Today, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems technology (MST) make up one of the fastest-growing markets around. As MEMS and MST devices proliferate into the commercial sector, they're penetrating new markets aside from the automotive, medical, and aerospace and defense markets which they continue to serve. Communications (RF and optical), biomedical, consumer, and industrial markets comprise some of the newest and hottest areas being targeted.
According to a recent study performed by Roger Grace Associates and the Network of eXcellence in mUltifunctional microsystemS (NEXUS), some of the fastest growth rates will be seen in emerging new market applications (see the table). NEXUS is a European commission (which includes MEMS as defined by European interpretations).
In the RF telecommunications sector, MEMS ICs will serve in switches and switching matrices, relays, transmission-line components, tunable inductors and capacitors, resonant-comb drives, resonant beams, connectors, and switchable filters. In the optical communications market, these MEMS ICs will find their way into fiber aligners, switches, filters, printers, and displays. For the biotechnology sector, there will be microanalysis and microinstrumentation equipment, mass spectrometers, gas chromatographs, engineered surfaces, drug-discovery, delivery and handling systems, liquid/gas valves, regulators, pumps, and mixing chambers.
Yet another growing market is the defense/aerospace sector. There, MEMS technology will nudge its way into places like remotely distributed battlefield controls, maintenance, communications and inertial-guidance systems, and gyroscopes.
Such large market projections are mainly due to the fact that MEMS and MST devices are acting as market enablers, producing market values far in excess of what the devices themselves cost. In many cases, certain systems wouldn't be possible without MEMS/MST technology.
Consider the scanning-force microscope, for instance, which costs on the order of $100,000 and up. These systems wouldn't be possible without the micromachined tips that they employ, which cost only a few dollars each. The automotive airbag is another example. While accelerometer sensors within an airbag cost only a few dollars apiece, the entire airbag systems cost upwards of hundreds of dollars.
Ink-jet printers and hard-disk drives are other examples of systems containing micromachined structures. In fact, these microstructures largely contribute to the wide-scale affordability and the high-performance levels that characterize modern printers and disk drives on the market.
One of the better-known MEMS success stories is digital-light processing (DLP) technology, which was pioneered by Texas Instruments. It's the foundation for tiny micromachined moving mirrors known as digital micromirror devices (DMDs). High-performance business projectors, large-venue projectors, video walls, home-entertainment systems, cinemas, and photofinishing systems utilize DMDs (Fig. 1).
A strong indication of the rapid commercialization of MEMS and MST devices is the attention they have received from a number of Federal laboratories, including Sandia National Labs, Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. Many companies that were formerly heavily involved in the military and aerospace business have also been gearing up their MEMS efforts for the commercial sectors.
One thing is becoming clear. Evidence is proving that no company can handle it alone. MEMS and MST are very diverse and often serve highly dedicated applications. These technologies require vast amounts of knowledge in all facets of the design process, modeling and simulation, reliability, prototyping, packaging, testing, and production. This multipdisciplinary environment has forced many companies and organizations to join hands and share their experiences and knowledge (see "A Pooling of Resources," p. 90).
The design of MEMS and MST devices requires a multidisciplinary approach, depending on the application involved. This means that a combination of electronics, chemical, mechanical, biological, thermal, and environmental knowledge (just to name a few disciplines) might be needed, depending upon the application.
As a result, MEMS/MST designers have a greater number of tools and suppliers available to them, thereby allowing them to bring their products to market more quickly. Prototyping kits are now available to help designers throughout the entire process, from the initial concept to the shipping of the final product.
Examine, as an example, the reliability issue alone. One of the biggest problems facing MEMS designers is brought on by the fact that, "There's no commercially available database of reliability and failure-analysis information," complains Stuart Brown, principal and director at Exponent.
Further, "The problem the MEMS community has is that failure modes in MEMS devices aren't those associated with larger devices. The physics don't change, but the failure modes do," explains Brown.
A few years ago, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology (JPL) offered its failure-analysis and reliability expertise to the MEMS community as part of a partnership program. MEMS has been a key technology area for JPL with an emphasis on designing smaller, better, and less-expensive electronics for NASA's space probes and vehicles that must operate reliably in demanding environments. As a research center, JPL has a wealth of equipment and expertise that few MEMS/MST companies in the commercial market can afford.
One of the hottest, emerging-commercial technologies are communications devices, many of which use optical MEMS techniques for switching signals. Another optical-switching approach makes use of LCDs. These optical switches are widely proclaimed as the forerunners of all-photonic networks. Along these lines, Cronos Integrated Microsystems anticipates the commercial introduction of all-optical communications router switches by the second half of this year.
Actually, Cronos is a relatively recent spinoff from the Microelectronic Center of North Carolina (MCNC), which was founded in 1980 to promote technology growth. The company is awaiting the commercialization of these switches which use tiny silicon mirrors that will enable a new generation of routers to increase Internet capacity by a factor of 10, delivering 10 terabits/s.