Microengineering Aerospace Systems
Henry Helvajian, editor
Chapter 1: Introduction to MEMS (cont.)
M. Mehregany and S. Roy
1.4 Commercial Applications
The potential of MEMS technology promises to revolutionize our present-day life-styles as much as the computer has. In addition to completely new applications enabled by MEMS technology, existing applications will likely be replaced by miniaturized, low-cost, high-performance, "smart" MEMS technology. The potential for cost-effective and high-performance systems has attracted attention from both government and industry alike. The substantial up-front investment often required for successful, large-volume commercialization of MEMS is likely to limit the initial involvement to larger companies in the IC industry. These companies can leverage their existing capital investment in semiconductor processing equipment toward the development of MEMS components for large-volume applications.
1.4.1 MEMS Market
Currently, MEMS markets and demand are overwhelmingly in the commercial sector, with the automobile industry being the main consumer for micromachined pressure sensors and accelerometers. Market studies predict that the value of MEMS products will increase to between $12 and $14 billion by the year 2000 (see Fig. 1.15) and that no one product and/or application area will dominate the MEMS industry for the foreseeable future.27
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Fig. 1.15. Projected worldwide MEMS market through the year 2000.27 (a) Growth of worldwide market in MEMS components and devices; (b) non-sensor market segments in the year 2000, which will constitute at least 50% of the market for MEMS products. |
The MEMS market for sensors will continue to grow, particularly for sensors with integrated signal processing, self-calibration, and self-test. However, a substantial portion of the MEMS market will be in non-sensing, actuator-enabled applications, such as scanners, fuel-injection systems, and mass data storage devices. Furthermore, because MEMS products will be embedded in larger, non-MEMS systems (e.g., printers, automobiles, biomedical diagnostics), the products will enable new and improved systems, with projected market value approaching $100 billion in the year 2000.27
1.4.2 MEMS Industry Structure
A number of companies are already marketing MEMS devices and systems for commercial use. These companies include a broad range of manufacturers of sensors, industrial and residential control systems, electronic components, automotive and aerospace electronics, analytic instruments, and biomedical products. Examples of such companies include Goodyear, Honeywell, Lucas Novasensor, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Siemens, and Hitachi. In addition, many small, emerging businesses have also been formed to commercialize MEMS components.
With the advent of commercialization of MEMS, many technology requirements being identified are capabilities beneficial to the industry as a whole, but too costly to develop by any one company. MEMS manufacturing is heavily dependent on microelectronics manufacturing, and at the moment, there is no MEMS-equipment and material-supplier infrastructure separate from that of microelectronics equipment and material industry. While advanced MEMS device designs, systems concepts, and fabrication processes will continue to be important, advances in MEMS manufacturing resources will pace future development, commercialization, and use of MEMS.
Unlike microelectronics, where a few types of fabrication processes satisfy most microelectronics manufacturing requirements, MEMS, given their intimate and varied interaction with the physical world, exhibit a greater variety of device designs and associated manufacturing resources. For example, the thin-film structures created using surface micromachining techniques, while well-suited for the relatively small force encountered in inertial measurement devices, are not adequate for MEMS fluid valves and regulators. Similarly, the thicker structures created using a combination of wafer etching and bonding, while well-suited to the higher forces and motions in fluid valves and regulators, consume too much power to be used for the fabrication of microoptomechanical aligners and displays. There is not likely to be a MEMS equivalent of a CMOS process like that in microelectronics that will satisfy the majority of MEMS device fabrication needs.27 MEMS design is strongly coupled to packaging requirements, which are dictated by the application environment.
The different MEMS fabrication processes and equipment will often be developed by larger firms with a particular and large commercial market as the target. Typically, the firm developing the manufacturing resources needs to focus on the production of products for those one or two markets driving applications. But in most cases, once the manufacturing resource is developed, numerous products for smaller markets could be addressed with the same manufacturing resources. No single one of these smaller markets would have justified the development of the fabrication process. For the firms that have developed the manufacturing resource, addressing small and fragmented markets is not currently economically justifiable, given the market diversity and the embryonic state of electronic design aids. Most of these specialized markets will only be attractive and economically justifiable to smaller businesses that, however, do not have (nor would they want to duplicate) the manufacturing resources.
