2010 Global MEMS Foundry TOP20 Released

In the 25% growth of the MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical) market in 2010, the share of MEMS foundries was not even.

In 2010, the revenue of the top 20 foundries was approximately US$535 million, an increase of 10% over 2009. This is because companies are also autonomously producing products in order to seize the share of consumers and the automotive market.

STMicroelectronics (ST) continues to lead the MEMS foundry business, and its sales revenue reached US$204 million; however, the rankings of other leading manufacturers have changed.

Sales of Silex Microsystems (Jarfalla, Sweden) amounted to US$37 million, an increase of 85%, which was mainly due to the formation of vias, high silicon-doped, through-silicon vias. . Sales of Asia Pacific Microsystems reached US$31 million, an increase of 60%, which led the Taiwanese company to exceed No. 4 revenue of US$30 million by Texas Instruments.

However, large-scale IDM manufacturers that can produce MEMS with a 200-mm-diameter wafer process gain most of their business and benefit from the recovery of the automotive market.

“In the future, large IDM vendors like Bosch, STMicroelectronics and Panasonic will continue to enjoy the benefits of the rapidly growing consumer MEMS market,” said Christophe Eloy, CEO of Yole Developpement, in a statement. "And those foundries from large-scale semiconductor production [such as TSMC] will become increasingly important."

Yole Developpement estimates: Last year, TSMC's MEMS revenue increased roughly double, and its MEMS foundry revenue surged from about $10 million to about $20 million. Other companies in the semiconductor industry, such as XFab, TowerJazz, and UMC (UMC), although still small, have healthy growth. Although SMIC has not entered the top 20, its MEMS foundry business has grown bigger and bigger. Globalfoundries also plans to enter the MEMS market aggressively.

But professional MEMS foundries may serve customers with smaller product volumes, including more specialized and profitable optical, communications, and biomedical fields. "These foundries may not have the same strong growth, but they have a very good, lucrative business," Eloy said. These larger professional foundries are forming a large and growing group and are increasingly clear of other foundries.

Sensonor ranked No. 3 with a US$35 million OEM revenue, thanks to Infineon’s spin-off of its tire pressure monitoring system. Texas Instruments slipped from second to fifth place with slowing demand from Lexmark inkjet printer heads; slowing growth in the mature inkjet printer market and a shift from disposable to permanent heads This is the main reason for its decline.