MEMS Developments & Trends Merge In Taiwan
With the growing demands from smart phones, tablets and other applications, combined with the region's developing foundry and device industry, Taiwan has become the centre of many important developments in MEMS technology.
To meet the needs of the booming MEMS market, Taiwan has built a comprehensive supply chain and plays a critical role in the MEMS industry.
SEMICON Taiwan 2012, taking place between September 5th and 7th at the Nangang Exhibition Hall, will feature both Taiwan MEMS suppliers and global MEMS elites, including Asia Pacific Microsystems, Freescale, InvenSense, and STMicroelectronics. These firms wiill discuss innovation in MEMS design, manufacture, packaging, testing and equipment.
According to Yole Développement, MEMS reached a whopping US $ 10 billion in 2011, a growth of 17 percent. The industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13 percent over the next few years to reach US$ 20 billion by 2017.
IC Insights reported that embedded applications including accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetic sensors and other IC-based sensors will see CAGR of 18 percent before 2016, indicating a bright future for the MEMS industry.
"In addition to the demands from the consumer market, MEMS has applications in other arenas including manufacturing, medicine, energy, optic communications and air defense," said Terry Tsao, president of SEMI Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
"To meet these niche markets mentioned above, this year SEMICON Taiwan, along with related local and international companies, will showcase MEMS Pavilion, MEMS Forum, MEMS Innovative Technology Centre, and University MEMS Research. The goal is to boost Taiwan's MEMS industry, make inroads into the international market, and capitalise on the technology's growth."
The SEMICON Taiwan 2012 MEMS Pavilion, organised by SEMI and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and co-organised by the Nanotechnology and Micro System Association, will feature Asia Pacific Microsystems, Ardic Instruments and Keyence, among others, and display the most advanced MEMS technology and solutions.
Also, to strengthen industry-academic collaboration, SEMI is organising a University MEMS Research area showcasing the latest from academic institutions.
The MEMS Forum held on September 6th will be co-hosted by Min-Shyong Lin, honorary chairman and founder of Asia Pacific Microsystems; Chih-Kung Lee, president of Institute for Information Industry; and Robert Tsai, director of TSMC MEMS Program.
In the morning session, Jean-Christophe Eloy, president and CEO of Yole Développement, will speak on MEMS industry trends and outlook; Steve Nasiri, chairman, CEO and founder of InvenSense, will address tracking systems; Benedetto Vigna, MEMS group executive vice president and general manager of STMicroelectronics, will speak on mobile applications; Stéphane Gervais-Ducouret, Global Marketing director for Sensors at Freescale, will talk about MEMS at all levels; and Heinz Ru, vice president of Marketing and Innovation at Tong Hsing Electronic Industries, will focus on MEMS packaging.
In the afternoon session, Yii-Tay Chiou, Cloud Service Application Center executive assistant at ITRI, will introduce MEMS applications in personal care; Chii-Wann Lin, professor of National Taiwan University, will discuss MEMS applications in biotech; Markus Wimplinger, Technology Development and IP director at EVG will speak on mobile applications from a manufacturing perspective; Michael Hornung, technical marketing manager of SUSS MicroTec and Andreas Bursian, product manager of Multitest, will address challenges in MEMS production and testing respectively.
