IHS iSuppli
MEMS Market Brief/Volume 4, Issue 9
By Jrmie Bouchaud, Principal Analyst & Richard Dixon, Senior Analyst, MEMS
September 2011
In terms of shipments, pressure sensors are in fourth place behind accelerometers, microphones,
and BAW filters.
Millions of Dollars
2,000
1,500
1,000
Table of Contents
Pressure Sensors will be Top MEMS
Device in 2014 . ........................................1
Commented News . ..................................4
500
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
The explanation is of course the average price of MEMS pressure sensors. Depending on the
level of compensation and calibration of the die, and type of packaging, this can range from $1
for a simple disposable medical pressure sensor up to several tens of dollars for sensors in robust
industrial environments, to hundreds of dollars for the most specialized applications such as aircraft
hydraulics or air data measurements; and as the market for consumer devices is small, this keeps the
overall market value relatively high.
Ultimately, price is dictated by the combination of media and environmental conditionsincluding
temperature and pressure. Calibration is a big added value that influences the price of pressure
sensors, while customized second-level steel packages can drive final transducers into the thousands
of dollars.
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2010 sales,
CAGR2010-15
$881M, 9.3%
Comment
By far main application. The U.S.,
European and recent Chinese mandates
for TPMS based on direct pressure
measurement, combined with emission
regulations tightening in various countries,
will stimulate this market into first place
by 2014
Medical
$142M, 5.6%
Industry
$127M, 5.8%
Consumer
$45M, 7.3%
$26M, 8.9%
Automotive Dependency
Automotive sensors are significantly more expensive than consumer
sensors due to the often harsh environments in which the devices
operate. Moreover, long qualification times are needed for the sensors,
which also need to be reliable for stretches of time lasting as long as 15
years. Some of the devices, such as brake or tire pressure monitors, are
critical to the safety of vehicles.
MEMS pressure sensors have been in automotive use since the 1980s.
Engine management is the leading application requiring sensors in
the range of 1 bar for silicon MEMS manifold air pressure sensors in
petrol engines up to 2000 bar to measure pressure in common fuel rail
systems common in injected diesel engines.
Generally, as environmental standards get tougher with regards to
CO2 emissions in Europe, and NOx in the North American market
and this continues to drive innovation on both sides of the ocean.
NotablyChina is eating up manifold air pressure sensors now that
Euro IV and V standards are being aggressively adopted in major cities.
Bosch is the leading supplier of this type sensor to China OEMs.
In the European market, around 50% of new registered cars are diesels,
and diesel particle filters are growing in importance. These operate as
part of the exhaust gas recirculation system, which puts exhaust back
into the air intake to lower the temperature of combustionand thus
emissions of NOxwith the unfortunate side effect of increasing
particulate matter (PM) emissions. A diesel particle filter handles this
PM build-up, while pressure sensors (mostly ceramic, but increasingly
MEMS) are needed to measure filter load to help mitigate system
clogging.
With further improved control of the combustion process in mind,
a number of companies are developing in-cylinder pressure sensors
based on non-MEMS sensors. One company supplies a MEMS based
in-cylinder solution today, using piezoresistive sensors from Sensata.
Today, these sensors are removed from the cylinder due to the extremes
of temperature and are place in the glow plug. Therefore, they actually
measure pressure indirectly.
A number of organizations are researching cylinder pressure sensors
especially those based on SiC MEMS membranesthat could survive
inside the cylinder to better measure the exact stoichiometry (the
proportion of elements in a chemical reaction) for feedback to engine
management systems. In-cylinder sensing is used in relatively few cars
today, but may become more prevalent after the 2015 timeframe,
especially with the advent of HCCI engines.
Gearing Up for New Automotive Applications
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SOURCE: Boeing
Aerospace
The aerospace market is very small at a few $10 million. Aircraft sales
are very modest, but the number of sensors per aircraft is quite high, up
to the hundreds in large aircraft.
Pressure sensors are used in sleep apnea, a condition related to
high blood pressure, weight problems or cardiovascular issues
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Automotive News
VTI Celebrates 20 Years in MEMS
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High-Value MEMS
Colibrys Precision Tilt Sensor for Aero / Industry Use
Colibrys has released the MS9001.D, a MEMS tilt sensor targeted at
1g tilt industrial and aerospace markets, (e.g., in platform stabilization
applications). The product has already been qualified for satellite
communication and scanning radar antennas, remote surveillance
cameras, industrial table-tops or fire-control servo-systems. The part is
available through Colibrys distribution network in a standard LCC 20
ceramic package of dimensions 8.9 mm x 8.9 mm.
SOURCE: Colibrys
SOURCE: Goodrich
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SOURCE: Goodrich
Consumer MEMS
InvenSense Commences Shipment of 6DOF Motion
Processor
InvenSense has begun volume shipments of its MPU-6050 to handset
and tablet OEMs and ODMs. The integrated 6-axis integrates 3-axis
gyroscopes and 3-axis accelerometers on the same die in a 4 x 4 x 0.9
mm QFN package. The device has a resonant drive frequency of 30
KHz, digital microprocessor and is replete with 9-axis MotionFusion
software. The latter off-loads sensor fusion tasks to the embedded
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SOURCE: Baolab
SOURCE: STMicroelectronics
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SOURCE: poLight
SOURCE: Lemoptix
Optical News
Other News
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IHS iSuppli reported on the start of this research collaboration when Willow
Grange chose Bosch as a partner back in the July 2010 issue. After one year,
Bosch states that consumers could enjoy personal robots already within a
timeframe spanning the next 5-10 years, largely due to rapid progress in the
PR2 program in computing power and sensor technology.
ETH Zurich Develops Porous Ceramic Catalysts
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a patent-pending approach
for porous ceramic catalystsfor use in MEMSwhich has not existed
to date. The invention binds the catalyst material in solid structured
foam that can be provided in situ in a final MEMS geometry without
transferring the rigid catalyst to the final geometry after production.
The catalyst particles are mixed with a ceramic binder, a carrier liquid,
a chemical additive for promoting dispersion and/or controlling gelling
and, optionally, inert carrier particles to obtain a slurry having a gel-or
paste-like consistency. Application to catalysis, sensors, fuel cells, MEMS,
etc.
SOURCE: Hamamatsu
SOURCE: Wipro
New Briefs
Sercel Deploys Seismic Sensors in Mexico
Sercel has deployed new satellite-positioned DSUGPS sensors on its
first commercial seismic project. Its customer Comesa used 9,250
accelerometer-based geophones for seismic surveying in southern Mexico.
An additional 750 Sercel DSU3BV units were used in marshy areas. The
DSUGPS is part of Sercels 428XL family, which offers measurement of
sensor position to less than a one meter and determination of the sensors
azimuthal orientation.
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Autoliv
Baolab
Bosch
CellGuide
Denso
Freescale
GE Sensing
Goodrich
Hamamatsu Photonics
Hillcrest Labs
Honeywell
HTC
Infineon
InvenSense
LG
MEAS
Micronics
Microsoft
Movea
Omron
OrthAlign
poLight
Samsung
Sensata
Sercel
Sony
STMicroelectronics
SVTC Technologies
Telecardia
Tronics
Wipro Technologies
www.ihs.com
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