STMicroelectronics' 200 MM Production Line Opens Door for MEMS

January 28, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS

With this technology you can conduct a virtual symphony orchestra by waving a wireless baton, convert a physiotherapy exercise into an interactive experience or navigate through mobile phone menus by tilting the phone instead of pressing buttons.

According to market analyst iSuppli, ST's sales of MEMS devices for portable and consumer devices, which are used in the Nintendo Wii, for freefall detection in PCs such as the Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO range, as well as the Gyration Air Mouse, smartphones and other new applications, increased from $96 million in 2007 to more than $209 million in 2008, a growth of 118%.

"This is a dramatic confirmation of our vision a few years ago when we decided to commit resources to developing a new type of MEMS technology, one that could enable the creation of innovative and exciting consumer applications," said Benedetto Vigna, group vice president and general manager of MEMS and health care, radio frequency (RF) and sensor product division at ST.

Vigna said before 2006, MEMS sensors were used in a few applications such as airbag collision sensors but were too bulky, power-hungry and expensive to be used in consumer applications.

He said ST addressed the first two problems by engineering, developing and patenting new MEMS structures that were smaller and required less electrical power to operate while still delivering high performance.

To solve the third problem, ST set up a MEMS production line. The 200 millimeter (mm) - 8 inch - wafer processing facility produces MEMS devices such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and pressure sensors.

"Because semiconductor devices are processed in parallel on circular wafers of silicon, a 50% increase in the wafer diameter more than doubles the number of chips that can be manufactured at the same time and also significantly reduces the cost per device," Vigna said.

"Being the only MEMS manufacturer in the world with a 200 millimeter [mm] production line meant we were able to assure our customers that we would be able to deliver accurate and reliable devices in the volumes and at the prices they needed to create exciting new consumer markets," he said.

The ST portfolio also includes tiny MEMS gyroscopes. These detect and measure tilt and angular motion and can be used in game controllers, virtual reality transducers, motion controls, pointing devices and vehicle navigation functions such as dead-reckoning and map-matching.

Source: STMicroelectronics (ST).