MEMS accelerometers: A fast-track to design success? By Vanessa Knivett

LONDON — Motion sensing, largely enabled by Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers, has taken more than its usual share of the headlines recently. Whilst not a rags to riches tale " accelerometers have been used in automotive applications, among others, over many years " the acceptance of accelerometer-based features enjoyed by Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing remote controls and Apple iPhone's self-orienting display, has brought accelerometer manufacturers attention they could but dream of in year's gone by.

According to Douglas McEuen?, a senior analyst at ABI Research, a handful of manufacturers share the market: "A 'big three' " Analog Devices (ADI), Freescale, and ST Microelectronics (ST) " are joined by just a few others, including OKI Semiconductor and Hitachi Metals America." Other smaller players include Bosch Sensortec, Honeywell, Kionix, MEMSIC and VTI Technologies. Mathieu Potin, MEMS analyst at Yole Developpement, believes the MEMS accelerometer market was worth $876million in 2008 " a revised figure, following the financial downturn.

With the total MEMS market worth an estimated $7.6bn in 2008, the technology is an important contributor to MEMS sales as a whole. Though MEMS accelerometer sales are likely to decrease to $846million in 2009 due to a slump in automotive demand, he estimates that the market will recover to be worth $1.6billion by 2012, fuelled by a boom in consumer applications. For comparison, Yole projects that the total MEMS market in 2009 will be worth $8billion, and by 2012, the entire market will be on the same projection path as accelerometers, to be worth $16.7billion.

Read the full article

Read the full article

Comments (edit)