MNS Comment v Final DR 18/12/08 14:11 Page 23
COMMENT
23
2009: the year of MEMS?
MEMS has being promising great things to the world for many years and now
it seems the expectations are creepng closer. Of course MEMS have been
delivering reliable and robust devices for many years so the recent discussions
of emerging growth is actually more to do with industry expectations of
financial returns from the industry rather than the actual growth of devices.
This has been best seen as the major semiconductor foundries announce plans
to introduce MEMS lines. There seems to be an expectation that MEMS can
provide similar returns to semiconductors but this is unlikely with 10s of
thousands of devices able to be squeezed onto a single wafer. The number of
units may be the same but the number of wafers are considerably less.
Despite this it is an exciting time of growth for MEMS and nanotechnology as
the potential of both technologies begin to infiltrate industries. The width and
depth of this infiltration cuts across almost every industry thus making it
difficult to get accurate figures on the primary and secondary market
infiltrations. Suffice to say MEMS and nanotechnologies are spreading and
Comment
are everywhere. Enough to raise concerns from some quarters about the
potential impact of such tiny materials and devices let loose on the world. This
is not idle fear as anyone old enough to remember thalidomide knows we are
not always aware of the final impact. Luckily there are a number of segments
of the industry itself beginning to look into these real concerns.
Another aspect for MEMS is the continued development of processes
specifically developed for MEMS are transferred across to semiconductor
manufacturing. This will be most noticable in 3D interconnect technology and
through via approaches that are picked to become the big thing in 2009. The
amount of research and activity in this area of late suggests this to be true.
2009 will see a change in how MNS is presented. With the synergies
developing between MNS acticities and semiconductor manufacturing, 2009
will see MNS become a regular part of EuroAsia Semiconductor magazine.
I wish you all an excellent
transitional time into 2009 and
hope the merriness you create
carries through the year.
David Ridsdale
Editor in Chief
December 2008 / January 2009
www.euroasiasemiconductor.com
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