Focus on gyroscopes for mobile phone apps: Yole

Laurent Robin, MEMS market analyst, Yole Développement, presented on gyroscopes for mobile phone apps during a MEMS market briefing in Tokyo, at MEMS/Micromachine 2010.

He presented an overview of the MEMS inertial sensor market, as well as a status of the gyroscope market in consumer applications. He focused on gyroscope for mobile phone applications and a combination of motion sensors for mobile phones.

Overview of MEMS inertial sensor market
Robin presented an overview of the MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes market.

MEMS accelerometers
CE: $596.84 million in 2010 going up to $799.80 million in 2013. The CAGR 2008-13 is 17 percent.
Automotive: $462.85 million in 2010 going up to $574.62 million in 2013. The CAGR 2008-13 is 4.7 percent.
Industrial & Medical: $96.28 million in 2010 going up to $126.04 million in 2013. The CAGR is 4.4 percent.
Aerospace & Defense: $92.61 million in 2010 going up to $128.12 million in 2013. The CAGR is 10 percent.

MEMS gyroscopes
CE: $296.09 million in 2010 going up to $701.60 million in 2013. The CAGR 2008-13 is 27.3 percent.
Automotive: $473.43 million in 2010 going up to $521.56 million in 2013. The CAGR 2008-13 is 2.5 percent.
Industrial & Medical: $12.43 million in 2010 going up to $16.90 million in 2013. The CAGR is 10.6 percent.
Aerospace & Defense: $128.69 million in 2010 going up to $177.03 million in 2013. The CAGR is 9.7 percent.

Status of gyroscope market in consumer apps
The 3-axis gyroscopes are now available. As expected, Invensense and ST Microelectronics have released the first 3-axis gyroscopes in Q4 2009.

Those 3-axis gyroscopes are starting to be integrated in some handset platforms in the summer of 2010. The price is now low enough for high-end smartphones: around $2.50 probably. However, it will have to decrease quickly for further adoption.

The 2009 MEMS gyroscope market share for CE applications is estimated at $258 million. As for the market shares, five competitors — Invensense, Epson Toyocom, Panasonic, Murata and — ST are playing in the consumer electronics gyroscope market today. Invensense and ST are strongly competing to enter this promising mobile phone market. The Japanese players have not extended their camcorder and camera business to mobile phones yet.

Where are the MEMS markets going?

Yole Développement and its partner System Plus Consulting recently took part in MEMS/Micromachine 2010. Jean-Christophe Eloy, president and CEO, Yole, presented a MEMS Markets forecast 2009-2015: overview of the Industry and technologies trends. May I also take this opportunity to thank Sandrine Leroy, media and PR manager, Yole.

MEMS remains a fragmented market: A limited number of applications have a market size above $200 million.

Simplification of manufacturing is still an objective. The MEMS law – “one product, one process, one package” is still there. MEMS packaging is more and more an “added value step” with 3D MEMS being more widely adopted. Also, software development is now an important competence in MEMS companies in order to sell functions and not devices.

The development of new MEMS applications is taking years to be commercialized. On an average, four years from first developments to first commercial product and $45 million of investment, and three to four different CEOs.

Several major system companies with MEMS fabs are now looking to use external foundries. At least five major companies are involved in such changes, with a total cumulative business of $350 million. Delphi and Conti have already taken this decision.

The 8’’ manufacturing infrastructure is required for companies targeting consumer electronics.  It should be noted that MEMS manufacturers not involved in consumer electronics are facing a very strong risk to lose competitiveness.

Competition is also increasing on consumer electronics applications. STMicroelectronics  is now proposing accelerometers, gyroscopes, microphones and digital compass. Also, Invensense is searching in its IPO large extra funding to compete on motion sensing applications.

Ranking of MEMS Foundries; Source: Yole Développement, France.

The MEMS foundry production services market traditionally develops at 20 percent AAGR. The back to normal growth will happen in 2011.

Emerging MEMS market
A note on the emerging MEMS market. Areas such as MEMS ID, ustructures, energy harvesting, uFuel cells, electronic compass, microtips, microdisplay, autofocus/uZoom, MEMS oscillators, and MEMS speakers are said to be emerging.

The emerging MEMS market share was $559 million in 2009, including auto focus — 57.7 percent, digital compass — 22.4 percent, micro tips for ATE – 10.4 percent, and microbolometers cores — 7.5 percent, respectively.

The emerging MEMS market share is likely to reach $2.2 billion in 2015, including auto focus — 36.1 percent, digital compass – 17.1 percent, and micro displays – 15.9 percent,  respectively.

Reshaping the embedded world: Vivek Sharma, ST

Vivek Sharma, regional VP, Greater China & South Asia region -- India Operations and Director, India Design Center, STMicroelectronics.

It was a pleasure to catch up with Vivek Sharma, regional VP, Greater China & South Asia region — India Operations and Director, India Design Center, STMicroelectronics, on the sidelines of the 4th Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) 2010 in Bangalore. We had a wonderful discussion on the trends that are reshaping today’s embedded world.

Sharma said: “Moore’s Law has governed many new things. In fact, it has ruled the roost. The industry has been able to push up complexity within a chip and also bring down costs.” As an example, during the last two decades, cost and complexity have combined to create the mobile device — which has turned out to be a disruptive application. The world recently added its 5 billionth mobile subscriber in July 2010. There is likely to be a whopping 50 billion connected devices by 2020!

SiP reshaping embedded world

Touching upon ‘more than Moore”, Sharma added that shrinking will keep on happening. System-in-package is a reality today and is reshaping the embedded world. It can allow more shrinking in size and push down costs.

Borrowing from wikipedia, for those interested, a system-in-a-package or system in package (SiP), also known as a chip stack MCM, is a number of ICs enclosed in a single package or module, and performs all or most of the functions of an electronic system.

3D heterogenous integration and  TSV

3D heterogenous integration and  through-silicon via (TSV) is another trend reshaping the industry. 3D packaging with 3D TSV interconnects provides another path toward “More than Moore”, with relatively smaller capital investments.

3D-ICs stack multiple chips together and interconnect them using through-silicon via (TSV) structures, thereby providing much more functions in a smaller footprint.

MEMS key segment

MEMS is yet another sector which is reshaping the industry. Sensors play a major role in our lives. “If we can develop good sensors, they can change our lives,” said Sharma.

“Accelerometers and gyroscopes are two key segments with substantial growth. MEMS takes advantage of the electrical and mechanical properties of the silicon.’ Sharma added that all MEMS gyroscopes take advantage of Coriolis effect. In 2009, ST introduced over 30 multi-axis gyroscopes.

For the statistically inclined, earlier this year, Dr. Robert Castellano of the Information Network said in their report 3-D TSV: Insight On Critical Issues And Market Analysis, that while the overall equipment market will grow at a CAGR of nearly 60 percent between 2008-2013, the metrology/inspection sector is expected to grow nearly 80 percent. On the device side, TSVs for MEMS is expected to grow nearly 100 percent in this time frame.