A Look at Europe's MEMS Industry

Europe is at the forefront of industrial activities in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), with about 100 industrial plants. Moreover, the MEMS facility industry is growing in maturity. MEMS manufacturing activity in Europe employs more than 4000 people, for total annual sales of $1B in 2000; total processed wafers per year exceed 500,000.

Half of the European MEMS companies are processing 100 mm wafers, but there is a trend toward upgrading to 150 mm (25% are processing 150 mm wafers) and there are three MEMS facilities projects for 200 mm wafers. The total number of processed wafers per year exceeds 500,000 for a producing infrastructure of more than 800,000 equivalent 4 in. wafers.

There is increasing activity in equipment manufacturing for MEMS: double-sided mask aligner (Electronic Visions), deep RIE (Alcatel, STS), X-ray and UV lithography (Karl Suss), hot embossing (Electronic Visions, Jenoptik), micro-injection molding (Kraussmaffei), wafer bonders (Electronic Visions), and test and assembly (Opµs, Sysmelec).

For MEMS manufacturers, silicon is still the most used micromachined material, but companies also process quartz (Thalès Avionics, Colybris), glass (mgt mikroglass), ceramic (Gesim) and polymer (Gyros Microlab, microTEC, Mildendo).

Other semiconductor materials are also used: silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers (manufactured by Analog Devices Belfast, SOITEC and Okmetic) for high-performance sensors and actuators, and low-power portable systems; GaAs wafers (mainly for wireless and data communications); SiC wafers (for high-temperature components such as sensors); and InP (for high-speed fiberoptics components and high-frequency wireless applications, or for easier integration of active and passive components).

The use of polymer for microsystems or micro-actuators is recent in Europe, having begun only a few years ago. Some countries, including Germany, Scandinavia and the UK, are very active in polymer activities, and therefore bring this subject to the foreground. The major European player is Microparts in Germany. Figure 1 illustrates how these companies interact with one another.

	2. Relative cost of test, packaging and ASIC in a MEMS.

There is a need for independent design houses to enable better access to manufacturing. In the CAD tools activity, U.S.-based Ansys is still a leader but three companies are competing, including Memscap (F) of France, moving from a CAD tools company to a component manufacturing company for telecommunications; Coventor (U.S.); and Intellisense (U.S.), which produces CAD tools as a MEMS facility activity support. Moreover, there is a strong push from the European Commission to create independent design houses collaborating with facilities (AML in the UK, Acreo in Sweden, Sintef in Norway), since access to the production of MEMS components for small business is still a problem today.

A MEMS manufacturing plant falls into one of the following categories:

• Manufacturer of standard products for large-volume applications (Bosch, STMicroelectronics, SensoNor).
• System manufacturer with integrated facilities (Thalès Avionics). Such companies work as facilities for customers of their own group.
• Open facilities (Colybris, Tronic's Microsystems, PHS MEMS). These companies develop and produce MEMS according to specifications given by external customers.
• Fabless companies and design houses (AML) using outside manufacturing facilities.

MEMS business models developed in Europe over the past five years have encompassed:

• Refocus on the main business. Some companies, such as Sagem, have sold their MEMS activity to concentrate on their main activity (system makers).
• Development of large-volume market standard products (ink-jet printheads, airbag accelerometers) mainly stemming from microelectronics (STMicroelectronics).
• Acquisition of strategic technologies by manufacturers of modules or systems, especially in the fields of fiberoptics telecommunications and DNA analysis (mainly a North American phenomenon, e.g. Corning's Intellisense, JDS-Uniphase's Cronos). System manufacturers have thus gained access to key technology and patent portfolios.
• Emergence of open facilities (Tronic's Microsystems). They take over from development programs by starting specific production according to costs and service quality that satisfies the users.
• Development of a design and simulation offer. Next to the manufacture of components, various companies (Memscap) have appeared to facilitate the design and simulation of MEMS or to ensure the MEMS design independently (but in contact) with a facility.

MEMS is already a multibillion dollar market, expected to grow from $30B in 2000 to $50B in 2004.

According to Yole Développement and a Nexus Market survey, the total world MEMS market will certainly reach more than $50B in 2004 (25% growth per year). The next Nexus market survey will give all the details on the world MEMS markets.

This large figure is linked to a very broad range of applications. It has been determined that MEMS cover more than 70 different applications.

Today, the driving markets are mainly the automotive industry, telecommunication areas (MEMS are a solution to the needs of future all-optical networks, and the wireless telecommunication market is an opportunity for rf MEMS), and biomedical applications (DNA chips, biochips and microfluidics components such as lab-on-chips). In 2000, 13 MEMS companies were created with a focus on telecommunication/biomedical markets.