, Q3.2009
Advalytix acquired by Olympus, Q2.05
Johnson & Johnson /
Åmic Biochips
SWEDEN
A highly ordered array of micro pillars drive flow of liquid in an open
channel by capillary action. The flow of liquid through the chip is controlled
by the pillar geometry and channel length. Leverage optical phenomena in
the chip for a highly sensitive optical fluorescence detection system
Acquired by Johnson & Johnson,
June 2008
Life Technologies / Ion Torrent
Guildford CT,
S. San Francisco, CA
Photochemical reactor systems fabbed in CMOS from traditional Silicon.
20 layers of etched circuits and memory topped by ion sensor and ionattractants and micromachined wells for the biochemical reaction. System
measures the release of hydrogen ions as nucleotides get incorporated by
DNA polymerase. First released Q1.2010.
Acquired by Life Technologies,
October 2010
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Newer Ventures
Location
Description
3dbiosurfaces Inc.
Tucson, AZ
Micro-relief surface treatment to enhance bioavailability of array samples
Patent granted in September 2007,
looking for partners
Advanced Liquid Logic
Research Triangle, NC
Digital microfluidics, using electrodes to independently control droplets,
thus software-programmable to combine sequences of droplet operations
for complex liquid handling protocols. 100s of droplets simultaneously and
independently manipulated for complex assays to be reliably implemented.
Spun out of Duke University in 2004.
Total of $5M in dozens of loans and
grants in past 4 years
$5.2 Million 4-year NIH contract for
diagnostic device development – Q4.09
Advion BioSciences Inc.
Ithaca, NY
Microfluidics chip contains an array of nanoelectrospray nozzles etched in a
silicon wafer. Unique field strength created by electrospray nozzles allows
for a more efficient and stable spray for chromatography and spectrometry.
Q1.10 – US Patent issued for reconfigurable multistage microreactor
cartridge apparatus
Spun out of Cornell Univ. in 1993.
$15M Series B in May 2002
Amnis
Seattle, WA
Flow cytometry for individual cell imaging with lasers.
Q2.09 – US Patent issued for diagnostic uses of multispectral cell imaging
$11.3M, Series C, March 2006
($21 Million total raised)
Axela / Xceed Molecular
[Kimberly Clark + Infineon]
Toronto, CANADA
The Axela Diffractive Optics Technology (DOT™) involves – rather than
scanning a flow – instead immobilizing capture-molecules on the surface
of a prism-shaped sensor, which is then lit with a laser, causing diffraction
patterns whose signal intensity is then measured to determine results.
The core IPR was licensed from Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 2006.
Axela – venture funding unspecified C$
• VenGrowth Private Equity Partners
• Primaxis Technology Ventures Inc.
• Royal Bay Capital
• Kimberly-Clark
• MMV Financial
• Investment Saskatchewan
Xceed – venture funding unspecified C$
• VenGrowth Private Equity Partners
• Infineon Ventures GmbH
In Q3.10 Axela acquired Xceed, formerly MetriGenix and GeneXP, whose
Flow-Thru Chip® was originally developed by Infineon in the early 000s.
FTC is a microporous silicon microarray with a three-dimensional matrix of
microchannels. Multiple capture reagents are deposited in a grid to permit
parallel analysis of nearly 500 probe molecules per chip.
Ayanda Biosystems SA
SWITZERLAND
Multi-electrode array biochips are used for electrophysiology to stimulate
and record extracellular electrical activity of excitable biological tissue
from as many as 60 recording sites simultaneously. In most cases, single
unit activity and/or slow field potentials are recorded in preparations such
as dissociated cell cultures (neurons, heart muscle cells) and organotypic
or acute tissue slices (brain, spinal cord, retina, etc.). MEA biochips are
fabricated on transparent microchips and are adapted to the commercially
available MEA60 signal amplification and data acquisition system.
2001 spin-off of EPFL - Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
Biocept, Inc.
San Diego, CA
Struggled to commercialize semicon bio-array and, according to it's own
PR, "lost the battle to Affymetrix", with NO commercial product after 13 yrs.
Revived in 2010 to aim at a breast cancer test, soon to go into clinical trial,
using the microfluidic platform tailored for rare-cell capture. A mathl model
is used to develop flow rates and place posts in a microfluidic device in
order to maximize the capture of cells in the MEMS channel. Specified
antibodies are then used to selectively attach to target cells, which create
an enriched cell sample. After capture, those cells can be used for
molecular diagnosis either as intact cells or after lysis.
$5M funding round, currently OPEN
$2.3 M bridge tranche closed Q2.2010
continued
77
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Biomolex
NORWAY
Microarray reader can determine the surface distribution isotopes with an
accuracy of 50u enabling high resolution screening of target molecules
labeled with radioactive isotopes. Microarray reader is based on a 64mm x
32 mm n-doped silicon detector, 300 µm thick. The front side of the detector
is divided into 560 (p+ doped) strips running in the x-direction, and the
backside contains 1260 strips running in the y-direction. A particle that enters
the detector will generate charge both on the x- and y-side, and the system is
thus able to determine the hit position. Based on total charge deposition, the
instrument also determines the energy (keVs) absorbed in the detector.
CellASIC
San Leandro, CA
Microfluidic cell culture chambers allowing multiplexed continuous medium
perfusion bio-mimetic nutrient and gas transport and improved in vitro tissue
models and is developing a µfluidic toxicity platform for cancer research.
2nd Generation products released mid-2010
NIH “Lab to Marketplace” Grant
received Q1.2010
Fluidigm Corporation
S.San Francisco, CA
IFC - Integrated fluid circuits allowing nearly 10,000 data points generated
in a palm-sized cartridge. Microchannels controlled by the NanoFlex™
valve. It consists of a membrane that deflects under pressure to pinch off
the flow of fluids in a microchannel. In the 1970s engineers attempted to
make microvalves using the semiconductor material silicon, but its rigidity
made it impossible to fabricate structures that could regulate fluids at
nanoliter volumes. The NanoFlex™ valve is made from two separate layers
of elastomeric rubber that have been placed on a micro-machined mold.
The surface of the substrate and the recesses of the bottom layer form the
liquid flow channel. When pressurized gas is applied to the channels of the
upper layer, the rubber deflects at precisely the intersection of the channels
in the bottom layer. This constitutes a simple, effective valve.
$80+million IPO withdrawn, Sept. 2008
$37 Million, Series E, January 2007
$21 Million, Series D, January 2004
$34 Million, Series C, November 2001
$37 Million in earlier rounds
• AllianceBernstein LP
• Singapore Econ. Devel. Board
• Invus LP
• Lilly BioVentures
Fluxion Biosciences
S.San Francisco, CA
Patented microfluidic device designs feature the ability to interface to any
number of channels simultaneously, allowing accurate control of flow
velocities and electric field application throughout the microfluidic network
$6.5 Million Series B, October 2007
• Kodiak Venture Partners
• Claremont Creek Ventures
• Life Science Angel Investors
Home Dialysis Plus
Corvallis, OR
Applying arrays of microfluidic chemistry microreactors to perform the
dialytic function previously requiring large-scale equipment
$50M funding line from Warburg Pincus,
February 2010
$170K grant from Oregon Nano/Micro
Institute Fund
Fabrication partnership with
Starfish Medical, Victoria BC Canada
Spun-out of Oregon State Univ. in 2004
continued
78
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
IntegenX, Inc.
name changed from
Microchip Biotechnologies, Inc,
March 2010
Dublin, CA
Microfluidic processing chips including proprietary microvalve technology
for significant improving in thorough mixing of fluids, overcoming diffusion
limitations due to laminar flow. With MBI's microfabricated onboard
valving, their systems are capable of performing complex, integrated
processes with great efficiency.
$18.1 Million Series B, November 2009
$4.5 Million Series A, August 2006
• Domain Associates
• Samsung Ventures
• Western Technology Investment ,
• RONA Syndicates, LLC
• In-Q-Tel Ventures
Micronics, Inc.
Redmond, WA
ORCA Microfluidics™ involves an IC that combines various microfluidic
elements, such as H- and T- plumbing connections, mixers, reactors,
microvalves, laser optics, etc., in a disposable card-like format for point-ofanalysis of complex fluids, including whole blood. Self-contained ORCA
labcard integrates sample preparation with point-of-care analysis, ease of
use and waste containment, allowing creative responses for drug discovery,
protein crystallization, hematology, and particle cytometry.
OCTOBER 2010 - $2.6M Army contract to develop rapid field assay devices
for detecting bloodborne pathogens
Spun-out of U of Washington in 1994.
$9 Million Series B-C, 2H.2008
• SW Michigan First Life Science Fund
• Ardesta
RiverCities Capital
• Elf Stone LLC SunRise Capital
• Washington Research Foundation
Neurosilicon
Calgary, Alberta,
CANADA
Technique developed to culture neurons on silicon wafers in industry-std
24-well plates, whereby a beam of light targets target a cell of interest while
applying a voltage bias across the silicon wafer. When combined with
fluorescence imaging of various molecular probes, activity-dependent
cellular processes can be dynamically monitored.
Spin-out from Univ. of Calgary in 2005
Angel, friends/family funding to date.
Scandinavian Micro Biodevices ApS
DENMARK
Compact microfluidic diagnostics similar to Fluidigm and Micronics,
targeted at the VETERINARY market, under the brand QuickVet®
Management buyout, November 2006
from Inverness Medical, Inc.
Vincogen Corporation
N. Brunswick, NJ
IC chip for bioassays consists of an RFID system, a metal option that
uniquely identifies the chip through the RFID system without the need for
internal memory, a transponder to which solid state antibodies, antigens, or
other biological molecules are fixed with a phage or peptide display system;
and an electrode to use electrochemical luminescence wireless. Each chip
has a set of biological molecule “beads” fixed to its transponder, against
which beads the analyte (or tested substance, e.g. blood) will react. Once
exposed to the substance to be tested, the solid-state beads may or may
not bond with components of the analyte. The chip responds by inducing
any newly bonded molecules to emit electrochemical luminescence, which
is detected by the user. Because the individual biochips have unique
identities that correspond to the solid state that has been applied to them,
ICBiochips need no internal memory function to track data, making them
different from others in development. Chip can also be read using
fluorescence, radioisotope probes, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR).
Founded 2001
$1+-million invested over several rounds
Graveyard
i-LOC, spun out of the University of Alberta in 2007
was developing a handheld microfluidic device to
perform automated, real-time diagnostic tests by
sorting and selecting cells, multiplying markers of
interest via polymerase chain reaction, then
detecting and quantifying target molecules via
capillary electrophoresis, integrated with silicon
computational circuits to provide software analysis
and output. Went dark toward the end of the 000s.
Combimatrix CustomArray was launched in the
latter 1990s, with the intent to bring to market a
specially modified semiconductor adapted for
biology. ICs contain arrays of microelectrodes
individually addressable to selectively generate
chemical reagents by means of an electro-chemical
reaction. These chemical reagents facilitate in situ
synthesis of complex molecules like DNA
oligonucleotides. After burning through over $80M
in venture financing and going public, the DNA
arrays never panned out, the company merged
with a separate bio-diagnostics business, and the
semiconductor division was shut down in Q3.10.
Biocept v.1 was launched in 1997 to develop a
Combimatrix-like semiconductor microarray. After
struggling for 7 yrs in that space, new management
now says that “it basically lost the battle to
Affymetrix”. It then moved to microFLUIDICS and
burned through the next 6 years to find the right
disease target.
Biocept v.2 was re-financed with a focused product
development plan in mid-2010.
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
A9.2 – Chemical Microreactors (MECS) and Fuel Cells
A further extension of microfluidics is their application to general chemical processing.
This is variously termed Micro Reactor Technology [MRT] or, to more closely mimic the
MEMS acronym, Micro Electro Chemical Systems [MECS]. The basic idea is that most
chemical reactions take place at the surface of the material or at the interface between
two materials, so following the general concept of nano-material-science, if you can
increase the surface-area-to-volume ratio, you can achieve better results. A related
concept, though not limited to microfluidics, is that of flow chemistry which simply means:
“A chemical reaction is run in a continuously flowing stream rather than in batch production.
In other words, pumps move fluid into a tube, and where tubes join one another, the fluids
contact one another. If these fluids are reactive, a reaction takes place. Flow chemistry is a
well-established technique for use at a large scale when manufacturing large quantities of a
given material. However, it is relatively new to use it in the laboratory environment.”
It is precisely this concept of implementing flow chemistry at the scale of
micromachined capillaries, although often massively in parallel to achieve scale, which is
the essence of MRT/MECS. Microfluidic flow chemistry is viewed as follows:
“Helps process intensification by reducing the size of the reaction volume, the amount of
reagents and catalyst, enhancing the speed of reaction and heat exchange. Enables higher
chemical efficiency, leading to higher yield obtained at lower temperatures and with less
catalyst. Permits new processes and new chemical pathways. It will lead to the synthesis of
new molecules that were previously not achievable.”
One of the first markets where this is gaining traction and generating commercial sales
is pharmaceuticals. Drugs are an excellent candidate for massive production of small
batches or doses, and the payoffs for increased efficiency and yield can be substantial.
MRT/MECS has also been used in production of fine chemicals and pigments.
This has proven to be a tough market. Companies large and bootstrapped have been
working on fuel cells for years and none have moved beyond demo trials. A few entirely
European firms with corporate or university backing seem to be moving forward with
microreactors for the chemicals and materials industry; at the same time MECS startups in both USA and Israel shut-down during the past year, showing MECS is one of the
longest-to-payoff of micro-device markets. Most analysts don’t see this segment really
‘taking off’ until at least the second-half of the twenty-teens decade.
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MEMS Devices
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Table 12: MRT/MECS Companies
Chemical Micro Reactor Producers
Large Corporations
Location
Description
Toshiba
NEC
Sony
Panasonic
JAPAN
Working on small scale fuel cells. Unknown if technology is truly MECS or not
Newer Ventures
Location
Description
Recent Activity
Syrris, Ltd.
BRITAIN
Microreactors for industrial chemical production
Founded 2001. Next-gen product released January 2010.
Brasil office opened in Q1.10 expands footprint to 30 nations.
Microfluidics International Corp.
Newton, MA
Microreactors for industrial chemical production. 2nd
generation product branded Microfluidics Reaction
Technology™ (MRT) announced Q2.2010
Producing more macro small-fluidics since the early 1980s
began R&D on true µfluidics in 2004 with first shipment in ’07.
Traded on OTC bulletin board: [MFIC]
Chemtrix, Ltd.
BRITAIN /
NETHERLANDS
Microreactors for industrial chemical production.
Scale-up version for “tonne-scale” material synthesis
introduced in Q2.2010
Launched 2006 by the University of Hull Business and
Community Knowledge Exchange with fabrication partnership
with Lionix BV, operating at the University of Twente (NL)
Thales Nanotechnology Ltd
HUNGARY
Microreactors focused on pharmaceutical production.
Installed in world’s top 20 pharma companies
Q3.2010 – US Patent granted for microreactor system.
Q4.2009 – Collaboration w/ Hungarian nanomaterials vendor
NANGENEX to use Thales system to synthesize nanoparticles
$3.3M funding round, September 2008
• Dominic Gallello
• Dave Tapolczay
Micronit Microfluidics BV
NETHERLANDS
Microreactor, micromixer and cross-channel chip
components for chemical synthesis
Undisclosed
Trillium Fiber Fuels
Corvallis, OR
Prototype of microchannel cellulosic ethanol reactor
Seed-stage bootstrapping
Q3.2009 – $750K DOE Phase II SBIR
Neah Power Systems
Bothell, WA
Microporous nanocoated silicon reactor for
methanol-based fuel cells
Reverse merger with Growth Merger Inc., 3/2006
PREVIOUS FUNDING
• Intel Capital
Alta Partners
WestAM
• Frazier Technology Ventures
• Alta Partners Castile Partners
Graveyard
Medis Technologies Ltd. of Israel, was developing a
microfluidic reactor pack for fuel cell using nonflammable, chemically stable, proprietary constituent
chemicals. Went into receivership, Q4.09
NanoBits, Inc. was launched in 2007 from the
Chemical Engineering Dept. at Oregon State Univ.
to develop microreactors for industrial chemical
production.
MTEK Energy Solutions successfully demonstrated
a high-performance microreactor for biodiesel
production, but the collapsed overall market for
biodiesel puts this project on the shelf indefinitely.
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MEMS Devices
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Financial Overview
The MEMS market has experienced extremely volatile swings in investor interest and
funding flows over its history. A boom in venture financing was seen in the second half
of the 1990s driven mainly by MEMS optical switching and RF MEMS switching
applications, both driven by hyper-aggressive growth expectations for optical
communications and mobile handset growth that were undercut by the technology
bubble implosion after 2000.
It is difficult to obtain accurate data on the total amount of venture capital invested in
MEMS companies since the early 1980s, but we believe it to be in excess of $2 billion.
The private companies mentioned in this report whose funding we were able to
determine collectively represent $1 billion in cumulative venture capital, and we believe
that we have only captured a fraction of the total MEMS startups of the last 25 years.
MEMS is a highly fragmented business, with literally hundreds of different devices
targeted at various markets within the 9 major categories we have discussed in this
report. With a few exceptions like air bag accelerometers, ink jet print heads, DLP
microdisplays, and FBAR filters, it has been difficult for any one product to reach critical
mass and achieve the scale necessary to support larger companies that can be viable
public entities. The “one product, one process” problem that we mentioned earlier has
impeded standardization of device structures and manufacturing flows that would help
the industry expand faster. Predictions of increasing standardization in the MEMS
market and a migration toward a fabless industry model similar to that of the
semiconductor industry has been slow to develop, and the MEMS industry continues to
be fragmented with product-specific process technology.
There has been some cross-industry consolidation, as some semiconductor companies
continue to invest in the MEMS market, in particular Analog Devices, ST Microdevices,
and Texas Instruments. A few MEMS companies have been acquired by semiconductor
companies where market and applications synergy exists, such as Silicon Clocks’
acquisition by Silicon Labs for its MEMS resonator technology for digital electronics
timing applications. We expect to see an increase in acquisitions of MEMS-based
companies by different industries, for example MEMS-based sensor companies acquired
by semiconductor and consumer electronics firms, and MEMS-based medical devices
acquired by medical device and diagnostics companies. M&A will be dictated by MEMSbased solutions providing unique capabilities and synergies that are difficult or
impossible to achieve with conventional solutions.
Table 13 is a list of public and large private companies that are involved in the MEMS
market. Some are pure MEMS plays, while others are large conglomerates that have
significant MEMS market presence.
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Table 13: Public MEMS Companies and Large Conglomerates
MEMS Large Companies and Conglomerates
U.S. Public Companies
Company
Location
MEMS Technology
Ticker Symbol
Market Cap
EV
TTM
Revenue
TTM
EBITDA
TTM Earnings
($)
Analog Devices
Affymetrix
Caliper Life Sciences
Cepheid
Delphi Electronics
GE
Norwood, MA
Santa Clara, CA
Hopkinton, MA
Sunnyvale, CA
Troy, MI
Fairfield, CT
ADI
AFFX
CALP
CPHD
DPHIQ.PK
GE
$5,310.00
$132.39
$40.68
$303.22
$35.57
$74,030.00
$4,150.00
$98.19
$49.59
$376.25
$4,910.00
$565,440.00
$2,450.00
$410.25
$137.62
$169.63
$20,180.00
$181,620.00
$699.74
$90.12
($9.35)
($11.72)
($66.00)
$33,640.00
$1.50
($4.49)
($0.58)
($0.38)
$6.27
$1.72
Honeywell
Morristown, NJ
Knowles
Measurement Specialties
MEMSIC
Microvision
Northrop Grumman
Qualcomm
RF Microdevices
Raytheon
STMicroelectronics
Skyworks Solutions
Texas Instruments
Avago
Itasca, IL
Hampton, VA
Andover, MA
Redmond, WA
Los Angeles, CA
San Diego, CA
Greensboro, NC
Waltham, MA
Switzerland
Woburn, MA
Dallas, TX
Palo Alto, CA
Freescale
Austin, TX
Accelerometer, gyroscope, MOEMS
MEMS fluidics
MEMS fluidics
MEMS fluidics
Accelerometer, gyroscope, RF switch
Pressure, MEMS fluidics
Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS
thermal imaging, MEMS fluidics
MEMS microphones
MEMS fluidics
Accelerometers
MEMS microdisplays
RF switch
Diffractive displays (Mirasol™)
RF switch
RF switch, MEMS thermal imaging
Accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS timing
RF MEMS
DLP™ micromirror displays
RF switch
fluidics
MEMS Markets
HON
$18,160.00
$26,030.00
$36,560.00
$4,430.00
$3.76
—
MEAS
MEMS
MVIS
NOC
QCOM
RFMD
RTN
STM
SWKS
TXN
—
—
$43.43
$39.02
$76.25
$11,530.00
$55,170.00
$210.71
$15,990.00
$3,640.00
$1,150.00
$18,320.00
—
—
$112.74
($25.20)
$46.35
$14,620.00
$46,290.00
$588.15
$16,040.00
$4,930.00
$979.03
$15,780.00
—
—
$223.96
$21.38
$8.07
$33,890.00
$11,220.00
$934.83
$23,170.00
$9,840.00
$859.71
$12,500.00
$1,699.00
—
$33.74
$0.60
($32.34)
$3,710.00
$4,230.00
$54.48
$2,910.00
$1,810.00
$142.04
$3,750.00
$331.00
—
$0.89
$0.03
($0.49)
($3.77)
$1.65
($3.27)
$3.95
($0.88)
$0.69
$1.45
—
—
—
—
$5,226.00
$1,059.00
—
Ticker Symbol
Market Cap
EV
TTM
Revenue
TTM
EBITDA
TTM Earnings
($)
International Companies
Company
Location
MEMSCAP
France
Schneider Electric SA
France
Bosch Sensortec
Germany
ELMOS AG
EPCOS/TDK
Germany
Germany
Infineon
Germany
Alps Electric Company, Ltd.
Dai Nippon Screen
Hitachi
Murata
Oki
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Omron
Japan
Panasonic
Japan
Yamaha
NXP
MEMtronics
Debiotech SA
BAE Systems
Japan
Netherlands
Plano, TX
Switzerland
UK
fluidics
Pressure, RF switch, MEMS fluidics
timing, MOEMS
Pressure
RF switch
microphone, MEMS fluidics
Pressure
MEMS display (acquired SLM)
Accelerometer, gyroscope
RF switch, MEMS microphone, MEMS
fluidics
Accelerometer, gyroscope, RF switch,
MEMS microphone
MEMS microphone
MEMS timing
RF MEMS switches and filters
MEMS drug delivery pumps
RF switch, MEMS thermal imaging
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
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—
—
—
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—
—
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—
—
—
—
—
—
—
83
MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
There are relatively few pure play MEMS public companies, and they are not particularly
well performing stocks and tend to have low valuations. We think this is consistent with
the history of the MEMS marketplace: its fragmentation, lack of standardization, full
custom or semi-custom products, and lack of killer vertical applications. Invensense, a
venture-backed private company that has developed accelerometers and gyroscopes
based on a proprietary process technology, filed for an IPO in June 2010, but as of this
writing has not completed its offering. The outcome of Invensense’s public offering
could have a significant effect on the exit strategies of other successful MEMS startups.
In the next couple of years, we expect to see several M&A exits for companies that have
developed good technology and have established some market traction. Although we are
optimistic about the future of MEMS, we believe it will take a few years before the
technology and market opportunities converge to create the mega-revenue opportunities
that could lead to IPO or high price M&A exits. In the meantime, acquisitions will tend to
be of a strategic nature, to expand the available market for existing MEMS providers, or to
create a market entry for companies seeking to establish a MEMS presence. Given the
wide diversity of MEMS products, M&A activity is likely to take place in several different
industries, including semiconductor, consumer electronics, medical diagnostics, test and
measurement, industrial control, defense/aerospace, and others.
MEMS Industry Trends
Sensors surpass actuators with motion sensors as driving force
In 2007 MEMS sensors, driven by motion sensors such as accelerometers and
gyroscopes, as well as other sensor applications such as microphones, pressure sensors
and flow sensors, have overtaken the traditional actuator applications such as inkjet
print heads and micromirror arrays for displays. This is mainly due to the penetration of
motion sensors into consumer applications such as game consoles, notebook PCs, digital
still cameras and smart phones. The use of motion sensors will spread to toys, remote
controls and many new uses on hand sets such as pedometers, GPS dead reckoning,
computing and entertainment user interfaces, and other functions. We believe the
motion sensor market will continue to see accelerating growth.
MEMS timing devices and RF MEMS could be next big emerging markets
We think that MEMS resonator-based oscillator devices will begin to displace legacy
quartz-based oscillators in certain applications, and could become a large market during
the next few years as costs continue to decline. RF MEMS switches, which are used in
small volume applications such as ATE, could gain traction in 4G mobile handsets if the
cost problem can be solved.
MEMS microdisplays, microphones, and microfluidics will be growth drivers
We think that microdisplays will get second life as picoprojectors for mobile handsets
begin to take off in the next couple of years. We believe that picoprojectors will have to
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
use some type of MEMS device for the microdisplay. MEMS microphones are already
making significant inroads in the mobile handset space, which will continue, but we
think they will also be used in automotive, personal navigation devices (PND), toys, and
portable computers, which should continue to drive strong growth. We also expect to
see practical MEMS-based audio speaker solutions in the next few years that could have
a revolutionary impact on the audio speaker market in much the same way that the
MEMS microdisplay (e.g. TI’s DLP) helped to obsolete the analog CRT display.
Microfluidics is just starting to establish a toehold in diagnostic and medical device
applications, and these areas should experience fast growth as the medical device and
diagnostics industries continue to invest in new devices, many of which will utilize
MEMS, such as blood analyzers, gene sequencers, and drug delivery systems.
Migration toward fabless model
Foundry services for MEMS have been around for some time, but have been low volume
and not very visible. For example ST Microelectronics produces as much as half of HP’s
ink jet print heads and Sony serves as a foundry for Knowles Electronics producing its
MEMS microphones. More recently Freescale announced its intent to provide foundry
services at its Oak Hill fab in Austin and TSMC is converting some of its 0.35μm
semiconductor fabs into MEMS fabs. There are also a number of fabs that specialize in
MEMS production such as Innovative Micro Technology (IMT based in Santa Barbara,
CA), Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM is a UMC subsidiary based in Taiwan), Micralyne
(based in Edmonton, Alberta) and Dalsa Semiconductor (based in Bromont, Québec).
We believe the size and growth potential of the MEMS market will drive continued
MEMS foundry capacity which will help support a fabless MEMS device company model.
Ancillary opportunities will emerge
Since every MEMS sensor or actuator will require electronic circuits to measure, process
and transmit the sensor’s output, respectively to provide the control signals for the
actuator’s input, there will be opportunities for ASIC and ASSP suppliers to provide such
ICs. Substrate materials (silicon, glass, metal, plastics) and MEMS fabrication equipment
opportunities will emerge for companies further down the food chain from MEMS
devices. The packaging of MEMS either on their own or in combination with an IC in a
multi-chip package is another area of opportunity driven by the growth of the MEMS
market.
MEMS Opportunities in Clean Tech
We think that MEMS technology is well suited to many clean technology applications
and will find multiple opportunities therein. Mesh sensor networks, such as commercial
building automation, medical monitoring, and industrial monitoring and control are
areas of interest that can utilize MEMS sensor technology to sense pressure, air flow,
position and orientation. MEMS could also play a role in energy harvesting to convert
ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy through piezo or capacitive energy
conversion.
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Conclusions
The MEMS industry has come a long way in the past few years from serving just a few
high volume applications such as inkjet printers and automotive air-bags to entering
many new applications in the high volume consumer and automotive markets. As a
consequence of new “killer applications” such as the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone
the growth rate for MEMS will exceed the growth rate for semiconductors in the coming
years, albeit from a much lower but still substantial base. The compound annual growth
rate for MEMS through 2014 is expected to be on the order of 25% on a per unit basis
and 14% on a revenue basis with certain applications being substantially higher. The
overall MEMS market is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2009 to $14 billion in 2014.
Of this almost half will be in consumer applications.
The MEMS industry is very close to a tipping point in our view. The applications to drive
demand for MEMS devices are growing rapidly. Technology to design and fabricate
MEMS devices has evolved to the point where it is feasible to manufacture high volumes
of MEMS devices at competitive cost, at least for some applications. The MEMS industry
is moving toward more standardized fabrication processes so that more companies can
pursue a more capital-efficient fabless model. Finally, companies in the semiconductor
industry, which is highly synergistic with the MEMS industry, have strong financial
motivation to branch out into the MEMS market to generate incremental revenue
streams and to exploit synergies that may exist between their core technology and
products and complementary MEMS devices. As these factors converge, we think the
MEMS market could move through an inflection point and experience tremendous
growth in the next 2-3 years.
Venture capital investment in the MEMS industry has undergone significant swings in the
roughly 25 years that the MEMS industry has existed. After very large investments in the
second half of the 1990s, venture investing in MEMS dried up in the first half of this
decade following the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000. The MEMS industry also
suffered from promising too much, too soon, as predictions of the market penetration
and growth of the MEMS business turned out to be overly optimistic. While venture
investing is being significantly distorted by the current financial crisis, we think there
could be a systemic shift in venture dollars formerly allocated to semiconductor
technology companies toward MEMS companies over the next few years. A significant
amount of venture capital has already been redirected away from traditional fabless
semiconductor start-ups toward industries such as photovoltaic cells, advanced batteries,
fuel cells, and other clean technology segments. We think that MEMS is a natural fit for
venture investors given the relatively early stage of the market and the potential for
venture-type returns as the industry passes the tipping point.
We believe there could be a significant amount of M&A activity in the next 2-3 years as
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
companies that were funded in the late 1990s or 2000s seek exits and as companies in
the MEMS space and semiconductor industry seek incremental competitive advantage
in their existing markets or look to enter new markets. It is not surprising that some of
the largest MEMS manufacturers today are semiconductor companies, such as Texas
Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Analog Devices, Robert Bosch, Freescale and Avago.
We expect to see these firms make strategic moves to strengthen their MEMS business
units, and we expect to see other chip firms follow in their footsteps.
The MEMS industry is in the midst of transitioning from a fragmented, custom device
business into a high volume business driven by a number of different vertical segments.
The automotive and consumer markets have driven the bulk of the industry’s growth to
date in air bag accelerometers, various automotive pressure sensors, ink jet print heads,
micromirror image displays, and inertial position sensors. The opportunities in the
consumer market should expand very quickly, since the natural synergies of motion,
vision, and sound give rise to unique user interface and applications. We think the ability
to combine MEMS sensors with microfluidics and electronic circuitry could result in
powerful analytical tools for medical diagnostics, genetic analysis, drug management
and delivery, industrial control, environmental monitoring, and other applications that
are impractically bulky and expensive with traditional mechanical actuators, electronic
systems and software. Innovative companies will provide investment opportunities for
forward-looking venture investors, and help drive the MEMS industry past the tipping
point. Visionary companies that took the risk a decade ago are reaping benefits today,
and we expect to see more large firms entering the MEMS business through strategic
M&A to create new opportunities. The combination of innovation, availability of
“standard” foundry manufacturing capacity, and high volume market opportunities
should create some excellent investment opportunities with the potential for high value
liquidity events.
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MEMS Devices
Q4.2010
Boucher-Lensch Associates LLC
1250 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 210
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
Telephone: (408) 501-8826
Fax:
(408) 501-8808
Web site: www.boucherlensch.com
Charles Boucher
Telephone: (408) 501-8826 x1709
charles@boucherlensch.com
Robert Lensch
Telephone: (408) 501-8826 x1710
robert@boucherlensch.com
John Martin
Telephone: (206) 852-6409
john@boucherlensch.com
Disclaimers
This material is based on data obtained from sources we deem to be reliable; it is not guaranteed as to accuracy and does not
purport to be complete. This information is not intended to be used as the primary basis of investment decisions. Opinions and
estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. This material is not
intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. No part of this report may be reproduced,
reprinted, redistributed, or sold without the prior written consent of Boucher-Lensch Associates LLC.
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