CSR Tech Monthly Feature Article

10th Annual MEPTEC MEMS Technology Symposium Preview

The MEMS market is entering an explosive growth phase. Various analysts have estimated a growth of 12-15% per year, translating to a MEMS market of ~$1 trillion in 35 years (2046). To reach that market in only 10 years, growth must accelerate to 54% a year. At the 10th Annual MEPTEC MEMS Technology Symposium, titled Sensors — A Foundation for Accelerated MEMS Market Growth to $1 Trillion, which takes place Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the Wyndham San Jose, in San Jose, CA, you'll hear from visionary speakers who are convinced this growth is possible.

Keynote Speaker, Steve Nasiri, Founder, President, CEO and Chairman InvenSense, will kick things off with his talk titled; Motion Interface: the Next Large Market Opportunity. Nasiri will explain how motion interface technology has become the next must-have function in all mobile consumer products. Additionally, he will discuss the key fundamental technologies, challenges, benefits, and overview of various use cases.

The remainder of the day will feature technical presentations that span the gamut of MEMS market opportunities, concerns, and roadmaps. Jérémie Bouchaud, Director and Senior Principal Analyst MEMS and Sensors, IHS iSuppli will discuss The MEMS Revolution: from Billions to Trillions? Providing feedback on the trillion-dollar market opportunity as envisioned in the Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation (MANCEF) roadmap.

Stephen Breit, Ph.D., Vice President Engineering, Coventor, Inc. will present Realizing the Full Potential of MEMS Design Automation Software, providing a detailed review to demonstrate how software tools for MEMS and IC designers have the potential to dramatically increase the efficiency of MEMS product development and integration.

Janusz Bryzek, Ph.D., VP MEMS Development, Fairchild Semiconductor will present the Roadmap to a $Trillion MEMS Market, introducing a bold vision: potential for MEMS market to reach $1 trillion dollars in the next ten years. This presentation will discuss different pointers to accelerated MEMS market growth and the impact of such growth.

Integration of the Accelerometer -- the First Step of the MEMS Revolution is the title of the presentation being delivered by JC Eloy, President and CEO, Yole Développement. In it, he will explain how more sophisticated MEMS applications integrating gyroscopes and magnetometers is generating robust demand for 18.6% average annual growth in sensor units from 2011 to 2016. However, continued price declines will hold revenue growth to a still respectable 11.4% CAGR, to become a $2.74 billion market opportunity by 2015, but split among a growing crowd of suppliers. So the big question is how to reach a $1T MEMS market. The presentation will highlight YOLE opinion on the collaborative actions that should be implemented to let the MEMS business fly where it has to be: an enabling function helping systems and modules to understand and act on their external environment.

Keeping to the trillion dollar theme, Gregory J. Galvin, Ph.D., President/CEO, Kionix, Inc. will present On The Road to $1T?, sharing the high-volume MEMS programs at Kionix, one of the leading suppliers of MEMS inertial sensors, and offering his perspective on the potential for MEMS markets to reach the trillion dollar threshold over the next decade. Likewise, Robert Haak, Managing Director, Insight interAsia Pte Ltd., VP, Pacific, Executive Board of Directors, MANCEF will talk about Implementing the Trillion Dollar MEMS Roadmap, describing a bold initiative to break from current MEMS sales growth patterns and leap to a new factor of improvement in MEMS sales. This would move the industry from a current hyper competition environment to one more of co-opetition. This three-part technology roadmap requires the interface of at least three elements of the systems: (1) the sensor technology itself, (2) the technology of data transfer from the sensor, and (3) the technology behind the equipment used to process the data.

Discussion then turns to Assembly and Test Processes to Meet the Rapidly Growing MEMS Market, and features Russell Shumway, Sr. Manager, MEMS & Sensor Packaging, Amkor Technology, who will explain the unique requirements of various sensors along with approaches toward streamlining MEMS for high volume manufacturing that can enjoy cost and scale efficiencies of mature manufacturing platforms.

Janak Singh, Ph.D., MBA, Senior Manager, MEMS Industry Projects & Consortia and Industry Development, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) will focus his presentation, MEMS R&D Prototyping to Manufacturing in Singapore, on an R&D to foundry scenario in the context of MEMS in Singapore; MEMS developments including ASIC & package at IME through various programs including Singapore MEMS consortium; and how target objectives of providing R&D prototyping, MEMS MPW, and low volume manufacturing leading to large volume manufacturing are being met. Lastly, Rich Friedrich, Director of the CeNSE program, Hewlett-Packard Labs will talk about Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE), a project involving multiple Hewlett-Packard groups focused on enabling a sensory system consisting of a trillion micro and nanoscale sensors embedded in the environment, in his aptly titled presentation, CeNSE: Awareness through A Trillion MEMS Sensors.

In addition to this spectacular line-up of speakers, the symposium will feature a Special showcase session: MEMS for All of Us, which will take place during the post-conference reception in order to introduce selected products driven by sensors and sensor software. During the reception, attendees will have an opportunity to have hands on demo with such products. The technology behind the products will be presented in the last session of the symposium.

MEMS for All of Us will be open to symposium attendees, outside industry groups, editors and the public. For more details, visit http://meptec.org/meptectenthannua.html.