RF MEMS Live up to their word
RF MEMS components are rapidly living up to their promise, according to a new market study from WTC covering the 2005-2009 period. According to the updated report, the market for RF MEMS components was $ 126 million in 2004, confirming WTC's forecast from 2002. It is forecasted to grow rapidly in the next few years to over $ 1.1 billion in 2009. In addition, the market will accelerate quickly in the period 2007 through 2009 as full-scale production starts for the majority of RF MEMS components.
The major part of the market in 2004 was for bulk acoustic wave (BAW) devices, which include duplexers and filters for mobile phones. This product will continue to dominate and constitute around 40% of the total market in 2009.
MEMS switches and micro-mechanical resonators will also offer interesting opportunities in both volume and high-end markets as issues with reliability, packaging and CMOS integration are solved. The main development effort is no longer on the RF MEMS component side but now requires designers to develop novel architectures that fully leverage the potential of RF MEMS.
Currently, the bulk of the RF MEMS market services mobile telephony applications, with BAW duplexers and filters supplied largely by Agilent and Infineon. A second mass market will emerge for consumer and IT applications in 2006/2007 with micro-mechanical resonators.“ There are great opportunities for spin-off applications in consumer and IT sectors following the initial focus on telecom applications,” said the report's author, Jérémie Bouchaud. “Here, micro-mechanical resonators will be used not as filters, rather as timing devices.”
Outside of mass markets, RF Test and Automated Test Equipment (ATE) offer the best opportunities, followed by military applications.
Turnover forecasts for the RF MEMS market
More than 60 companies are currently involved in RF MEMS manufacturing, and around a quarter are shipping commercial products or samples in 2005.
The new study details applications, requirements and markets for RF MEMS switches, tunable capacitors, BAW devices including Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators (FBAR) and Solidly Mounted Resonators (SMR), in addition to micro-mechanical resonators, MEMS inductors and cavity resonators.
