BLA MEMS Industry Report - Boucher
Transcription
BLA MEMS Industry Report - Boucher
Boucher-LenschAssociates Associates LLC Boucher-Lensch MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Q4.2010 MEMS Technology 2 n d Edition Charles Boucher, Ph.D. Managing Director [email protected] (408) 501-8826 x1709 Robert Lensch Managing Director [email protected] (408) 501-8826 x1710 Executive Summary MEMS are the exotic cousins of semiconductors and integrated circuits, originally based on silicon wafer fabrication techniques, but adding the dimensions of space, flexion and continuously variable output similar to analog devices. Conceptualization and demos started nearly as early as ICs, back in the 1960s. Initial commercial volumes commenced in the early 1980s, yet beyond a few home runs, MEMS mostly languished until the mid-1990s. Then came the usual exuberance and disappointment cycle from the mid-90s through the telecom crash of the early 2000s. But, as always, in background during the boom-bust, an increasing variety of MEMS applications and formats beyond basic Si wafers were under development and hit the market in the mid to late 000s. Those that provided unique costeffective differentiation survived the Contraction of 2009 better than the semicon sector generally and now, entering the 010-decade, a range of MEMS devices are becoming accepted mainstream and even hi-volume components. Now, on the cusp of the 2010s, MEMS is hitting a “young adulthood” stage of better focus on market fundamentals and more demand-pull opportunities, even allowing for the current economic crisis. We believe the industry is approaching a tipping point beyond which growth will accelerate, driven by the convergence of new high volume applications, increasing MEMS foundry capacity based on standard building blocks, and the potential for increased venture capital flows into the market. Some of the key advantages of MEMS are: •The ability to miniaturize physical interactions to nearly the same degree as IC’s. •The related ability to reduce the sample-size of measurands. •The ability to integrate sensing, analysis and response in a miniature package. MEMS is not a single product or market, but an engineering tool-kit applied to a wide array of markets. Most analysts measure between 9 to 12 separate MEMS market segments, each with its own unique dynamics and specialized niche applications. Consequently there are dozens of fragmented market segments. In most cases, a new MEMS device was fabricated with a proprietary in-house process, making it difficult and expensive to bring new devices to the market. This has contributed to the relatively slow growth of the MEMS industry until now. Experience Relationships Insight 1 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 In this report, we will parse MEMS into 9 segments, plus a miscellaneous section at the end. None of these involves those interlocking-ratcheting-gear illustrations popularized from early academic papers. The earliest volume applications of MEMS were pressure sensors, inkjet printer heads and TI’s micro-mirror digital projectors. As recently as the early 2000s those 3 segments accounted for well over 80% of all MEMS business. Today with the slow creeping emergence of new applications, each of the other 6 areas now generates at least $100 million in annual revenue and the share of the Big 3 applications is down to about 50%. Estimates show that by 2010 almost half of the market segments will have hit $1 billion or more, with the total MEMS business above $10 billion by 2012. Still, MEMS will amount to less than 5% of total semiconductor industry revenue to provide some perspective. Physical actuation is difficult to get right. That’s one reason why the two most complex MEMS devices in volume production today – inkjet heads and micro-mirror displays – are dominated by just a few global giants. Simpler, but by no means trivial, sensing devices (pressure, inertial, thermal, etc.) are finding more diverse applications and, since 2006, finally emerging into consumer markets, such as accelerometer and gyroscopic MEMS devices for the iPhone, Wii and Playstation game controllers which have driven a second wave of MEMS growth and raised its visibility. Henceforth, sensors will dominate the MEMS landscape vs. physical actuators because of the broad evolution of industrial, medical and consumer goods into interactive, self-aware, adaptive services that require enveloping their operations in sensory nets. Like IC’s previously, MEMS is moving away from discrete components to integrating the mechanical device with electronics, photonics and fluidics in an integrated system. Since every MEMS sensor or actuator will require electronic circuits to measure, process and transmit the sensor’s output, respectively to provide the control signals for the actuator’s input, there will be opportunities for ASIC and ASSP suppliers to provide such ICs. Substrate materials (silicon, glass, metal, plastics) and MEMS fabrication equipment opportunities will emerge for companies further down the food chain from MEMS devices. The packaging of MEMS either on their own or in combination with an IC in a multi-chip package is another area of opportunity driven by the growth of the MEMS market. MEMS will play a vital role in the emerging integration of ICT (Information Communications Technology) markets with biomedical, alternative energy and intelligent transportation. One growth area for MEMS sensors will be the evolution of “cleantech” applications. Mesh sensor networks, such as commercial building automation, medical monitoring, and industrial monitoring and control are areas of interest that can utilize MEMS sensor technology to sense pressure, air flow, position and orientation. MEMS could also play a role in energy harvesting to convert ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy through piezo or capacitive energy conversion. 2 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The MEMS industry is starting to adopt some of the strategies that helped the semiconductor industry enjoy strong growth over a long period of time. MEMS processing technology is becoming somewhat more standardized with increasingly advanced modeling/simulation tools available to designers. The slow standardization of process technology is creating more foundry services that are available for outsourcing MEMS prototypes and production, leading MEMS start-ups down the path – over 15 years after IC firms – toward fabless or fab-light models. A key aspect is that MEMS features, while sophisticated, are almost never at the smallest scale and are often several microns in size. With traditional IC fabs constantly pushing the limits of physics, resulting in astronomical capital requirements and driving industry consolidation, one ‘escape’ route for 2nd and 3rd tier fabs is to shift into higher-value MEMS fabrication, where leading-edge MEMS devices can be made with equipment otherwise obsolete for high volume leading edge IC production. Companies in the traditional semiconductor industry have strong financial motivation to branch into MEMS markets to generate incremental revenue and exploit synergies between their core technologies and complementary MEMS. The emergence of more tools and foundries means, as it did for ICs, that it is now possible to launch MEMS ventures that focus on value-added IP and applications knowledge, rather than manufacturing expertise. However, there is unlikely to be a global giant that dominates the MEMS market to the extent that a few companies dominate the semiconductor market, at least not anytime soon. MEMS is a very interdisciplinary technology and is strongly coupled to system integration, placing a focus on up-front business development and on one’s partnership chain. The MEMS landscape is so fragmented in terms of device architecture and applications that it will be difficult for one company to emerge as the dominant force in every segment. In addition to sensors, we believe other areas with high growth potential for MEMS in the next 5 years include timing oscillators, next-gen RF MEMS, microdisplays and picoprojectors, and also microphones and micro-speakers. We expect these solutions to establish market penetration in several industries including consumer, automotive, biomedical, and industrial process control. One of the fastest growing areas of microfabrication is microfluidics which creates “chips” that look like ICs but are often fabricated on glass or polymer substrates, composed of microscopic capillaries for fluids to flow, intermix, catalyze and register indications. As traditional areas of investment such as semiconductors, enterprise hardware, and software mature and attract fewer venture dollars, emerging businesses such as clean technology and alternative energy, Web-based services, and MEMS/sensor/microelectronics solutions for different markets will emerge as new investment areas. Given the stillfragmented nature of the MEMS market, we believe that many companies will exit through M&A, but it is likely that a handful of companies that create unique products that are aligned with a key market trend could potentially go public through an IPO. 3 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................... 1 Overview of MEMS .......................................................................... 5 Complexity of MEMS .......................................................................................................... 6 MEMS Technology and Applications................................................. 7 Cantilevers - Beams ............................................................................................................ 7 Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities ...................................................................................... 8 Acoustic Wave Sensors ....................................................................................................... 9 Pivots and Armatures ....................................................................................................... 10 Fluidic Channeling ............................................................................................................ 12 MEMS Market Opportunities and Outlook...................................... 13 MEMS Application Markets............................................................ 16 A1 – Pressure Sensing ....................................................................................................... 16 A2 – Inertial/Position Sensing............................................................................................ 21 A3 – RF MEMS and Switching ............................................................................................ 30 A4 – Timing Devices.......................................................................................................... 38 A5 – Silicon Microphones/Speakers.................................................................................... 42 A6 – Optical/Photonic MEMS or MOEMS ........................................................................... 45 A7 – Displays/Imaging: Visible Spectrum............................................................................ 57 A8 – Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum ............................................................. 63 A9 –Microfluidics ............................................................................................................. 66 A9.1 – Lab-on-a-Chip / Micro Total Analysis Systems / µTAS ............................................... 74 A9.2 – Chemical Microreactors (MECS) and Fuel Cells.......................................................... 80 Financial Overview........................................................................ 82 MEMS Industry Trends .................................................................. 84 Conclusions ................................................................................... 86 4 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Overview of MEMS The acronym MEMS stands for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems with the focal point being the second "M" - mechanical - and thence ultimately the concluding "S". The core distinction of MEMS is the addition of various types of mechanical flexion to traditional semiconductor-related microfabrication. For all their glory and value, typical semiconductors are simply concatenations of electronic transistors to achieve some computational or memory function. In the physical world, an action generates a physical data signal such as movement, sound, pressure, light, etc. This physical signal is converted into an electrical signal by some sort of transducer, and the electrical signal is then sent through a computational algorithm implemented in either analog or digital electronics (if digital, then the analog electrical signal must first be digitized). The output signal from the algorithm is converted from the electrical domain to the physical domain through another transducer to create a reaction in the physical world. These core elements are sometimes called the "information processing triptych" Figure 1: Information Processing Triptych System Boundary Input Signal (measurand) Processor Sensor (Input transducer) Actuator Output signal (Output transducer) Pot ential for micro-mechanics Tradit ional microelect ronics Source: Gardner, 1994 The promise of MEMS has always been to bring the sensor and actuator within the realm of highly miniaturized fabrication, with at least physical packaging benefits, and ideally the potential to integrate one or both mechanical actions with the associated processor circuitry and create a true integrated "function-system on a chip”. This is a highly abstract definition of MEMS. In practice, MEMS can apply to potentially every conceivable sensing and actuating behavior and every conceivable mechanical protocol, in every market from energy to medicine to telecom to automotive and aerospace -- resulting in hundreds of different concepts, markets and methods. Thus MEMS is not a single product, process or market. Rather, it’s a technique applicable to myriad applications. Most comprehensive discussions of MEMS parse at least a dozen or more separate markets, each one with its own opportunities, benefits, challenges, and adoption curve. 5 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 2: MEMS is Fragmented but Ubiquitous Source: Kurt Petersen Complexity of MEMS One of the unique challenges of MEMS is that it poses a number of daunting technical problems. Semiconductor microelectronics, which involves extremely complex technology, is simplistically a network of metallic traces patterned to connect an array of transistors. Granted, the number of interconnects is in the billions for modern ICs, but there is a relatively limited number of different components and no moving parts. By comparison, MEMS endeavors to actually carve-out, build-up, and shape a variety of different structure: hinges, pivots, cavities, diaphragms, cantilevers, pendulums and other highly complex shapes, all at micrometer scales. It also uses and combines all manner of organic and inorganic materials and substrates, resulting in potentially more complex structures than conventional microelectronics. With ICs, a wide variety can be made with fundamentally similar processes -- the proprietary IP resides mainly in the circuitry design. With MEMS, however, the end-product value is often inextricably linked to the unique fabrication process involved in creating it, resulting in the MEMS community’s oft-cited challenge of "one product, one process." For example, analysts note that among functionally similar accelerometers in the marketplace, each is fabricated in a significantly different way. 6 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 This lack of process homogeneity has contributed to the relatively slow growth of MEMS markets to date. It limits the reuse of common processing equipment and techniques, which results in high equipment and processing costs. The MEMS industry to date has not benefited from the economics of scale that has helped the silicon IC industry drive down unit costs on a continuous basis for several decades. MEMS fabs are comparatively complicated which raises their payback threshold, resulting in another industry cliché – “the $10 solution for a $1 problem”. However, while MEMS fabrication can be complex, it is rarely if ever at the bleeding edge in terms of semiconductor minimum feature size. Most MEMS features are on the order of several microns, versus the latest ICs now delving below 50 nanometers in feature size and getting smaller. This means that the leading edge of MEMS can use or reuse mature process equipment that is otherwise nearly obsolete for ICs. One of the MEMS opportunities is for semiconductor fabs caught at a competitive disadvantage as IC markets move to nanometer features on 300mm wafers and are dominated by a handful of megaplayers. These second and third tier fabs can shift laterally into the more specialized MEMS space, perhaps offering the flexibility of "mass customization", supporting a number of different process recipes and materials. This is conceptually similar to the way in which, while broad segments of industrial machinery production shifted to East and South Asia in the late 20th Century, Japan and European countries prospered by dominating niche markets for ultra-precision machinery. It is no coincidence that many of the specialty MEMS fab tools also originate in Japan and Europe. Another opportunity for MEMS innovation is to reduce this cost-complexity trade-off by developing designs or processes that maximize the use of common process techniques and equipment to establish a standard process foundation similar to what the semiconductor industry has done. MEMS Technology and Applications There are different ways to parse the diversity of micro-mechanical devices. One is to consider the different physical actuations made possible through microfabrication: • Cantilevers, Beams and simple flexion • Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities • Acoustic Wave Transducers • Pivoting, Armatures, with some resistive forces • Fluidic Channeling Cantilevers - Beams The earliest MEMS products were simple silicon devices with some "bridge" of Si between two independent supports, where a stress focused on the "bridge" would generate a piezoresistive effect that could be precisely measured. A "dangling" bridge, i.e. a cantilever, 7 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 can be used either to measure flexion resulting from inertial motion or external pressure, or the cantilever can act as a microscopic relay switch where an electric potential applied to an adjacent substrate can either attract or repel the cantilever. The first significant Figure 3: SEM Photo of a Cantilever MEMS Device Source: Sandia National Laboratories commercial piezoresistive strain gauges were marketed in the early 1970s. Since then more complex forms have been executed with so-called "bulk micromachining" whereby the various etching, masking and deposition techniques of semiconductor fabrication are utilized to carve mechanical forms out of substrates, typically, silicon. One of the drawbacks to bulk micromachining is that the microstructure geometry is defined by the internal crystalline structure of the substrate. Consequently, fabricating multiple, interconnected micromechanical structures of free-form geometry is often difficult or impossible. Product types based on beam or cantilever structures include accelerometers, gyroscopes, relays, switches, and physical sensors – pressure, strain and flow. For example, the Microvisk fluid sensor is designed essentially like “sticking your finger into a river”, with a silicon cantilever placed into a fluidic channel and calibrating the bending resistance to viscosity of the flow. Diaphragms, Membranes, Cavities As the next step beyond the limitations of bulk micromachining, techniques were developed in the 1980s that have come to be termed "surface micromachining". Here, instead of carving the devices out of the silicon substrate, the substrate wafer is used as a platform on which multiple layers of structural and sacrificial material are built-up and patterned to realize the creation of free-form, complex and multi-component structures not possible with bulk micromachining or wafer bonding processes. Gabriel states in an IEEE paper that "more than any other factor, it is surface micromachining that has ignited, and is at the heart of, the current scientific and commercial activity in MEMS." Freed from the limits of silicon, the device designer can choose any suite of 8 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 complementary structural and sacrificial materials such as metals and polyimides, also interspersed with thin-film applications. This has allowed a broad group of new devices to be conceived, involving creation of cavities spanned by relatively thicker or thinner membranes or diaphragms. Figure 4: Diagram of a MEMS Membrane Device Source: Raytheon In Figure 4, from a paper by Raytheon in 2000, a membrane arches over a dielectric to form a cavity that can hold a charge as a capacitor, where the specific form factor regulates the capacitance. Applying the right electric potential will pull down the membrane and discharge the capacitor. An array of 59 variably sized MEMS capacitors was deployed as a five-pole frequency filter described and pictured in that paper. Micro-diaphragms are also used in light refractive image displays (Qualcomm Mirasol™), adaptive optics (IrisAO), insulin pumps (Dibiotech SA) and chemical microreactors (see § 9). Acoustic Wave Sensors Another class of devices is comprised of microstructures designed to react in some way to physical waves (technically termed "acoustic waves" but not necessarily related to humanly audible sound) induced in either the substrate (bulk acoustic waves) or in a film or deposition on the surface of the substrate (surface acoustic waves). While their execution can be complicated, the basic notion of an acoustic wave sensor is to have two transducers -- one which creates a physical wave and the other which receives it -- at a strategic separation based on anticipated wavelengths, and then modify the medium between the transducers and measure how much that modification changes the base-state waveform (amplitude, frequency or both). This basic concept turns out to be quite versatile. 9 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 5: Diagram of an Acoustic Wave Sensor Source: Advanced Sensors for Multifunctional Applications Placed on a cantilever, bridge or diaphragm it can register variable strain or torque of various sorts, or build-up of particulates for concentration measurements as shown in Figure 5. A common application of acoustic wave devices is to serve as a frequency filter where the resonance and spacing are fixed tuned or, using mechanical actuation, adjustably tuned to a desired pass or block frequency. One of the most complex, multi-component structures to emerge using surface micromachining has also become the largest selling MEMS device by dollar and volume in history - the ink-jet print head. As shown in Figure 6, the ink-jet print head is a complex integration of piezo, diaphragm, cavity and multi-material MEMS techniques. Figure 6: Diagram of a MEMS Ink Jet Print Head Source: Pivots and Armatures The next level of complexity with advanced micromachining is the development of more freely moving parts, which may include pivots and resistive elements such as leaf or coil 10 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 springs. The most well-known example of this, rapidly approaching the high-volume of ink-jet heads, is the massively parallel micro-mirror optical device such as the Texas Instruments Digital Light Processor (DLP®) (Figure 7), but now including a range of micromirror applications from optical switching to bar-code readers. Figure 7: Diagram of a DLP Element Source: Texas Instruments Another example is gyroscopes. While earlier models were essentially multi-directional piezo-cantilever accelerometers, newer models are miniaturizing more traditional rotor type gyros, such as this illustration from Bosch shown in Figure 8. Figure 8: Diagram of a Rotor-Type Gyroscope Source: Robert Bosch 11 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Fluidic Channeling The next development in microfabrication was to take the idea of electronic wire traces or optical wave guides and adapt them to the world of fluids (including various gases entering a space usually sealed in vacuum). While some initial products were implemented in silicon, fluidics challenges led designers to other substrates including plastics and glass. Many concepts were essentially ultra-miniaturized plumbing schemes and involved very little, if any, mechanical action and often only external, sometimes macro-scale, electrical actuation. So, while highly sophisticated “microfabrications”, many designs are not MEMS strictly-speaking. However, microfluidics is usually bundled with MEMS market analyses for two reasons. First, the skill set and fabrication techniques often involve the same core competencies. Second, newer designs are now using integration of plumbing schemes, MEMS physical actuation, optical measurements and perhaps application of microelectronic charge for measurement or catalysis. Figure 9: Diagram of a Fluidic Channeling Device Source: Chemtrix Some of the earliest applications of microfluidics were “DNA chips” that allowed rapid testing of thousands of samples by basically taking the old 10x10 or 20x20 rack of test tubes and miniaturizing that to fingernail size. Today, microfluidics is also being applied to hydraulic actuation and telemetry, synthesis of bulk chemicals, such as pigments and pharmaceuticals, and to energy applications from fuel cells to processing ethanol and cellulosic biodiesel. 12 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 MEMS Market Opportunities and Outlook While the MEMS market has only started to achieve wide-spread notice during the current decade, its first commercial success dates back to the late 1960s. The four areas of initial major MEMS commercial success are: Pressure sensors Accelerometers Optical micro-mirrors Inkjet nozzles The initial demand markets for MEMS have been Military/Aerospace Automotive Medical With the exception of the early success of inkjet nozzles, MEMS has not broken into the consumer markets until more recently, and even inkjets were not on the scale of the cellphone/digital appliance markets which have ramped in MEMS only in the latter 000s. MEMS business development has been as cyclical as any high-tech sector, with blooms of ventures followed by die-offs and a few sterling successes emerging from the maelstrom. Today there are numerous discreet MEMS segments with market traction established or emerging. In this report, we will look at 9 different segments, but each of them can be further subdivided, and new applications are continually emerging. The charts below from Yole show a general parsing across the life stages of markets. Figure 10: Stage of MEMS Markets Source: Yole Développement 13 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The MEMS device market generated between $6 to $7 billion according to estimates in 2009, feeding a $45 to $50 billion market for the systems into which the MEMS are integrated. This compares to a $200 to $300 billion global semiconductor market. So, MEMS remains a highly specialized niche, well less than 5% of the total semicon market. During the Recession, the MEMS market contracted about 11% compared to an overall 14% contraction in the broader semiconductor market. The rebound forecast by iSuppli and Yole below is also milder than that for the general market, in the range of 11% to 14%. The 4-5 year outlook is for growth of between 2/3 and a doubling of MEMS revenue, depending on how widely you define MEMS. This corresponds to a CAGR of around 12% to 14%. The 5 year annual compound growth for the semiconductor market is expected to be around 9% reaching a market size of $340 billion in 2014. The MEMS market however, is still in the nascent stages of its life cycle and consequently is expected to enjoy much higher growth over the next decade as MEMS applications continue to broaden and proliferate. Figure 11: MEMS Market Forecasts Source: Yole Développement, Summer 2010 Source: iSuppli, Summer 2010 14 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The ultimate size of the MEMS market will be dependent on whether the industry can evolve from the “one product, one process” model that has characterized it to date. MEMS fabrication can be vastly more complicated than traditional IC’s and thus the production efficiencies are far lower. A mid-000s estimation by Kurt Petersen (shown in Figure 12) shows MEMS complexity to be about a decade behind that of microprocessors and that, until the mid-1990s, it was about 20 years behind. Figure 12: Source: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Solid-state Sensors. Actuators and Microsystems The semiconductor industry has followed the famous Moore’s Law, which postulates that the number of transistors on an IC doubles approximately every 2 years as minimum transistor sizes continue to shrink over time. Intel’s microprocessors contain over 1 billion transistors/chip using the current leading edge 45nm process technology, and that trend is expected to continue for several more generations. The semiconductor industry has benefited from the convergence of the industry around a standard set of materials (silicon wafers, silicon dioxide dielectric, aluminum and copper metallization, etc.) and a common building block device (MOSFET transistor). This has allowed process tool vendors to focus on a standard set of process modules and materials for IC fabrication. Even though each manufacturer has a customized process flow, the same basic process building blocks are used to fabricate an IC. More recently, the initial MEMS penetration of mass consumer markets has led to increasing wafer-level packaging and multi-function integration, which are starting to push MEMS into the price/performance escalations of more traditional mass semiconductors. This trend has also led to better integration with CMOS chips resulting in System-in-a-Package (SIP) solutions which are particularly important for space constraint applications such has cell phones and other mobile devices. There is still a long path before monolithic MEMS/ CMOS solutions will start to play a major role but companies like Silicon Labs, as demonstrated through their acquisition of Silicon Clocks and ChipSensors, are betting on that direction. 15 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 MEMS Application Markets A1 – Pressure Sensing The earliest mechanical microdevices were strain gauges fabricated from single crystal silicon in the late 1960s and 1970s. Advances in etching allowed for the first diaphragm devices in the mid 1970s to encompass a more complete physical structure of a pressure sensor. Figure 13: MEMS Pressure Sensor Source: Freescale Semiconductor Initial applications were high cost, low volume niche military and industrial markets. From the late 1970s onward, automobile market regulation has been a primary catalyst for ramping high-volume production of MEMS pressure sensors, starting with the 2nd round of US automotive emission standards in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to most recently the stringent new European emissions standards due to start in 2009. Another application for MEMS pressure sensors is the USA’s tire pressure monitoring mandate, enacted in 2000 which went into effect in Q4 2008. The majority of automotive pressure sensing is gaseous, either exhaust manifold pressure or tire pressure. Fluidic pressure sensing has also been addressed by MEMS from its earliest days in both the automotive and medical markets. An IEEE paper by Kurt Petersen nicely summarizes this: “The implementation of automotive pollution control legislation in the late 70’s and early 80's spurred automotive manufacturers to develop manifold pressure sensors for the control of the air/fuel ratio. Ford focused on micromachined capacitive sensors and Delco (GM) focused on piezoresistive sensors. These devices went into high volume production in the early 1980’s. In parallel with these developments, Foxboro ICT created a micromachined pressure sensor which could be used for blood pressure sensing applications. In fact, this device, using high volume silicon processing technologies, was sufficiently cost effective to be sold as a ‘disposable’ sensor, eliminating the need (and expense) of sterilization, required for re-useable medical devices.” 16 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Because pressure sensing is the oldest MEMS market, one of the largest, and also because a MEMS pressure sensor is structurally rather simple, the MEMS pressure sensing market is dominated by the largest automotive supplier and semiconductor companies, who developed products on their own, or acquired early MEMS pioneers from the 1980s. Market Overview and Growth Drivers The automotive market is a major driver of MEMS pressure sensors. The devices have also been applied to smaller niche markets from aerospace to industrial process control to the medical applications noted above. Recently, pressure sensors are being considered by mobile smartphone vendors as altimeters to augment location-based services applications. When market estimates cite “MEMS-automotive” they usually co-mingle inertial and flow sensing, whereas estimates cited as “MEMS – pressure sensors” also include medical and industrial markets, which we will review along with fluidics in a later section. The pressure sensor segment’s large exposure to the recent decline in the automotive market has damped short-term revenue, more than offsetting the increased MEMS content per vehicle from the U.S. tire pressure mandate. Recent mandates for tire pressure measurement systems in Korea and (anticipated) in Japan are expected to give a boost to pressure sensor sales in the 2012-2014 timeframe. The non-automotive market may be about 1/3 of the total pressure sensor market, and that appears to be steady, suggesting consistent demand for upgrades and replacements to process control systems. Overall, MEMS pressure sensing is currently a $1 Billion market in four discrete segments: automotive, industrial process automation, medical and aerospace/defense. Generally, automotive has comprised around 40%, industrial and medical about 20%, aerospace around 10% with the rest miscellaneous applications. Of late, industrial automation, typically gas and fluid pressure sensors, has been growing strongly. Medical seems poised for higher unit growth, though being often configured as a consumable, is subject to strong pricing pressure. Aerospace/defense is generally steady since it is largely dependent on government budget programs which tend not to change rapidly. Roll-out in the newer segment of consumer cellphones is likely to be slow, and limited mostly to high-content vertical urban markets in Asia. Overall recent forecasts show a doubling of pressure sensor revenue in the next 5 years to around $2.3 ~ $2.5 Billion. Figure 14 – MEMS Pressure Sensor Market Forecast Source: Yole Developpément, July 2010 17 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Companies As one of the longest established MEMS product segments, this market is dominated by large electronics companies and specialized automotive suppliers including these who have developed their own MEMS technology from an early stage. Freescale Bosch Sensata Alps VTI Through acquisitions summarized below, these large companies are also competitive in MEMS pressure sensors: GE, Elmos AG, Schneider Electric SA, and MEMSCAP. 1. One of the early Silicon Valley ventures in MEMS pressure sensors from 1985 – NovaSensor – was acquired by Lucas Electric in 1990 and several transactions later became part of General Electric’s Measurement and Sensing Group. 2. Around the time NovaSensor was acquired in 1990, Silicon Microstructures, Inc. (SMI) was founded in Silicon Valley. Several transactions later, it landed as a subsidiary of the large German automotive ASIC manufacturer Elmos AG in 2001. 3. Kavlico was a southern California start-up in the 1950s focused on the aerospace market, and was an early adopter of MEMS in the 1980s. Several acquisitions later, it became a subsidiary of Schneider Electric SA of France in 2004. 4. Capto A/S was a subsidiary of Sensonor specializing in medical and aerospace sensors. It was acquired in 2001 by MEMSCAP of France and formed the basis for its current specialty sensor business. Newer Ventures Another group of pressure-MEMS companies formed in the 1990s and 2000s remain independent: • Transense Technologies plc. was started in 1991 in Oxfordshire, UK. Their primary IP relates to using surface acoustic wave effects to measure strain in a MEMS diaphragm and create what are effectively RF strain gauges. Transense has supplier agreements with Honeywell, Melexis, TaiwanSAW, Texas Instruments and Lear auto parts. A public offering to raise £2.4M was launched in Q3.10. • Presens SA was founded in 1996 to spin-off technology from Norway's SINTEF (Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research). Presens differentiates their MEMS sensors by using a single crystal Si tubular pole supporting a Wheatstone resistor bridge for measuring differential transverse and axial stress. They propose this design as more resilient to high pressure and over-pressure conditions with a large dynamic range. Presens specializes in harsh-condition installations, particularly undersea drilling platforms - a natural in Norway. Their new lightweight Asterix line of dual pressure/ temperature sensors was released in Q4.09, followed by new distributor agreements in Germany and Italy. Presens previously won contracts with the European Space Agency and PRISMA satellite consortium to develop microsensors for monitoring pressurant and propellant tanks/lines for electric/cold gas propulsion systems. 18 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 • All Sensors Corporation is a specialist firm in Silicon Valley founded in 1999 to focus on low-pressure sensing for medical and industrial apps. Several of their barometric and surface-mount pressure sensors use a MEMS core. Shortly after founding, All Sensors was chosen to support Michelin’s Earthmover Tire Pressure Management System abandoned by Texas Instruments. All Sensors focuses on higher value niche markets such as mine safety, HVAC, environmental monitoring and military applications. In 2007, All Sensors bought an interest in AsenStec Gmbh of Germany, now operating as All Sensors Europe. A new range of low-voltage sensors was released during 1H.10. • Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on specialized exotic sensing solutions including MEMS pressure, inertial and integrated environmental sensors. It is working on developing special materials for extreme environment pressure sensors for the military. • MEMStech Bhd based in Malaysia was created as a national champion in 2001 out of a microfab in Singapore. Its first newly developed product was a MEMS pressure sensor launched in 2002. Recently, it’s been in hot water over earnings mis-statements. Since the start of 2010, Bursa Malaysia proposed delisting, which was appealed, followed by receivership, and during Q3, a proposal for a ~$6M recapitalization by a Malaysian investment group, Lityan Holdings BhD. • Theon Sensors is an 11-year old specialized sensor firm in Greece that launched a MEMS division in 2004. Its first products are a mass air flow sensor (see §8) and capacitive pressure sensors claimed to have high sensitivity, low power consumption and better thermal dependency. • Shanghai FineMEMS, Inc. and Jiujian Baohua FineMEMS, Inc. are new vendors in China launched in the mid-000s offering MEMS pressure sensors for general automotive and tire pressure monitoring applications. They claim to feature a low-cost ASIC and plastic packaging technology and claim some initial sales to native Chinese auto manufacturers. • Acuity, Inc. of Silicon Valley was launched in 2007 specializing in low-bar piezoresistive pressure sensing for medical, industrial process control and HVAC markets. Initially ranging to 20 bar, in Q2.10 it launched a new sensor with a 10mbar full-scale rating. Table 1: MEMS Pressure Sensor Companies next page 19 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 1: MEMS Pressure Sensor Companies Pressure Sensor Producers Large Corporations Location Description Transaction History Bosch Sensortech GERMANY Extensive automotive and tirepressure business. Also, navigation applications providing accurate altitude positioning for pedestrian building-floor detection and Sat-Navi enhancement in absence of GPS Denso JAPAN Integrated automotive supplier Freescale Semiconductor Phoenix, AZ Extensive tire-pressure monitor business, digital output sensor used in micro-barometer for oxygen regulation in medical ventilators Spun-off from Motorola in 2004 Sensata Technologies BV Attleboro, MA / NETHERLANDS Piezoresistive Monocrystalline Silicon Strain Gauge sensors $569M public offering in March-010. Shares sold by Bain Capital LLC which bought Texas Instruments Sensors & Controls operation for $3 billion in 2006 creating Sensata Technologies. Later in 2006, Sensata purchased some automotive instrumentation operations from Honeywell. In 2007, it purchased a digital imaging operation from Cypress. Alps Electric Co., Ltd. JAPAN Volume Ship Q1.10 of world's-smallest waterproof piezo pressure sensor w/ barometric and water-pressure detection EPSON JAPAN New pressure sensor using quartz photolith process sampling Q4.10 VTI FINLAND MEMSCAP RTP, North Carolina Specialized pressure sensors focused on biomedical and aerospace applications. Acquired Capto AS subsidiary of Sensonor for €10M in 2001 Partnership with Cleveland Clinic venture OrthoMEMS in 2009 to commercialize a medical pressure sensor for spine injury applications. Sensonor NORWAY Well monitoring, tire pressure and engine control pressure sensors Infineon bought Sensonor for €48M in 2003 and it was sold back to private investors in March 2009 GE NovaSensor Fremont, CA Specialized pressure sensors for lowpressure, extreme environments and specialized packaging GE Measurement and Sensing Grp buys NovaSensor from TRW in 2002 TRW gets NovaSensor as part of acquisition of Lucas (England) in 1999 Lucas acquires privately held NovaSensor in 1990. Elmos/Silicon Microstructures Milpitas, CA / GERMANY Pressure sensors for automotive, medical, industrial and white goods applications Elmos AG acquires SMI from OSI Systems for $6.5m in 2001 OSI Systems acquires SMI from Exar for $6.5m in 1998 Exar/Rohm acquires privately held SMI in 1995 Schneider Electric/Kavlico Moorpark, CA / FRANCE Focused on engine sensors for a variety of vehicles. Schneider Electric acquires Kavlico from Solectron for $200m in 2004 Solectron gets Kavlico when it acquires CMAC (Québec) in 2001 CMAC acquires independent Kavlico in 2000 Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors Transense Technologies plc BRITAIN SAW MEMS sensors AIM – TRT • £2.4m Share offering in Q2.10 Accumulated Loss ~£13m through early 2010 Presens SA Oslo, NORWAY High-pressure sensors using Wheatstone bridge sensors Spin-off of Norwegian Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research All Sensors Corporation Morgan Hill, CA Low-pressure sensors Over $1M in 3 private placements through 2002 Sporian Microsystems Layfette, CO Extreme-environment sensors Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts. MEMStech Bhd MALAYSIA Pressure sensors Proposed $6M recap – Q3.10 Theon Sensors GREECE Capacitive pressure sensor Privately held, longer established business supplying traditional sensors Shanghai FineMEMS, Inc. Jiujian Baohua FineMEMS, Inc. Shanghai, China Wuhan, Hubei, China Piezoresistive pressure sensors, including tire-pressure (TPMS) Local Chinese investment JV of SFMI with Jiujiang Baohua Petrochemical Technology Inc. Acuity, Inc. Fremont, CA Low-pressure piezo sensors Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts. 20 Private placements – not specified Lityan Holdings BhD Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A2 – Inertial/Position Sensing Inertial sensors – accelerometers and gyroscopes – are considered the second earliest MEMS success after pressure sensors, and likewise driven by the automobile industry, in this case via wide deployment of airbags and anti-lock brakes (ABS) during the 1990s. MEMS sensors have also become a fundamental component of inertial guidance systems in aerospace. According to iSuppli, the auto Figure 15 market is the second largest after ICT for all types of MEMS devices with pressure sensors and inertial sensing being the top two applications. One analyst had called accelerometers "the stars of the MEMS show", and now gyroscopes are rapidly catching up and being integrated as part of comprehensive inertial measurement units. Most accelerometers have a micromachined proof mass and piezoresistive connectors whose flexion generates varying signal strengths. Microgyros most commonly use a tuning-fork design, where two masses are driven to oscillate, via a comb-drive or piezoresistive effect in equal but opposite directions, and the oscillations will be detectably perturbed by rotation. As MEMS has matured, more complex inertial designs have emerged, shown in Figure 15, such as the Bosch micro-flywheel, a so-called ‘wine-glass’ resonator where a ring is driven to resonance and the harmonic nodal points are detected to indicate rotational change, a 2-axis pitch/yaw ring module, and one with a central sensing mass with capacitance sensors Sources: Robert Bosch; Invensense via EETimes; STMicro via MEMS Investors Journal 21 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 More recently, magnetic sensing has been added to inertial sensing to form a new class of embedded location sensor, both within machinery or bodies, by measuring magnetic distortions, and externally as “digital compasses”. In many respects, magnetic dwarfs inertial in the complexity of the science required to execute. The interplay of magnetism and electricity provides a wide array of voltage and resistivity/impedance effects for engineers to concentrate and refine so as to exploit in a microelectronics package. Naturally, with MEMS magnetic sensors in early stages, each magnetic effect is leveraged by one or another of the products on the market as different approaches compete to dominate future implementations. Examples include using voltage differences when a magnetic field is perpendicular to the current – called the Hall effect, after a Dr. Hall who discovered it, as well as resistivity/impedance effects induced either in a single conductor or between sandwiches of ferromagnetic and non-magnetic isolation layers – the latter called ‘magneto-resistivity’ or #MR, with various # prefixes depending on the specific type or technique of magneto resistivity invoked. Depending on the implementation, micro magnetic sensors don’t always have moving parts, given magnetism’s ability to induce variations in static bodies, but they can be complexly micro-fabricated parts • as with the Asahi Kasei Microsystems part from the Nokia N97 illustrated below and thus often cross over into the “MEMS” space, especially as they are increasingly combined with micro-mechanical accelerometers and gyros in more complete inertial measurement units – IMUs. Figure 16 –Asahi Kasei AKM AK8974 Digital Compass Package – X-Ray Source: Chipworks Inc. via MEMS Industry Group blog 22 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Market Overview and Growth Drivers MEMS inertial sensors and micro magnetic sensors have been actively marketed for nearly two decades in automotive and aerospace applications, but only recently did they finally break into the mass-market consumer space; most notably with inertial sensors in the Nintendo Wii video game system and Apple iPhone and digital compass functions in, first higher-end Japanese mobile phones and most recently the Apple iPhone 3GS. A white paper published by InvenSense, a venture-backed company targeting low-cost gyros, presents some interesting history of the price elasticity of MEMS accelerometers in the car market. They describe the first generation of MEMS accelerometers by NovaSensor and EG&G as unable to break the $10 per part barrier, whence they were overtaken by the 2nd generation by Motorola/Freescale, Analog Devices, STMicroelectronics and others, which focused on driving costs below the threshold of around $3 per part, at which level unit demand took off. They note that both NovaSensor and EG&G’s businesses have since been acquired several times. And we note that it was Analog Devices and STMicro who supplied the Wii and iPhone. In recent years, vendors have been working on both cost and form-factor, introducing ever smaller inertial sensors, with Freescale, STMicro and Cornell spin-off Kionix all recently breaking below the 1mm threshold in thickness. MEMS Gyroscopes are now below $10 and MEMS accelerometers are around the $1 per part threshold. Indeed, iSuppli is forecasting that in a few years, accelerometers will surpass inkjet heads as the #1 MEMS part in volume and revenue. Yole is more bullish on inkjets, but as several vendors are also combining acceleration and gyroscopic detection, if you combine volumes of the two categories then “inertials” are already the #1 MEMS segment. Magnetic is trickier sector to parse. iSuppli lists total global revenues of “silicon magnetic sensors” at $820M in 2009, but that is likely a superset of both MEMS and the applied MEMS of the “digital compass”. Yole looks specifically at digital compass and sees a $100M market in 2009. Both see a 5-year CAGR in the 13% to 14% range for both classifications of magnetic. The early 2010 announcement by consumer MEMS giant STMicroelectronics of a new magnetic IMU using a Honeywell TruePoint™ component suggests a potential inflection point towards larger-scale consumer implementations. Figure 17 – MEMS Position Sensor Market Forecasts Source: Yole Developpément, July 2010 23 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Companies As with pressure sensing, inertial sensing MEMS is dominated by large electronics companies and specialized automotive suppliers including: Major players dominating the accelerometer market: • ST Microelectronics • Bosch Sensortec • Analog Devices • Rohm Semiconductor Major players dominating the gyroscope market: • ST Microelectronics • Analog Devices • Panasonic Major players dominating the magnetic sensor market: • Honeywell • Asahi Kasei Microsystems Other players from major corporations are: • Freescale • Denso • VTI • Hewlett-Packard • EPSON • Sony • QinetiQ • SensorDynamics • Silicon Sensing Systems (Sumitomo/BAE joint venture) • MEMSCAP • Sensonor • Sensata (formerly Texas Instruments) Bosch Sensortec was for longtime the largest vendor of inertial sensors, though by some estimates recently supplanted by STMicroelectronics. STMicro and Freescale have been at the forefront of miniaturization with both companies introducing MEMS accelos under 1mm in height during 2007. As noted above, Analog Devices and STMicro have enjoyed early breakthroughs in the consumer space through the success of the Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii gaming system. New 3-axis accelos from both ADI and STM won recognition as Chipworks’ outstanding products across all-MEMS in 2009. After getting some earlier-decade inertial MEMS when Rohm acquired Oki Semiconductor in 2008, Rohm took a more significant position in 2010 through acquisition of Cornell spin24 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 off Kionix, which was one of the top venture-backed MEMS players of the late 000s. Rohm-Kionix supplies a wide variety of inertial sensors for automotive, consumer goods, hard-disk drop protection and some medical applications. Pre-acquisition Kionix grabbed attention in 07-08 by launching a sub-1mm analog accelerometer nearly simultaneous with industry giants Freescale and STMicro, and then winning Frost & Sullivan’s Global Award for MEMS Product Line Strategy. 2010 saw release of gesture-capture firmware, and integration into Cypress Semiconductor’s inertial development platform product and use of its accelerometer in the Q3.10 Sony PlayStation Move. Sony reportedly supplied its own MEMS gyroscope for the PlayStation Move, marking a new product line for their MEMS fab, in addition to making silicon microphones for Knowles. EPSON developed a quartz-based MEMS process, originally for the timing oscillator market. Recently it has begun applying its’ QMEMS™ technology to other applications and at the end of Q3.2010 announced a new series of gyro MEMS. Nintendo gyroscopes are supplied by Epson and Invensense and reportedly the next-gen of Wii will contain 3-axis MEMS gyroscopes from Panasonic Hewlett-Packard has entered the space recently a late 2009 demo of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) claimed to be a thousand times more sensitive than current devices, using a suspended movable mass that changes the electric potential between electrodes. Its initial application is reportedly in geologic exploration, including a Q1.2010 announced collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell for oil/gas reservoir seismic exploration data. VTI in Finland has focused for a long time on the automotive market for accelerometers and gyroscopes and was the first to adopt wafer-level packaging as part of launching the world’s smallest and least power consuming 3-axis accelo in 2009. In Q4.10, VTI entered the consumer electronics segment with advanced gyros, and added a 3rd target segment of biomedical for 2011. Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd. (SSS) is a joint venture of Sumitomo and the former inertial guidance group at British Aerospace (BAE), which, as Atlantic Inertial Systems, was acquired by Goodrich in late 2009. SSS has shipped over 10 million yaw sensors and over 1-millionth angular rate gyros. In Q3.10 SSS launched a new low-cost gyro - the PinPoint® – distinguished by a proprietary balanced vibrating ring design. Asahi Kasei Microsystems is the market leader in magnetic Hall effect sensors, scoring a win for the Apple iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97 smartphones. Honeywell has offered Anisotropic MagnetoResistive (AMR) sensors for years for specialized industrial and military apps. In early 2010, Honeywell agreed to supply its AMR module to STMicroelectronics to be integrated into a new STM inertial and digital compass device. 25 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Integrated Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) that combine multiple axes of motion and position are seen as a major growth area in the early 2010s. Numerous MEMS vendors launched combined accelo-gyro IMUs from late 2009 through 2010 including VTI of Finland, STMicro of Switzerland, SensorDynamics AG of Austria and InvenSense of the USA. Along with the ADI and STM devices above, SensorDynamics’s IMU was also a Chipworks’ outstanding product among all MEMS for 2009. Smaller Ventures The most successful small companies with expanding market penetration are: • Qualtré, Inc. is a more recent entry into the MEMS space, established in Massachusetts in 2008 to commercialize both a unique solid-state bulk-acoustic wave gyro technology and the high-aspect-ratio etching processes needed for fabrication, developed at Georgia Tech. The company has so far raised $8M in two rounds and aims at volume shipments in 2011. • InvenSense Inc. is an early/mid-stage venture in Mountain View that launched a low-cost dual-axis gyro MEMS which has been incorporated into image-stabilization and navigation products, as well as an accessory for the Nintendo Wii. In 2008, it claimed the smallest dualaxis gyro package at 4 x 5 x 1.2 mm, 25% smaller than competitors. New lines of 3-axis and 6-axis gyro MEMS were introduced mid-2010 along with integrated Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) for consumer electronics and the launch of a new 15M units/mo fab in Taiwan to accommodate the mass market. InvenSense has received a total of $38 million through 3 rounds of funding from investors including Sierra Ventures, Qualcomm and NTTDoCoMo. iSuppli has ranked InvenSense as the #1 supplier of consumer gyro supplier while Yole has estimated a nearly 5x growth rate ’09 vs. ’08, leading at the end of Q2.10 to an S-1 filing for a possible IPO. • Memsic, Inc. is a spin-off of Analog Devices that developed a unique variation on a MEMS accelerometer using gas convection as the proof mass. A single heat source, centered in the silicon chip, creates a thermal gradient and density gradient in the sealed gas. External motion moves the gas within the micro-package and the applied force is detected by temperature variations around the heat source. Memsic's gas accelerometers were used in the audience’s LED wave torches at the Beijing Olympics ceremonies to create their mass signaling effects. Memsic added to its systems integration capabilities with the late 2009 acquisition of Crossbow Technology, Inc. • Sensitec GmbH got its start in 1999-2000 when a research bootstrap took over the Institute for Micro Structure Technology and Opto Electronics in Germany which specialized in magneto-resistive research. In 2004, it acquired the fab of Naomi Technologies AG and expanded commercial sales of Anisotropic and Giant MagnetoResistive sensors. Sensitec supplies the AMR die for Memsic's line of magnetic sensors launched at the end of 2008. 26 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 • MEMStech Bhd based in Malaysia was created as a national champion in 2001 out of a microfab in Singapore. It launched its first MEMS accelerometer product in 2005. Recently, it’s been in hot water over earnings mis-statements. Since the start of 2010, Bursa Malaysia proposed delisting, which was appealed, followed by receivership, and during Q3, a proposal for a ~$6M recapitalization by a Malaysian investment group, Lityan Holdings BhD. • Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on specialized MEMS devices. In 2007, it introduced a 3-axis accelerometer designed for high-G inertial shock applications, especially in the military. • Domintech Co. Ltd. is a MEMS fab in Taiwan that has been developing motion sensor technology since 2007. Having developed experience with 3-axis accelo and gyro, it is planning to launch its own-branded products in 2011, 3-axis first, with 6-axis in plan. • Virtus Advanced Sensors, Inc. is an early-stage venture among technology partners Carnegie Mellon Univ., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Sendai MEMS Park, and Hong Kong Science & Technology Park and, for manufacturing, Taiwan-based Unimicron and ChipSense. Virtus launched its first product in 2008, a standalone MEMS accelerometer integrated with Bluetooth called the SENSING MOTE claimed as the smallest and lightest stand-alone 3-axis acceleration data collection unit. Virtus is collaborating with Acutronic USA for development of testing tools based on Virtus’s sensors. • Movea SA based near Grenoble was created in ’07 out of development teams at the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the French Atomic Energy Commission and in early ‘08 purchased Gyration, Inc., a Silicon Valley firm that applies inertial MEMS to consumer and healthcare markets. At the end of Q3.10, Movea launched a new integrated chipset suite -- MotionIC™-- combining 2-9 axis inertial MEMS with firmware, API and SDKs focused on set-top box and digital TV OEMs and service providers. • Colibrys SA was spun-off from the Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA in Neuchâtel in 2001 and focuses on semi-custom and standardized harsh-condition MEMS inertial sensors for energy, military and aerospace markets. In 2008 Colibrys announced a distribution agreement with Avnet, one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components. New products were introduced during 2010, with expanded applications such as aerospace guidance and directional drilling, and a new full-line distributor in Brasil. • Baolab Microsystems was spun-off in 2003 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. It discloses a portfolio of 9 patent filings regarding the design and application of low voltage metal-to-metal electrostatic micro-relays, sized to place thousands of them on a single chip die, activated below 5V. In March 2010, it disclosed its CMOS process called NanoEMS™ and demo’d MEMS on standard 0.18µm 200mm volume CMOS wafers with minimum feature sizes down to 200 nanometers. NanoEMS™ won 2 industry awards in Q4.10 and Baolab anticipates sampling by the end of 2010 with RF switches, inertial MEMS and integrated function MEMS. 27 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 2a: Position Sensor Companies Position Sensor Producers Large Corporations Location Description Bosch Sensortech GERMANY Market leader in automotive applications Transaction History Analog Devices, Inc. Norwood, MA Automotive, Cannondale bicycles and Nintendo Wii Q2/Q3.10 launch of 4thgen “Quad-Sensor™ shock/vibration-resistant gyros Freescale Semiconductor Phoenix, AZ Among top 5 in accelerometer market share High-aspect ratio micromachining introduced Q4.08 for AIRBAG systems. VTI FINLAND Specializing in sensitivities at low-G and low power consumption for automotive. First MEMS inertial wafer-level packaging in 2009. New products for consumer electronics and medical markets introduced Q4.10 Denso JAPAN Among top 5 in accelerometer market share, new gyroscope unit added in 2009-2010. High-aspect ratio micromachining introduced 2007 for various automotive applications STMicroelectronics SWITZERLAND Diverse applications, 40% of smartphone accelos (per iSuppli), Sub-1mm-sized accelerometer MEMSCAP RTP, N. Carolina Industrial and aerospace specialty apps Honeywell Plymouth, MN Redmond, WA Accelerometers, Gyroscopes and AMR Magnetic Sensors for aerospace, automotive and industrial applications, new supply deal with STMicro for the consumer market Sony JAPAN new 2-axis gyro in the PS3 Move controller Panasonic JAPAN Inertial units for automotive and consumer applications, new 3-axis gyro in for future Nintendo 3DS Sensonor NORWAY Accelo and gyros for automotive and harsh environments Infineon bought Sensonor for €48M in 2003 and it was sold back to private investors in March 2009 Hewlett-Packard Corvallis, OR Ultra-sensitive IMUs for extreme demand markets Collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell to develop wireless sensing system for oil/gas reservoir seismic exploration data. Asahi Kasei Microsystems JAPAN Leader in Hall effect magnetic sensors, digital compasses for iPhone and Nokia N97 EPSON JAPAN IMUs using quartz photolith process starting Q2.10 through late 2011. QinteiQ BRITAIN Accelo, Gyro, Shock sensors for aerospace, defense and automotive SensorDynamics AUSTRIA Integrated accelo/gyro inertial management systems Sensata Technologies BV Attleboro, MA Accelo and thermal MEMS tilt sensors (see transactions in §1 Pressure sensors above) ROHM / Kionix Ithaca, NY / JAPAN Sub-1mm-sized accelerometer Acquired by ROHM in Q4.09 for $233M after $51M in venture $ since ‘04 Sumitomo / Goodrich SIS BRITAIN/JAPAN Wine-glass magneto-gyro Goodrich Sensors & Integrated Systems Burnsville, MN Aerospace and defense applications Hitachi Silicon Sensing Systems is a JV between Sumitomo and Goodrich, who bought the ex-BEA Atlantic Inertial Systems from J.F. Lehman & Co. in late 2009. JAPAN Analog Devices accelerometers Source: Princeton University Soboyejo Research Group Source: Chipworks Inc. via MEMS Industry Group blog 28 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 2b: Position Sensor Companies Position Sensor Producers Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors Qualtré Marlborough, MA Solid-state BAW gyros $5M,Series A, Q4 2008 $8M,Series B, April 2010 Matrix Partners Pilot House Ventures Memsic, Inc. Andover, MA Gas-convection gyroscope $60M NASDAQ IPO, December 2007 Purchased Crossbow Technologies, January 2010 Celtic House, Canada (lead) Still River Fund Investar Capital CID Group Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. InvenSense, Inc. Sunnyvale, CA Low-cost gyroscopes, ranked as #1 supplier to consumer electronics Pre IPO S-1 filed June 2010 $19M Series C, May 2008 ($38M total to date) Sierra Ventures (lead) Qualcomm Ventures Artiman Ventures Skylake Ventures (Korea) Partech International DoCoMo Capital Foxconn (Taiwan) Inventec Appliances Corp (Taiwan) VentureTech Alliance (Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co.) Colibrys SA SWITZERLAND Harsh-environment accelos & gyros Not announced Chairman is a partner at TAT Capital Partners AG MEMStech Bhd MALAYSIA Single and dual-axis accelerometer Proposed $6M recap – Q3.10 Lityan Holdings BhD Sporian Microsystems, Inc. Lafayette, CO 3-axis accelo for high-G shock Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts. Domintech TAIWAN 3-axis accelo and gyro, 6-axis planned Sensitec GmbH GERMANY Anisotropic Magneto Resistive sensors Not announced Virtus Advanced Sensors, Inc. Pittsburgh, PA, 3-axis standalone accelerometer sensing mote w/ Bluetooth Not announced Innovation Engine, Tokyo Japan Asia Investment Corp. (JAIC) USC Corp. (Sony trading company) Movea SA FRANCE / Milpitas, CA Inertial MEMS aimed at consumer and healthcare therapeutic markets €7.5M First Round, January 2008 I-Source Gestion (lead) GIMV (lead) Thomson Multimedia Sales Int’l CEA Valorisation SA Terrassa, CATALUNYA, SPAIN Inertial MEMS fabbed in CMOS Baolab Microsystems S.L. Source: Invensense purchased Gyration, Q2.08 €1M seed round, Q4.2004 Highgrowth Partners SGECR SA FonsInnocat Source: Qualtré 29 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A3 – RF MEMS and Switching Among the earliest RF MEMS were acoustic wave sensors. Bulk acoustic wave (BAW) devices were originally monolithic non-MEMS sandwiches of electrodes and different density layers. The MEMS version uses a thin layer of piezoelectric material suspended like a stretched membrane or arched bridge, whereby the application of an electric charge "twitches" the diaphragm, analogous to plucking a string, and the cavities and bridges can be "tuned" to resonate at certain RF frequencies. The thin-film-diaphragm version of BAW is called a film bulk acoustic resonator or FBAR. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are generally non-MEMS interdigital transducers where the pitch, line width and thickness determine the center frequency of the filter and the shape of the passband (see Figure 18). Figure 18: Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Device Source: Triquint The relative market position of SAW and FBAR/BAW as RF filters (shown in Figure 19) was well summarized in an article by TRIQUINT [NASDAQ –TQNT] in the June 2007 issue of Microwave Product Digest: “SAW approaches practical limits at 2.5 GHz because the requirements for line width and gap dimensions in the transducers call for less than 0.25 µm lithography resolution. SAWs with a relative bandwidth of larger than 0.5% show a significant temperature dependency. The BAW principle has inherent advantages with regard to losses. Acoustic energy density is very high in BAW designs and the waves are very well trapped. Q-values achieved with BAW resonators are superior to any other technology suitable for the GHz range. As a result of the high Q-values, the filter skirts will be very steep while the insertion loss remains low even at the edges of the passband. This is a key advantage for duplexers in the US-PCS band and the main reason FBAR and BAW were able to conquer a large market share in this particular application.” 30 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 19: Performance Characteristics for Acoustic Wave Devices Source: Triquint The primary application of MEMS FBAR filters has been as higher frequency duplexers for WCDMA 3G handsets. These have been in the market since 2002 and today are supplied mainly by two firms – HP/Agilent/Avago and EPCOS/TDK. In late 2008, Avago acquired the monolithic BAW business of Infineon. Switches Perhaps the most basic electro-mechanical functions are those of switches and relays. As switching functions are ubiquitous, the ability to shrink the footprint of a traditional reed or physical latch switch, as well as gain advantages in lower power consumption, power loss and faster on/off cycles has made the concept of MEMS switches very popular and has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment over the decades. One of the most frequent applications of switching arrays is in radio signal processing systems. In a sense, the term “RF MEMS” is essentially the specialized applications of MEMS switches. Other types of RF MEMS include oscillators/resonators and the above cited acoustic wave sensor architectures. Specific device solutions are often parallel or mixed arrays of components for switching, timing and resonating, for example to create tunable frequency filters or switches for multi-mode radios. More recently, various RF MEMS techniques are being applied in the burgeoning field of RFID taggants. 31 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The first MEMS switch design was published in 1979 by IBM, but it was not until the 1990s that further research began to be actively published. A published patent search shows a sharp upswing in MEMS switch patents in the 2000s decade with nearly 200 issued from 2000 to 2006. While the largest single assignee was Intel, a number of the cited switch patents also went to IBM, Toshiba, Agilent, Freescale and the Rockwell Science Center. Other major RF MEMS patent assignees were Defense contractors Raytheon, Hughes, and Northrop Grumman. In our technology intro we cited a Raytheon paper from 2000 showing a capacitive switch. The application was building RF filters from arrays of those switches to create devices with up to 16 capacitance states, ranging from a 1-pole structure with 12 MEMS to 6-pole structures with 139 MEMS. The Raytheon engineering team subsequently spun off from to form the start-up MEMtronics Corp. to commercialize both raw switches and integrated subsystems of tunable filters, phase shifters and phased array antenna components. MEMtronics latest win was a DoD grant for narrow-band low-loss tunable filters in the Ka-band. Indeed, arguably the most active MEMS switch development group is the RF MEMS division at the Army Research Lab in Maryland. The heavy usage cycle, and some of the physical constraints of flexion, spring recoil and mechanical stiction caused by microscale interfacial forces has also made MEMS switches a significant engineering challenge resulting in one of the largest MEMS venture graveyards of the 2000s. Since clock generation and timing is such a key component of frequency management, many analysts will include as part of the RF MEMS category the timing device segment, which we will discuss separately below in §4. Capacitors Another MEMS application in RF is capacitors. A so-called Digitally Tunable Capacitor has been developed by wiSpry, Inc., a start-up in Orange County, CA. It allows for multifrequency operation by mobile terminals using a single antenna module rather than having multiple fixed-frequency components. The first commercial sample was shipped in 2008, with a Patent granted at the end of 2009 and a joint-development agreement with NTT DoCoMo signed in Q3.2010. Cavendish Kinetics in the Netherlands is also developing MEMS tunable capacitors using a technique of encapsulating the MEMS within a traditional CMOS fabrication. Baolab in Catalunya, Spain is using a similar technique for making switch/relays. See Figures on next page. 32 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 20: Diagrams of Cavendish NanoMech™ and Baolab NanoEMS™ Source: Cavendish Kinetics and Baolab Market Overview and Growth Drivers The total market for all RF components is well north of $10 billion, while total sales of RF MEMS are barely 0.1% of that. The acoustic wave business is seen as mature and stable. A review by the Dutch MEMSland consortium showed the FBAR business largely constrained to the >2GHz area, whose upside is limited by the slow rollout of 4G services using that spectrum. Otherwise, better price/performance and versatility of SAW devices is seen as a constant market share threat. The FBAR market is dominated by Avago/Infineon, who have around 70% share, and a recent Yole forecast shows nearly flat growth for the FBAR MEMS segment. The first commercial application for MEMS switches was neither RF nor telecom but automated test equipment (ATE). Advantest has been the leader here, developing their own proprietary switches and beginning shipment of products using those switches in 2005. Other ATE/measurement firms and suppliers such as Agilent, Rohde & Schwarz, Teradyne and Maxim had been reported as investigating. Omron launched a MEMS relay in 2008 aimed at the ATE market. Form Factor claims the world's largest MEMS probe card manufacturing capacity, and in late 2009 announced a new 300-mm full-wafer contact probe card for NAND Flash devices using their MicroSpring® MEMS contact technology. At the same time, they have suffered severe sales declines, along with the mainstream semiconductor industry and in 2010 have gone through a CEO/CFO swap, force reductions and a start-then-stop of moving production to Asia. The segment of RF switches and variable-capacitors has suffered a more volatile “hype curve” than other segments due to the tension between the allure of “billions of cellphones” and the physics challenges of these genuinely complex parts. Also, competing alternatives from traditional chipsets implementing RF functions to more sophisticated silicon-on-sapphire CMOS products have offered excellent performance to the market, leaving some micromechanicals as either exotic solutions or merely unreliable solutions to simple problems. In 2007, iSuppli predecessor Wicht plotted RF MEMS as being on the far side of the hype 33 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 trough and forecast over $100M in sales by 2010. Yet less than a year later, further switch ventures went to the graveyard, and iSuppli’s current 2010 forecast is barely 10% of the former estimate. And yet…. Science progresses, labor and capital re-form, and there are signs that FINALLY the early Twenty-teens may be a breakout period for RF MEMS. The latest forecast by Yole for all RF MEMS markets still shows a slow ramp in the next few years, starting in the mid-single-digits through 2010, then accelerating to 14% to 17% CAGR in 2012 through 2015. Meanwhile iSuppli foresees a coming hockey-stick in the switch/variable-capacitor space, jumping from barely $10M annually the past several years, to over $200M in 2014 within the total RF MEMS estimate of $500M by Yole. Figure 21: Comparison of iSuppli Switch Forecasts and Yole overall RF MEMS forecasts Sources: iSuppli/MEMS Investor Journal, October 2010 and Yole Developpément, July 2010 Companies As noted, large corporate development of RF MEMS includes: Advantest Epcos (now acquired by TDK) Avago (including Infineon acquisition) Omron Northrop/Grumman Raytheon Thales British Aerospace Hughes Also Skyworks Solutions, Inc. of Massachusetts in late 2007 acquired some RF MEMS IP originally developed by Rockwell Science Center via Freescale Semiconductor. And just at the end of 2009, MEMSCAP launched a new magnetic MEMS switch (not RF), analogous to Magfusion (see in Graveyard below), for use in a medical video “capsule”, the PillCam® developed by Given Imaging of Israel. 34 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Smaller Ventures The current cohort of MEMS switch ventures were started in the early 2000s and have taken nearly a decade or more to come to fruition. • X-COM Wireless, Inc. was formed in 2000 in Long Beach, CA and developed, largely with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, micro-scale relay switches with direct metalto-metal contact and physical engage/disengage which are applied to circuit elements for switching, tuning, and phase-shifting RF. Currently two products are emerging – a single-pole double-throw industrial relay used for high-frequency test equipment and instrumentation to be commercialized by Teradyne, and by early 2011, an RF tuning circuit for wireless communications applications. • MEMtronics Corp. outside Dallas, TX was started in 2001 by Raytheon engineers who had developed a capacitive MEMS switch. The device uses electrostatic actuation, but the restoring force is provided by a bridge membrane rather than a cantilever arm. Market focus appears to be military radar and C3 systems. • wiSpry, Inc. was formed in 2002 nearby to X-Com in Orange Co., CA and has developed arrays of MEMS capacitors designed exclusively to be low-loss, dynamically tunable RF components. They have developed a MEMS design they claim is 'silicon agnostic' and can be built on top all leading RF processes, including CMOS, SiGe, BiCMOS and GaAs. After a US Patent was successfully issued in Q1.10, they partnered with both IBM(Semiconductor) and Infineon on tunable impedance matching, the latter in conjunction with Smart Antenna Front End (SAFE) project of Denmark’s High Technology Foundation. And in Q3.10, a frequent cellphone pioneer – NTT DoCoMo – partnered with wiSpry to develop new tunable mobile devices. • Radant Technologies Corporation of Stow, MA licensed a design from Northeastern U. and Analog Devices, Inc. in 2002 for a hermetically sealed, surface micromachined all-metal toggle switch design which was launched in 2004 and won a Frost & Sullivan Excellence award in 2005. Market focus and the primary customer has been DARPA for electronically steerable antenna [ESA] subsystems using a massive array of 25,000 MEMS switches. Radant claims reliability of 100 billion switching cycles. • HT Microtechnologies was founded in 2003 in Albuquerque NM by engineers from Sandia National Labs and the University of Wisconsin. Among a variety of other products based on their patented deep X-ray (LIGA) fabrication techniques, they claim to have built miniature relay switches that can handle up to 2A DC current and can operate at RF frequencies. The company uses wafer scale integration and packaging to allow low cost hermetic packaging. Currently focusing on high-G force impact switches for military applications in weaponry and fuzes with US Army trials underway. 35 Boucher-Lensch Associates • MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Baolab Microsystems was spun-off in 2003 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. It discloses a portfolio of 9 patent filings regarding the design and application of low voltage metal-to-metal electrostatic micro-relays, sized to place thousands of them on a single chip die, activated below 5V. In March 2010, it disclosed its CMOS process called NanoEMS™ and demo’d MEMS on standard 0.18µm volume 200mm CMOS wafers with minimum feature sizes down to 200 nanometers. NanoEMS™ won 2 industry awards in Q4.10 and Baolab anticipates sampling by the end of 2010 with RF switches, inertial MEMS and integrated function MEMS. • Cavendish Kinetics, among the oldest companies in RF MEMS, started in the Netherlands back in 1994. Its proprietary process, called NanoMech™, forms sealed cavities between the metal layers of CMOS, similar to Baolab. With NanoMech™ it has developed a family of MEMS cantilever tunable capacitors, targeting cellular channel tuning, band selection and impedance matching for RF radios up to 3 GHz. In Q2.10, Cavendish announced a collaboration with SVTC and Dupont EKC for fabrication of CK’s MEMS RF tuners. • Asulab, on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, is a timepiece-components manufacturer who, analogous to Magfusion (see in Graveyard below), recently developed a magnetically actuated micro-switch/relay for use in hearing aids and special-function watches. Asulab was acquired in 2005 by SWATCH. • Bluechiip* Tracking Solutions was founded in 2003 in Australia to develop an RFID device using MEMS. Most recently a proof-of-concept device was completed in partnership with the Canadian DSP design firm SignalCraft. *correct spelling with 2 “i”s • Veratag LLC is a recent spin-out from Cornell’s MEMS research, developing MEMS resonators to generate RFID signals. It’s first publication was in late 2009. • MultusMEMS AB is a new venture in Uppsala, the university town of Sweden. In 2009 it announced contract with the Swedish Space Agency Board to develop an RF MEMS switch for systems biased to high RF power yet slow speed. It’s also aiming for a “sustainability” angle by “using small amounts of material and consuming less energy compared to today’s technology” Graveyard PHS MEMS SA, created in 1998 in Grenoble, took its name from the Japanese handyphone system, for which it hoped to develop optical switches. It ran through three rounds of over $30 million before being liquidated in 2004. Microlab Corp in Arizona renamed in ’03 as Magfusion Corp. to reflect its launch product: an unusual magnetically latching single pole double throw (SPDT) switch/relay developed at Arizona State Univ. Magfusion partnered with PHS MEMS just before it failed, then in ’06 was acquired by Schneider Electric SA along with the highly successful MEMS firm Kavlico. Simpler Networks, Inc. founded in 1999 in Montréal by engineers from Nortel, Tellabs and Bell Northern Labs to commercialize a MEMS relay design for greater miniaturization of large scale telecoms switchgear. The Company raised a total of $98 million in venture capital and In Q4.06 entered a joint development agreement w/ AlcatelLucent for developing an automated cross connect platform based on SNI’s relay. But, progress foundered and SNI was placed under Canadian receivership in late ‘08. TeraVicta spun-off in 2000 from the Microelectronics and Computer Technology research consortium in Austin, TX and attracted $14 million in 2 rounds for a patented high-force MEMS relay switch. Product was commercially launched in 2006, but sales did not ramp and the company filed Chapter 7 in Q1.2008. siVerta, Inc. formed in 2002 in Silicon Valley by principals from a micro-mirror optical switching company, Xros which was acquired by Nortel at the height of the photonics boom in 2000. siVerta’s product was also a micro-relay, but w/o the hermetic packaging. 36 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 3: RF MEMS & Switching Companies RF MEMS and Switching Producers Large Corporations Location Description Transaction History Advantest Component Inc. Japan switches developed for ATE Created from Advantest in Q2.2007 to commercialize internal designs Avago Palo Alto CA FBAR for RF, switches for ATE Latest FBARs for UMTS and 4G/LTE launched Q2/Q3.10. Yole’s #4 fastest growing MEMS vendor Spun off from Agilent in 2005 acquired Infineon BAW business in 2008. Analog Devices, Inc. Norwood, MA switches developed for ATE TDK/EPC Corp. [EPCOS AG] DE/NL/JAPAN BAW filters and tunable capacitors Acquired tunable capacitors from NXP in 4/08, Acquired by TDK 10/08 Omron JAPAN Switch promising 100 million cycles, designed for ATE and RF measurement Latest version launched 2008 MEMSCAP RTP, N. Carolina Magnetic micro-switch launched Q4.09 in medical imaging ‘capsule’ - PillCam® Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Woburn, MA BAW filters, latest papers and product upgrades released Q3.10 Raytheon USA Military applications Northrop/Grumman USA Military applications Hughes USA Military applications Thales BRITAIN Military applications Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors X-COM Wireless, Inc. Long Beach, CA Metal-to-metal contact switches with mechanical locking Unannounced initial investment. Mostly supported by SBIR and DARPA grants with JPL/NASA Ardesta LLC (lead) MEMtronics Corporation Dallas, TX Capacitive diaphragm switch with electrostatic actuation Not announced. Several DARPA contracts, which may sustain wiSpry, Inc. Irvine, CA MEMS capacitors as dynamically tunable RF components, designed to be 'silicon agnostic', adaptable to CMOS, SiGe, BiCMOS and GaAs $20M Series C, June 2009 $18M Series B, March 2008 ($45M total to date) Acquired IPR of Rockwell Science Ctr. from Freescale in late 2007. L-Capital Partners DoCoMo Capital Arkian Chart Venture Partners Acacia Wood Partners American River Ventures Blueprint Ventures Hotung Capital Management In-Q-Tel Shepherd Ventures Baolab Microsystems S.L. CATALUNYA, SPAIN Metal-to-metal , low-voltage, µrelays, fabbed between CMOS metal layers €1M seed round, Q4.2004 Highgrowth Partners SGECR SA FonsInnocat Cavendish Kinetics NETHERLANDS Cantilever tunable capacitors fabbed between CMOS metal layers $15.5M Series B, Q2.2006 Tallwood Venture Capital Wellington Partners Celtic House Venture Partners Clarium Holdings Ltd. Torteval Investments Ltd. HT Microtechnologies Albuquerque, NM Wide spectrum range relays with waferscale integration Initial seed investment in 2003 US ARMY development contract Radant Technologies Corporation Stow, MA hermetically sealed, surface-micromachined all-metal toggle switch design Not announced. Several DARPA contracts, which may sustain Asulab SWITZERLAND Magnetically actuated micro reed- switch Acquired by SWATCH in 2005 Bluechiip Tracking Solutions AUSTRALIA Passive RFID memory/thermal sensors w/ unique programming/ storage MEMS Not announced. Private equity sources Veratag LLC Ithaca, NY MEMS resonators for RFID signals Not announced Not announced MultusMEMS AB SWEDEN High-power RF switches for satellites Government contracts Affiliate of Radant Technologies, Inc. privately held defense contractor in business since 1979. 37 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A4 – Timing Devices Nearly every ICT device requires a precise clock to synchronize digital computational steps or calibrate RF frequencies. In the highest-end applications since WW2 and in mainstream digital electronics applications since the 1960s, the standard has been oscillators based on harnessing the piezoelectric response of quartz crystals placed in an amplifier feedback arrangement. Even though many electronic systems today incorporate silicon timing devices to distribute and manage clock signals, the reference clock signal is still a quartz crystal oscillator. Since the late 1990s, engineers have been developing MEMS oscillators based on the piezoresistive flexion of silicon, micromachined in precise structural forms as either beams, cantilevers or various combinations. The consistency of the material and precision of the fabrication have been difficult challenges, but those engineers and venture investors are betting that once the process and Figure 22 device performance is stabilized, the traditional volume economics of CMOS-type fabrication will eventually prevail over the bulkier and more complex crystal slicing and assembly of quartz-based components. The potential to integrate a MEMS oscillator and timing controller in a single package or on a single chip is especially interesting as it would dramatically drive down the cost of the total timing solution. Seiko Epson in Japan has developed a hybrid process that integrates quartz crystals into a MEMS-scale fabrication process, not surprisingly called QMEMS™, which is now shipping KHz band units for applications like smartcards. Source: Silicon Clocks via ElectroIQ.com above: SiTime; below: Sand9, Inc. 38 Boucher-Lensch Associates Market Overview and Growth Drivers MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 23 – MEMS Timing Device Market Forecast The total market for all timing devices was estimated at over $5 billion in 2008. ABI has forecast a 6% 5-year CAGR for the overall timing market, but the substitution of MEMS is starting to ramp significantly, albeit still amounting to less than 10% of the total timing market by 2015. MEMS Timing device revenue is expected to roughly DOUBLE every year through 2015 in the latest Yole analysis. Source: Yole Developpément, July 2010 There is an economic case for MEMS as a replacement for quartz oscillators but incumbent quartz suppliers are unlikely to cede the market without a fight. The potential for an aggressive price war exists. The challenge to MEMS oscillator companies is to develop marketing based on advantages other than simply low-cost, historically an unsuccessful go-to-market strategy. Among the unique advantages MEMS oscillators offer is the ability to programmably choose any frequency within a continuous range, rather than having to supply a separate quartz device for each frequency. MEMS oscillators are more robust and resistant to vibration and shock than quartz, and they can be made significantly smaller and thinner than quartz oscillators, a distinct advantage in mobile electronics. The possibility of integrating the MEMS oscillator either in a package or on a single chip with the timing processor offers unique benefits in form factor and performance as well as in cost. As with most emerging technologies, MEMS oscillators are likely to achieve initial success in high performance niches, such as mobile platforms where size, power, and cost are critical. Companies Large corporate development of MEMS oscillators has mostly been associated with European companies such as: NXP STMicroelectronics Robert Bosch Japan's Seiko Epson, the dominant supplier of quartz crystal oscillators has fired a preemptive shot by introducing their hybrid quartz-MEMS [QMEMS™] technology. Finland’s VTI has a long time position in the automotive inertial market and was the first to adopt wafer-level packaging in a compact 3-axis unit in 2009. In October, 2010 VTI announced its intention to enter the market for silicon MEMS timing devices. Ecliptek is a longtime southern California supplier of frequency control products and has used MEMS implementations for some of its clocking solutions for Fiber Channel, Gigabit Ethernet and other networking applications. In Q2.10, Ecliptek launched a new line of MEMS voltage-controlled oscillators. 39 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Acquisitions In the first-third of 2010, acquisitions by $½ Billion digital media IC public companies provided an exit for two of the four venture-backed MEMS oscillator companies • Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [NASDAQ: IDTI] acquired Mobius Microsystems, both of Silicon Valley, in January 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Mobius, like Discera, spunout from University of Michigan, developed an inductance/capacitance harmonic (LC) oscillator design that, similar to RedShift's infrared detector, isn’t very "mechanical", but is an ultra-miniaturized, complex, all-CMOS design that could similarly substitute for more traditional assembled-quartz timers although not canonically "MEMS". It launched its first products in 2008. • Silicon Laboratories, Inc. [NASDAQ: SLAB] acquired Silicon Clocks, Inc of Fremont, CA in April 2010 for an undisclosed amount. SLAB is a $½ Billion vendor of high-performance A-to-D mixed-signal ICs and acquired Silicon Clocks for its proprietary CMEMS™ technology, which fabricates the MEMS resonators and sensors on top of standard CMOS circuitry enabling the integration of CMOS timing control and oscillators onto SLAB’s timing ICs. The company had raised $19 million in two rounds. Smaller Ventures: • Discera Corporation, originally launched in Michigan, now in Silicon Valley, started shipping its first MEMS product in 2005, a 1.6GHz tunable oscillator, based on IP from Michigan and Berkeley, albeit in very small volumes. In 2007, Discera partnered with Vectron International of Hudson, NH in the development of a high-shock timing system for military applications launched in 2008. In 2009 Discera launched oscillators for industrial grade temperatures and forward integrated into a handheld programmer for real-time for system verification and optimization in lab or field. Discera has raised over $50 million in 4 rounds to date. Discera’s founder and lead investor was recently elected Governor of Michigan. • SiTime Corporation, located in Sunnyvale, launched a 5.1MHz MEMS oscillator in 2006 based on a process licensed from Robert Bosch GmbH. The company fabricates its oscillators in the base wafer and seals the oscillator under a layer of polysilicon, creating a reliable vacuum seal and increasing the durability and reliability of the oscillator. A further advantage is that circuitry can be fabricated with a conventional CMOS process on top of the buried oscillator, for single chip timing solutions. The company offers a wide range at frequencies starting at 200Mhz, with a new 1KHz oscillator launched in September 2010. By mid-2010, siTime had shipped 20 million units and claims an 85% share of the MEMS timing market. • Sand9 was launched in 2008 out of Boston University and announced at the end of 2009 the intent to ship by the end of 2010 a new high-performance oscillator that would for the first time match the performance of temperature-compensated crystals and integrate multiple frequencies on the same die. 40 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 4: MEMS Timing Device Companies Timing Device Producers Large Corporations Location Bosch Sensortech GERMANY STMicroelectronics FRANCE VTI FINLAND NXP NETHERLANDS Ecliptek Costa Mesa, CA Voltage Controlled Clock Oscillators Silicon Laboratories, Inc. Austin, TX / Fremont, CA Transaction History Investors Integrating multiple resonators and electronics on a single-system-chip Acquired Silicon Clocks, Inc. in April 2010 after SCI received nearly $20M in venture funding IN SILICON CLOCKS, INC. Sunnyvale, CA Ann Arbor, MI LC oscillator design in all-CMOS Acquired Mobius Microsystems in January 2010 after MMI received over $10M in venture funding IN MOBIUS MICROSYSTEMS, INC. Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors Sand9 Boston, MA Claim of performance equal to tempcompensated crystals with multiple frequencies on the same die $12M Series B, May 2010 $8M Series A, 2008 Commonwealth Capital Ventures Flybridge Capital Partners General Catalyst Partners Khosla Ventures Discera San Jose, CA Ann Arbor, MI $11M Series D, January 2010 $17.5M Series C, March 2007 ($51M total to date) Scale Venture Partners (lead) Lurie Investments Ardesta LLC 3iGroup Qualcomm Ventures Partech Int’l Horizon Ventures Scale Venture Partners SiTime Corporation Sunnyvale, CA Integrated Device Technology, Inc. Description Entering MEMS timing market 2011 Claim of thinnest clock oscillator at 0.25mm thick, in 3.5 x 3mm package announced September 2008. Core technology licensed from Bosch $20M Series C, May 2007 $12M Series B, March 2006 $11.5M Series A, Dec. 2004 Lux Capital Charles River Ventures Formative Ventures Tallwood Venture Capital Silicon Laboratories, Inc. Foundation Capital Menlo Ventures RPM Ventures Robert Bosch Group New Enterprise Assc. CID Group Taiwan Grazia Equity GmbH 41 Greylock Partners Camp Ventures Jafco Ventures Northgate Capital Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A5 – Silicon Microphones/Speakers Another MEMS device you might find in your next laptop or phone, after RF switching and timing oscillators, is another kind of ‘oscillator’ that has received substantial investment in recent years: the MEMS microphone, which is replacing traditional miniature condenser units, and in the near future its obverse, the MEMS speaker. Source: Johns Hopkins University Among the earliest players were longtime acoustic electronics manufacturer Knowles which launched its first MEMS microphone in 2002 with early adoption in the first Motorola RAZR. Thereafter, Akustica, Inc. and MEMStech Bhd, both formed in 2001, had initial shipments in 2003-04. The large Danish hearing aid company, Sonion A/S, launched a Si-microphone in 2006. This quartet has dominated the market despite a spate of patent infringement lawsuits and complaints: Knowles against Akustica; and MEMStech, Sonion and Analog Devices against Knowles. Knowles is estimated to have over 50% market share, announcing in 2009 that it had shipped over 1-billion SiSonic™ MEMS microphones. Last year, Knowles received a dismissal of Analog Devices’s infringement suit re: Knowles, and also received a favorable International Trade Commission judgment against MEMStech BhD of Malaysia for infringement. MEMStech separately suffered an earnings-restatement scandal leading to trading suspension, followed by a re-capitalization plan announced in Q3.10 In the latter-000s, as befits a maturing application, large electronics firms entered the MEMS microphone space including Infineon, Analog Devices, Inc., Panasonic and Omron. Wolfson bought-in in 2007 acquiring fellow Scot-startup Oligon. The microphones of Danish acoustics specialist Sonion, went through an acquisition by Technitrol and then were spun out the other side to TDK-EPC [EPCOS AG] in 2009. In Q2.10, TDK-EPC launched what it claims is the smallest commercially available MEMS microphone with an integrated digital interface. Later in 2009, the heaviest weight in MEMS – Bosch Sensortec -- acquired the leading start-up – Akustica in the USA – adding a CEO from within Bosch’s Automotive Electronics Div. In early 2010, OMRON announced volume production, reportedly in collaboration with STMicro, of what it claims is the first MEMS sensor with an operating frequency range down to 20Hz -- the lower limit of human audible range – compared to other MEMS mikes that degrade below 100Hz. 42 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The obverse of the microphone is the SPEAKER. Various concepts for MEMS speakers have been in development since the mid-000s. The first venture to demo a solid concept is AudioPixels Ltd. of Israel which showed their prototype at the 2010 CES. Before 2010 was over, they sold a majority interest to an Australian investment company and received funding to further develop their product and ramp their commercialization activities. The market for interactive ICT appliances is still expected to grow and require increasing installations of MEMS microphones. Earlier forecasts showed growth from ~$100M in 2006 to nearly $400M by about now. The recession has pushed that back, but analysts shown in Figure 22 are still estimating such market growth in demand, however with the $300M level not achieved until 2013 and $400M by 2015. Figure 25: MEMS Microphone Market Forecasts Source: Yole Developpment 43 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 5: Silicon Microphone Companies Silicon Microphone Producers Large Corporations Location Bosch Sensortech GERMANY / Pittsburgh, PA Description Transaction History Investors Acquired Akustica in August 2009 after Akustica received $15M in venture funding IN AKUSTICA Rangos Investments Mobius Technology Ventures Chamberlain Investments Knowles Itasca, IL Analog Devices, Inc. Norwood, MA Infineon GERMANY Panasonic JAPAN Omron JAPAN Yamaha JAPAN EPCOS AG GERMANY/ DENMARK Q1.2010 --World's smallest MEMS mike with a digital interface. EPCOS acquired the MEMS mikes of Technitrol after Technitrol acquired all of Sonion in Q1.2008 for $425 M Wolfson Microelectronics SCOTLAND, UK New DIGITAL microphones launched 2H.2010 to complement previous ANALOG mikes Wolfson acquired Oligon in 2007 for £2.9 million Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors Solid State System Co., Ltd. (3S) TAIWAN MEMS microphone due 2H.11 Established revenue stream from memory products since 1999 Privately held MEMStech Bhd MALAYSIA PosiSound™ avail.in Ball Grid Array (BGA) or Multi Lead Package (MLP) Proposed $6M recap – Q3.10 Lityan Holdings BhD AudioPixels Ltd. ISRAEL MEMS SPEAKERS Sold majority interest and received investment, Q3.2010 $4M Series A, Q1.2007 Global Properties Ltd. New Hi-Fidelity microphones launched Q2.2010 with lowest signal-to-noise ratio and wide frequency response World's first MEMS sensor capable of detecting the lower limit of human audible frequencies Exited market in 2009 44 SERIES A Lightspeed Ventures DCM Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A6 – Optical/Photonic MEMS or MOEMS Optical MEMS, or MOEMs, involves the mechanical part of MEMS interacting in some way with light waves, usually either by using mirrors for reflective alteration or a nanoscale grating for refractive alteration of the light. The applications of reflected and refracted light are usually divided into: • Network communications, including optical line switching, optical attenuation, and wavelength filters • Sensors such as bar code scanners and infrared thermal sensing • Projectors, such as TI’s Digital Light Projection®, retinal projection and pico-projection We will first review the classic ICT category of optics and also the newer segment of barcode scanners. We will cover the projectors segment below in §7 “Displays/Imaging: Visible Spectrum” which will also include refractive/reflective displays. We will review thermal sensors in §8 “Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum.” Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Since light can transmit information faster and at higher density than electrons, optical fiber communications has become the preferred method of data and voice transmission in long haul, metropolitan, local, and enterprise networks. Initially, switching envisioned converting optical information to an electronic state so that it can be manipulated by routers and switches, which use electronic switching and computing technology. A longrange vision has been optical computing technology as a higher speed alternative to electronic computing as well as eliminating the need for the optical-electronic (O-E) interface. While it has been impractical to implement high density, highly sophisticated optical computing systems, optical switching techniques are feasible to provide fast switching of optical signals, a key function of telecom and networking equipment. A variety of MEMS designs have been developed for manipulating photons including: • • • • • Micro-mirror arrays to form optical crossbar switches Linear arrays of tilt mirrors that can function as an add-drop multiplexers (ADM) Pivots or deflectable membranes used to form tunable cavities for interferometers Diffraction gratings as tunable filters Adaptive optics -- adjustable optical distortion compensation A number of companies were started in the late 1990s with the extravagant funding of that era, which crashed in the crash of the early 000s. A second generation of companies were started during the early 000s which are now coming to fruition in the field of wavelength selective switching (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs). At the low-end of scale and performance, these typically harness liquid crystals to respond and actuate, but at the higher-end, a number of ventures are experimenting with various MEMS pivoting-mirror devices. 45 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Exemplar of the first wave was Silicon Light Machines, whose fundamental technology was the development of its patented Grating Light Valve™, illustrated in Figure 26. Figure 26: Grating Light Valve: Schematic (left) and SEM of Actual Device (right) The GLV™ is an array of reflective silicon nitride ribbons fabricated on a silicon chip. The ribbons can be made to flex up and down through the application of an electric potential, causing them to act as a controlled diffraction grating, capable of switching, attenuating and modulating light. The main differentiation of the GLV™ is that Source: Silicon Light Machines it uses very small amplitude ribbon flexion to dynamically change the diffraction pattern, rather than complex MEMS mirrors. The benefits of this approach are faster switching speeds, and simplified fabrication, which implies lower cost and higher reliability. The company applied its technology to optical communication switches and optical attenuators, high resolution displays, and high resolution computer-to-plate printing applications. SLM was acquired by Cypress Semiconductors at the top of the market for about $170M in 2000, but demand never materialized and Cypress sold SLM in 2008 for an undisclosed by doubtless fractional sum to Dai Nippon Screen Manufacturing [Tokyo: 7735]. Perhaps spurred by the SLM acquisition, several companies were founded within a few months of each other in 2000 to work on the next wave of optical switching - - generally a mix/competition between liquid crystal technologies and MEMS mirrors. It’s generally viewed that MEMS is more effective in large scale multiplexing as illustrated in Figure 27, which diagram was used to justify the Xtellus acquisition cited below. Figure 27: MEMS and LCD in WSS/ROADM Source: Oclaro, Inc. 46 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 CoAdna is a Chinese-centered company which bases its switches on liquid crystal technology, and operates in the smaller scale of multiplexing and lower end of the cost curve. Xtellus, Inc. was started in New Jersey with R&D in Israel. Its earlier products through most of the 000s were also liquid crystal based. But, in newer products with large multiplexing, Xtellus combined 1-Axis MEMS mirrors to switch across high port counts, with liquid crystal for attenuation. They labored at this for nearly 10 years, raising about $30M along the way. At the end of 2009, they were acquired by Oclaro, itself a roll-up of Avanex and Bookham, for between $25M and $30M (payback but no multiples) to augment the new Oclaro's optical components, modules and subsystems. Capella Photonics, Inc. is considered the most pure-MEMS in this space, and has again labored for most of a decade, burning through $70M in investment and amassing nearly 30 patents. In Q1.2010, it announced a collaboration with 4th or 5th ranking independent MEMS foundry IMT of Santa Barbara for production. The latest (and last?) WSS vendor to start-up is Nistica in New Jersey. They received about $20M in a combination of venture funding and government grants. Their earlier smaller products were likely LCD, but in 2008 they launched a high-capacity product developed in partnership with Texas Instruments using their DLP® MEMS mirrors. Finisar is a 23-year old publicly traded vendor of a variety of optical components, modules and subsystems. Its own WSS/ROADM products use a proprietary liquid-crystal-on-silicon technology which it markets as superior to MEMS. But Finisar has also been an early investor in Nistica, no doubt as a technology hedge. Lastly, at the large-corporate end, JDS Uniphase is seen as the dominant player in this space with nearly a 40% market share overall. It has wide-experience in MEMS and includes MEMS as one portion of an array of technological solutions it provides for various WSS/ROADM configurations. Bar-code scanners Laser or LED scanning of bar-codes has been around since the 1970s, using macroassembled, though still miniature, pivots and reflectors. As techniques for micromachined mirrors developed as an outgrowth of image projection technology at TI and elsewhere, application of simple single or double mirror MEMS devices to bar-code scanning was a natural progression and arose almost simultaneously in Asia, Europe, and America in the 1999-2000 time frame. In Asia, Nippon Signal Co., Ltd., primarily a developer of traffic signaling systems, but also automated train ticketing systems, developed a family on one- and two-axis micromirror systems which are used in bar-code scanner and other applications. In Europe, Fraunhofer, one of Europe’s largest contract research organizations with a major division working on photonics, ASICs and MEMS, began work on a bar-code scanner that would be less than 2% the size of traditional laser scan systems with 10x to 100x the scan rate. 47 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 In America, the retinal-scanning start-up Microvision, near Seattle, adapted its micromirror system to bar-code scanners starting in 2002, mostly as a brand-extension to generate volume and revenue for its MEMS fab. Meanwhile, just a few miles down the road, Intermec, Inc., one of the long-time leaders in industrial data collection technology, teamed up with Fraunhofer’s micro-mirror development efforts in Europe. • Nippon Signal launched their ECOscan product in 2004 as a stand-alone scanner component. Systems modules are under development. Parts are made at contract foundries in Japan. • Intermec launched its Intellibeam product in 2005 with the MEMS part apparently sourced from Fraunhofer. The following year, Intermec won a Frost & Sullivan award for Supply Chain Management Technology achievement. It continues to expand its Intellibeam line and has recently added auto-focus features allowing scanning at up to 15m distance. • Microvision launched its second generation MEMS scanner under its own brand in 2007 and in April 2008 signed a distribution agreement with Brightpoint, a major wholesaler and contract channel management organization. Near-infrared (NIR) Spectrometry At least three firms formed recently have developed MEMS optical diffraction grating technology analogous to Silicon Light Machines (see Figure 26) and implemented as near-infrared spectrometers for materials analysis. Polychromix, Inc. is a spin-out from MIT; HiperScan is a spin-out of Fraunhofer-Institut für Photonische MikroSysteme and MicroParts is a division of the Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceuticals company. Auto-focus cameras A new area of micro-optics has emerged recently with applications in auto-focus units for digital cameras, either portable or embedded in mobile phones. Three quite different approaches are taken. Two are termed “liquid lenses” but are quite different from each other. The system by Varioptic, in France uses an “electro-wetting” process where a mixture of oil and water is the refractive medium, manipulated via electric charges on hydrophobic substrates. This is similar to flat-panel display technologies by two other European companies discussed in §7 on displays. The system developed by Rhevision of San Diego, has a flexible diaphragm lens “inflated” or “deflated” to the desired refraction by fluid controlled by a MEMS micropump. A variation on that is the polymer film lens developed by Polight of Norway. In this case, a piezo material is bonded to a flexible polymer. A charge applied to the piezo material flexes it, deforming the polymer to the desired refraction, as with the Rhevision diaphragm. The other approach is an all-mechanical arrangement using a sliding spring-loaded stage to move a mounted optical element, which has been developed by Siimple Corp. recently acquired by Tessera Technologies. A recent MEMS project by the Belgian research center IMEC showed a zoom lens system for digital single lens reflex cameras based on micro mirrors See Figures 28 to 31 below. 48 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 28: Different Lens Approaches Rhevision Approach Varioptic Approach Source: Rhevision, Varioptic Figure 29: Different Lens Approaches Stage Silicon Spring Stage with Spring in Packaging Source: Siimple Corporation Figure 30: Different Lens Approaches Source: Polight Figure 31: Micro-mirror zoom lens system Source: IMEC 49 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Biomedical Devices A new application of MEMS multi-axis mirrors is for endoscopic medical imaging as an alternative to biopsies. In an article in MEMS Investor Journal, a multi-MEMS-mirror endoscopic head is outlined by Fraunhofer IPMS. The initial attraction was that: “MEMS (can) magnify even the smallest object fields including cells without the need for a large lens” Figure 32 – Micro-mirror endoscope concept In light gray to the right are the carrier and the scanning mirror and in green the tilted mirror. The two lenses for focusing the laser beam are shown in dark grey. All other parts are passive mechanical structures to support the parts in their proper position. Source: Fraunhofer IPMS via MEMS Investor Journal, June 17, 2010 Next-generation MOEMS designs At Micromachine/MEMS in Tokyo in Q3.10, Fraunhofer IPMS released a paper on a shock-resistant ultra-long-stroke micro-mirror for IR spectrometry, but also widely applicable to other MOEMS applications. Cited in MEMS Investor Journal, Fraunhofer described the design as follows: “To address deformation... by springs, we designed a pantographic spring suspension… that translates bending to torsion. It uses a solid body mechanism (thus) deformation and mechanical stress can be kept very small even for large deflections. Secondly, inertial forces were addressed by adding silicon structures to the mirror to serve as added mass. And, thirdly, to counteract limits in stroke by air friction a special vacuum packaging was developed” Figure 33 – Pantograph long-stroke micromirror concept Source: Fraunhofer IPMS via MEMS Investor Journal, July 15, 2010 50 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Market Overview and Growth Drivers While the overall ICT equipment market is huge and the portable bar-code scanner market is estimated at just under $1 billion, the various forecasts for growth of the specifically micro-mechanical implementations of specifically optical components remains very much a niche, growing from a total of $100M in the 2009-2010 period to around $200M to $300M by mid-decade at a decent but not spectacular rate which both iSuppli and Yole peg at under 20% CAGR (between 17% and 19%). More exotic markets like the auto-focus or biomedical are very promising, but unlikely to hit the ‘hockey stick’ before the mid Twenty-teens. Figure 34 – MOEMS Market Forecasts Source: iSuppli and Yole Developpément Companies MOEMS has been a busy segment for M&A activity during the 000s. Silicon Light Machines was an early MOEMS venture (originally started as Echelle, Inc. in 1994 and funded for around $50 million through 4 rounds) that developed a design for an adjustable diffractive grating device called the Grating Light Valve™ (GLV™). In 2000 SLM became a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor. In 2003 Analog Devices, Inc. acquired Onix Microsystems, Inc. (funded over $130 million in 3 rounds), developer of an oft-cited mirror-array crossbar switch. In 2006, Jenoptik GmbH acquired MEMS Optical, Inc. of Alabama (funded nearly $20M) specializing in micromachined lens techniques and pivot-mirror devices. NeoPhotonics Corp. acquired Silicon Lightconnect, Inc. (funded over $34M in 3 rounds) specializing in refractive variable optical attenuators and at the same time acquired some MEMS patents from MEMX Corp. In 2007, API Electronics acquired NanoOpto Corp. of New Jersey (funded over $50M in 4 rounds) specializing in nano-coated diffractive grating devices. In 2008, Silicon Light Machines was sold a second time, this time by Cypress to Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd. who had been the largest customer of the Grating Light Valve™ devices, while keeping one GLV application within Cypress. Recent Acquisitions 2009-2010 next page 51 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Recent Acquisitions Volcano Corporation [NASDAQ: VOLC] acquired Axsun Technologies, Inc., both outside Boston, in late 2008. Axsun had a MEMS tunable optical filter and lens applied to nearinfrared and Raman spectrometers with the fastest time-to-measurement in the market Volcano wanted for its application to their image-guided endovascular therapy products. Oclaro, Inc. [NASDAQ: OCLR] acquired Xtellus, Inc. in late 2009. Xtellus has a solution for wavelength selective switching (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) that combines 1-Axis MEMS mirrors to switch across high port counts, with liquid crystal for attenuation. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. [NYSE: TMO] acquired Polychromix, also both on Route 128, in May 2010. Polychromix, formed in 2001 out of MIT, developed an optical diffraction grating technology implemented in standard CMOS analogous to Silicon Light Machines. This has been implemented into a range of near-infrared spectrometers for materials analysis, which were runner-up in the “SmallTimes” SmallTech Application of the Year Award in 2007. Earlier in 2010, TMO acquired Ahura Scientific, also outside Boston, a maker of rugged, miniaturized Raman and Fourier-Transform InfraRed spectroscopy instruments used worldwide for military, civilian and medical applications. Mid-year010, TMO combined Polychromix and Ahura in a new business unit called “Thermo Scientific – Portable Optical Analysis” Tessera Technologies, Inc. [NASDAQ: TSRA] from San Jose acquired Siimpel* of Southern California in Q2.10 for $15 million. Siimpel was spun-out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in 2000 as SiWave Corporation developing optical switches, navigation sensors and laser ranging systems for applications such as the Mars Rover. Reorganized as Siimpel in 2004, it is now targeting the consumer digital camera market and has since received investment by Motorola and Qualcomm and recent deployment on a next-gen Motorola handsets. Siimpel recently disclosed a 2nd-gen design combining actuation and motion control in a single chip enabling wafer level packaging of the complete system. *correct spelling with 2 “i”s Smaller Ventures • Agiltron, Inc. also north of Boston, is a supplier of optic components formed in 2001 from assets of Corning/NZ Applied and JDS Uniphase. Among their traditional products are some MEMS-based variable optical attenuators. They also recently purchased Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII) of New Jersey which has an infrared sensing MEMS device described in §7 below, as well as likely-non-MEMS spectroscopic ventures Raman Systems Inc. and SensArray Infrared. • Boston Micromachines Corporation, of Cambridge MA partnered with Boston University photonics center to develop deformable micromirrors for adaptive optics distortion correction. In Q1.10, BMC received two Phase 1 SBIRs from NASA for 52 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 applications in space-based high-contrast imaging instruments. Later, in Q3.10, an academic consortium led by BMC won an R&D 100 award for development of a MEMS-based Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography instrument permitting ophthalmologists to see the retina at the individual cell level. • Capella Photonics, Inc. of San Jose CA formed in 2000 to develop MEMS solutions to wavelength selective switching (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs). In Q1.2010, it announced a collaboration with 4th or 5th ranking independent MEMS foundry IMT of Santa Barbara for production. • Varioptic SA of Lyon, France founded in 2002 out of the French National Center for Scientific Research and two local universities, has developed an “electro-wetting” adjustable lens system as auto-focus optics for cameras. In 2006, Varioptic signed a manufacturing agreement with Creative Sensors Taiwan, and more recently revealed mass production by Seiko Instruments Inc., (SII) in Japan. In 2009, Varioptic announced a series of wins including a Kodak dental camera, a Taiwanese digital camcorder, a barcoder from Microscan and ID readers from Cognex. In 2010, Varioptic expanded the Cognex relationship to a full licensing partnership, and also demo’d an image-stabilization liquid lens at the Barcelona Mobile Congress (whose press release is archived only in Japanese!) Following this, in Q3.10, Varioptic raised an additional (probably 4th) funding of €2 Million. • Microsaic Systems in Britain was spun-out of the Optical and Semiconductor Devices Group at Imperial College London in 2001. It has developed a MEMS tunable external cavity laser diode to be an agile frequency source in dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) optical systems. It has also developed a non-optical MEMS spectrometry system based on quadrupole mass analysis applying specific RF and DC fields in focused ion beam channels. In Q3.10 a Microsaic consortium received a major EU research grant to integrate its chip-scale mass spectrometry technology into advanced, miniaturized analytical instrumentation for the analysis of ‘messy’/’sticky’ health/medical samples in partnership with Universitätsmedizin Berlin and UK Food Environmental Research Agency (FERA). • Sercalo Microtechnology, Ltd., of Liechtenstein is an all MEMS company with unique IPR from the University of Bern Institute of Applied Physics for switching and VOA with a refractor or diffractor variably inserted into a waveguide by a comb actuation, which they claim significantly reduces actuation latency compared to other MEMS designs. • Polight AS, is a Norwegian tech venture, spawned by a number of other telecoms , micromaterials and photonics ventures that, since 2007 has been working on flexible polymer film autofocus lens development. continued next page 53 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 • Nistica of Bridgewater NJ is a developer of wavelength selective switching (WSS). Their new large-scale products, announced in 2008, were developed in partnership with Texas Instruments using their DLP® MEMS mirrors. • Iris AO, Inc. of Berkeley CA contains a number of staff who moved over from Onix when it was bought by Analog Devices. Iris's product is a matrix of deformable diaphragm micromirrors to provide adaptive optics distortion correction. In the past year, Iris AO has racked up a number of research wins for its deformable diaphragm micromirrors including: Astronomy imaging trial in California 7/10 NSF Science and Technology Center for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz 5/10 NASA high-contrast visible nulling coronagraph developed as part of the Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concept Study 5/10 Abbott Medical Optics includes AO in demo 5/10 NSF Phase 1 SBIR 4/10 • Sporian Microsystems, Inc. founded in 2000 outside of Boulder, Colorado, focuses on specialized MEMS solutions including optical switching applications. • Rhevision, Inc. is a 2006 spin-out from the Defense Department's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program work at UC-San Diego and has gotten 2 rounds of funding from the CIA's venture fund. It has developed a microfluidicdiaphragm camera lens. Rhevision launched work in ‘09 on a $1.5M DHS contract for development of its tunable liquid lens technology. News reports in 2010 suggest Rhevision's application is a kind of "artificial nose" for sniffing chemical threats -- a piece of porous silicon that changes colors in the presence of certain molecules, which can be read spectrographically via its tunable lens. • HiperScan GmbH., of Dresden was formed in the mid-000s out of Fraunhofer-Institut für Photonische MikroSysteme and primarily produces OEM MEMS laser scan engines in 1D or 2D and more recently expanded its implementation to an OEM scanning grating spectrometer for near-infrared (NIR) Table 6a: Large Optical MEMS Companies next page 54 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 6a: Large Optical MEMS Companies MOEMS Producers Large Corporations Location Description JDS Uniphase USA MEMS optical switchgear – considered market leader in WSS ROADM w/ nearly 40% share, but only a portion of that product line is MEMS Texas Instruments USA Partnership with Nistica for applying DLP® mirrors to optical switchgear (see below). Hewlett-Packard USA Robert Bosch GERMANY Analog Devices Norwood, MA Boehringer Ingelheim MicroParts GmbH Thermo Fisher Scientific Tessera Technologies Oclaro / Xtellus GERMANY Waltham, MA San Jose/Arcadia, CA San Jose, CA / Denville, NJ / ISRAEL Mirror-array crossbar switch Transaction History Investors Acquired from Onix Microsystems, Inc. in 2003 Diffractive grating device applied to near-infrared spectrometers adjustable diffractive grating device applied to near-infrared spectrometers Acquired Polychromix in Q2.10 after Polychromix had received $15M in venture funding IN POLYCHROMIX adjustable diffractive grating device applied to near-infrared spectrometers Acquired Siimpel in Q2.10 after unspecified financings in ’04 and ‘07 IN SIIMPEL Acquired Xtellus WSS ROADM products use MEMS for higher output multiples, LCD for lower multiples. Acquired Xtellus in Q4.09 for $33M after Xtellus had received between $25M and $30M in funding IN XTELLUS Seed Capital Partners Siemens Venture Capital Vanguard Ventures Navigator Technology Ventures Pyramid Technology Bain & Co Hale and Dorr. Oclaro formed in Q2.09 by merger of Bookham and Avanex Motorola Qualcomm Micron Technologies NanoDimension LP Alta Berkeley Israel Seed Partners Goldman Ventures Jenoptik GmbH/MEMS Optical GERMANY/ USA Mirror-array devices Acquired MEMS Optical, Inc in 2006 Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Kyoto / San Jose adjustable diffractive grating device Acquired Silicon Light Machines from Cypress Semiconductor in 2008 NeoPhotonics Corporation San Jose, CA refractive variable optical attenuators Pre IPO S-1 filed April 2010 Acquired Silicon Lightconnect, Inc and MEMX Corp. in 2006 $46.2M Series D, ~2009 >$50M Series C, June 2006 (>$130M total to date) Draper Fisher Jurvetson Mitsubishi Capital Shanghai Industrial Hlng International Finance Corporation Needham Capital Partners DuPont Capital Harris & Harris Group ATA Venture Partners Masters Capital Oak Investment Partners Nippon Signal Company, Ltd. JAPAN 2D micro-mirror scanning element with reflection sensor for ‘touch image’ control – Q4.09 Intermec Everett, WA 3D micro-mirror scanning elements designed and fabbed by Fraunhofer Fraunhofer IPMS GERMANY Variety of MEMS sensing components, new large-aperture array – Q4.09 MOEMS Producers – Newer Ventures next page 55 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 6b: Large Optical MEMS Companies MOEMS Producers Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Agiltron, Inc. Woburn, MA Variable optical attenuators Formed in 2001 from assets of Corning/NZ Applied and JDS Uniphase Boston Micromachines Corporation Cambridge, MA Deformable micromirrors for distortion correction in adaptive optics Private funding and SBIR/STTR grants Capella San Jose, CA MEMS for wavelength selective switching in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. 27 patents. Fab’d at IMT Santa Barbara $15M, Series E, January 2008 $20M, debt/equity, March 2007 $10M, Series D, September 2005 $6M, Series C, October 2004 $7M, Series B, April 2003 $15M, Series A, July 2001 Boston Micromachines Corporation Cambridge, MA Deformable micromirrors for distortion correction in adaptive optics Private funding and SBIR/STTR grants Varioptic SA FRANCE Electro-wetting lens device €2M Round, July 2010 Unspecified financings in 2006, 2004 and 2003 Iris Capital XAnge CNRS Investors Formative Ventures Levensohn Venture Partners Lucas Venture Partners Rustic Canyon Partners Silicon Valley Bank Sofinnova Partners PolyTechnos Venture Partners NIF Ventures Co (Japan) Université Joseph Fourier Dow Corporate Venture Capital Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon Microsaic Systems BRITAIN MEMS tunable laser diode for DWDM and non-optical ion-beam QMS. Chip-scale mass spectro. components Unspecified financings Sercalo Microtechnology, Ltd. LIECHTENSTEIN Comb-driven refractor for variable optical attenuator, 3D micro-mirrors Privately held – Undisclosed Polight AS NORWAY Piezo activated flexible polymer-film autofocus lens Unspecified financings Viking Venture III AS Alliance Venture Polaris AS Ignis ASA SINTEF Venture III Microvision, Inc. Bothell, WA Mirror-guided single-laser barcode scanner engine and end-product $12.4M drawn from EFF, Q3.10 $60M equity financing facility, Q2.10 $21M public offering, closed Q4.09 $15M equity sale, closed Q2.09 $26M public offering of stock and warrants, closed Q2.08 Equity facility – Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd. UK Equity sale – Walsin Lihwa, Taiwan First IPO in 1996 Nistica Bridgewater, NJ Uses Texas Instruments DLP® MEMS mirrors for high-end product line $6.5M Series C, March 2010 $4M, debt/equity, December, 2008 $10M, Series B, February 2008 $1M, Edison Innovation Fund, 2007 ~~, Series A, May 2006 Battelle Ventures NTT Electronics Corp. Fujikura, Ltd. Battelle Ventures Novitas Capital Technology Venture Partners Finisar Corporation New Jersey EDA/Edison Innovation Fund PA Early Stage RBC Bank Iris AO, Inc. Berkeley, CA Micromirrors for adaptive optics Appears bootstrapped on SBIRs and grants from NSF, NASA, DoD and NIH. Rhevision, Inc. San Diego, CA Sporian Microsystems Layfette, CO Optical-switching MEMS HiperScan GmbH GERMANY 1D and 2D micro-mirror scanning elements and adjustable diffractive grating device applied to near-infrared spectrometers Draganfly Investments Ludgate 181 (Jersey) Limited Unspecified financings in 2007, 2006 In-Q-Tel Ventures EDF Ventures Self-funded with SBIRs, DoD, DoE, FDA and other research contracts 56 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A7 – Displays/Imaging: Visible Spectrum MEMS are applied to image displays in two significantly different modes. The earlier, and in some ways more complex, mode is the massively parallel micro-mirror array, exemplified by the now ubiquitous Texas Instruments Digital Light Projector - DLP®. This technology was first studied in the early 1980s, and began wider commercialization in the late 1990s. Figure 35: Diagram of a DLP Element Source: Texas Instruments The basic idea is to use a separate gimbal-pivoted mirror for one or a group of pixels in an image, as illustrated in Fig.26. The mirrors are electrically actuated to pivot to 2 positions reflect or deflect – correlating to the pixel-on or pixel-off state. For color images, a variety of techniques are used including sequential imaging scanning with color wheels, and multiple mirror arrays for different color sources, such as pure color LEDs or lasers. Depending on the set-up, a single microprojector device can contain tens of millions of separately actuated micromirrors. Micromirror display engines have made significant inroads in the conference room projector, rear projection TV (RPTV), and theater projection system markets. The high volume driver in the last several years has been the RPTV market, but rapid price declines for LCD and plasma flat panel TVs is rapidly eroding RPTV market share, and within a few years RPTVs could be virtually eliminated from the market. Texas Instruments DLP® products account for the lion’s share of the visible imaging display market, perhaps as high as 90%. TI has dominated the 2 highest volume markets for microdisplays, the RPTV and conference room projector segments. Two smaller ventures that have focused on micro-mirror display applications are Microvision, Inc. in the USA and Lemoptix SA (née Scanlight Imaging), in Switzerland. Microvision, Inc. started with a direct retinal display developed 15 years ago at the University of Washington, while Lemoptix is a much more recent (2006) spin-out of the Swiss and French research centers EPFL and CNRS which is developing bare micro-mirror components. Microvision struggled with retinal displays for many years, aiming them first at PDAs, then at virtual reality gaming systems, then at automotive maintenance, and recently at specialized military applications. In late 2009, Microvision entered the commercial pico-projector market with the SHOWWx™ product incorporating its PicoP® 57 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 projection-engine. In Q2.10 Microvision announced an $8.5M purchase of PicoP’s for a consumer electronics OEM for the ‘010 Holiday season. In mid-2009 Microvision received a $15M investment by Taiwanese contract fabricator Walsin Lihwa. Subsequently, Microvision closed a $21.5M public offering in 2009 and opened a $60M equity financing facility with British private-equity fund Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd in mid-2010, of which it drew down $12.4M at the end of Q3.10. Lemoptix SA started promoting it’s pico-projector MEMS for both industrial LCD replacement and 3D-pico-holography in 2008. More recently, in Q3.10 it started publicizing a 1cm3 head pico-projector that would be available in 2011 for industrial applications and in 2012 for consumer electronics. Also in Q3.10, Lemoptix closed on an additional round of angel funding. Two pico-projector ventures have formed in Israel. The first bTendo, showed its first demo in summer 2008, claiming a patented dual uniaxial mirror design with cost and power benefits over existing designs. The second formed around mid-08, Maradin focuses on a micro-laser module and collaborates with Israeli MEMS fab SCD. Maradin has received $4M in seed funding and announced in late 2009 collaboration with Hong Kong-based iView Ltd., an OEM of display systems including digital headgear for gaming, digital TV, and 3D applications, plus pico-projectors. About a decade newer in its development track is the refractive cavity display. The leader in refractive interferometry MEMS was Iridigm Display Corporation of San Francisco, purchased by Qualcomm for $170 million in cash in 2004. The operation was renamed Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. (or QMT) and the technology branded as Mirasol™, which launched its first monochrome displays on Korean handsets by Ubixon in 2007, and launched full-color displays at the Society for Information Display Conference in May 2008. Color displays were first installed on MP3 players by Freestyle Audio of San Diego. That same month, QMT announced plans for volume production of Mirasol™ displays via Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd., in Taiwan. In summer 2010, reports from Taiwan circulated of plans for a $2Billion fab dedicated to Mirasol™ displays to start volume shipments in 2012, likely in a 14.5cm form factor. With refractive interferometry MEMS, the idea is to use a chamber which reflects from two surfaces, and the offset distance of the surfaces is very precisely sized to create interference between the two reflected wavelengths such that only one precise wavelength results from the blending. Each pixel or pixel group is switched on and off by the electrostatic or piezo-deflection of a flexible membrane that forms one side of the reflective chamber, so that in one setting the interference is constructive (pixel-on) and in the other diaphragm positioning the interference nulls both wavelengths, or is destructive (pixel-off). Figure 36 illustrates how Qualcomm’s Mirasol™ display works. 58 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Figure 36: How the Qualcomm Mirasol™ Display Operates Source: Qualcomm A variation on this is a MEMS-actuated refractive chamber for TFT displays developed by Pixtronix, Inc. in Massachusetts which was introduced in Q3.08. In October, 2010 Hitachi announced a display using Pixtronix MEMS which Hitachi prototyped on their production line for low-temperature polycrystalline silicon in Chiba Prefecture. Hitachi claimed double the power efficiency of LCD displays, and that it will release the display between the end of 2011 and the beginning to 2012 for mobile phones, smart phones, tablet PCs, digital cameras and other mobile devices equipped with a 10” or smaller display. A competing display technology is a micro-electrical layered device with no mechanical aspect. So, while it probably does not count as MEMS strictly speaking, it is a competitive entry in the micromachined-reflective display market place. This is electro-wetting technology published by Philips in 2003 and spun-out into a venture-backed firm called Liquavista and branded as High Efficiency Optical System (HEOS™). Similar to what Qualcomm Mirasol™ does with air and vacuum, Liquavista accomplishes with a mixture of oil and water as the refractive medium and manipulates it via electric charge to hydrophobic substrates. 59 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Liquavista has focused on the eBook/pad market during 2010, launching a new color display in January, collaborations with TI and Freescale, plus developer kits. In October 2010, in conjunction with Dutch process engineers VDL ETG Projects, Liquavista released a new production machine that enables high volume filling and coupling of its electrowetting displays with the aim of demonstrating that their technology can be slotted directly into existing LCD manufacturing lines. Also during 2010, Liquavista closed a €7million D-round of funding to support a ramp to commercial shipments in 2011. Source: Liquavista In 2006, a German/Swiss company emerged on the scene called ADT for “advanced display technology” which is developing an even simpler electro-wetting display technology, which they term Droplet Driven Display or D3™. They most recently displayed at the Society for Information Display show in Seattle in Q2.10. Market Overview and Growth Drivers Projector/Imaging The overall market for visible imaging MEMS is estimated at about $½ billion. TI is the dominant leader in microdisplays, and has shipped over 16 million DLP® units over 12 years of commercial sales. TI's major market segments have been conference room projectors and rear-projection TVs. In recent years, the RPTV market has evaporated and the basic-projector market is well developed and saturated.. TI is working to develop new markets to replace declining RPTV sales, and has shifted its focus to more industrial niche markets such as medical visualization, PCB manufacturing direct imaging systems, telemetry-and-measurements systems, and others. An example is the application of DLP® for the ICT market of wavelength selective switching (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), where MEMS mirrors are generally more effective in large scale multiplexing – 1x10, 1x20 and above. In this market the youngest entrant, Nistica noted above in §6, outsourced the MEMS and partnered with TI to use their DLP® modules as the core of their ROADMs. Another application that has attracted attention, analysis and investment due to the potential for mainstream consumer-electronics volumes is the “picoprojector” : a very small projecting device which can be connected to a mobile handset, and ultimately embedded in the handset, much the same way that digital cameras have been. 60 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 The picoprojectors currently being demonstrated use some sort of micro-device, such as reflective mirrors or diffractive elements, and use either LEDs or semiconductor lasers as the light source. The draw for picoprojectors is the ability of the user to effectively expand/extend the display size/scope beyond one’s palm when watching video content, playing games, or making a business presentation. This could be an attractive feature to the new demographic that is increasingly using a ‘mobile appliance’ as an all-purpose multimedia and communication device. So far, picoprojectors remain speculative. Current products are little more than demonstration vehicles, high priced with poor performance. Before the market can take off, models need to come down significantly in price, and need to offer the right performance such as acceptable brightness, color and contrast, and reasonable battery life. Yole’s recent cellphone estimates show micromirrors remaining in sampling mode for embedding in mobile devices through 2012. Other analysts project rapid growth in picoprojectors once the technology has stabilized. There is a great deal of uncertainty at this point, but the potential for cellphone volumes is attractive a great deal of attention and development effort. Refractive Displays Meanwhile, the main illuminated display in phones cum mobile ‘pads’ cum e-readers remains a pivotal component of all these consumer devices and just providing those screens generates somewhere around $3+ billion in revenues annually. Low power high-resolution displays such as OLEDs are expanding both available applications and customer satisfaction admirably and, even as Qualcomm, Hitachi/Pixtronix and Liquavista move towards commercial deployment, most analysts see the more complex MEMS solutions as remaining niche for some time to come and not exceeding even 5% of the total handheld-display-screen market by 2015. Figure 38: MEMS Visible Imaging Market Estimate Source: Yole Developpément 61 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 7: MEMS Display / Visible Imaging Producer MEMS Display / Visible Imaging Producers Large Corporations Location Description Texas Instruments Dallas, TX Massive micro-mirror arrays and new pico-projector module – Q2.10 Also, partnership with Nistica for application to optical switchgear. Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. San Diego, CA Reflective/Refractive cavities Acquired Iridigm Display Corporation for $170M in 2004 Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Microvision, Inc. Bothell, WA Mirror-guided single-laser retinal display pico-projector systems $12.4M drawn from EFF, Q3.10 $60M equity financing facility, Q2.10 $21M public offering, closed Q4.09 $15M equity sale, closed Q2.09 $26M public offering of stock and warrants, closed Q2.08 bTendo ISRAEL Dual uniaxial mirror and pico-projectors undisclosed initial financing, 2006 BlueRun Ventures Carmel Ventures Maradin ISRAEL Unique electro and magneto actuation for miniaturized laser-diode projector $3M financing, March 2009 $1M seed round, 2008 Physical Logic AG, Switzerland Startup Factory, Israel Lemoptix SA SWITERLAND/ FRANCE Micro-mirror components and pico-projectors CHF1.4M Angel investors and previously from Swiss and French university spin-out funds Pixtronix, Inc. Andover, MA MEMS shutters integrated with TFT $20M Series B, June 2007 Atlas Ventures Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers DAG Ventures Gold Hill Capital Adt SWITERLAND/ GERMANY Electro-wetting reflection display undisclosed undisclosed Liquavista BV NETHERLANDS Electro-wetting reflection display €7M Series D, April 2010 €5M Series C, May 2009 €8M Series B, March 2008 €12M Series A, December 2006 Amadeus Capital Partners GIMV New Venture Partners LLC Prime Technology Ventures Applied Ventures Transaction History CHF700K financing, Q3.2010 financing, 2009 Investors Investors Equity facility – Azimuth Opportunity, Ltd. UK Equity sale – Walsin Lihwa, Taiwan First IPO in 1996 62 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A8 – Thermal Sensors/Imaging: Infrared Spectrum A variation on the imaging and display of visible light is the handling of wavelengths in the infrared (IR) spectrum relating to temperature. Here the role of MEMS is in image capture, roughly the IR equivalent of the image sensors in visible light digital cameras. Traditional IR detectors use various exotic sensor materials often treated cryogenically to increase sensitivity and the signal-to-noise ratio. More recently, pixel by pixel detectors have been developed using variations on a surface micromachining bridge and cavity process. An IR-absorbing material that generates a variable electrical signal is bridged over the substrate to thermally isolate it, and a reflector is often added to concentrate the absorption and thus boost the signal. Amorphous Si and vanadium oxide (VO2) are the most commonly used materials for the IR absorption layer. Figure 39: Schematic Diagrams of MEMS IR Thermal Sensors (Microbolometers) Sources: Wikipedia, Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, Sensor Review, Vol. 27, Iss4 Market Overview and Growth Drivers IR thermal imaging systems are used in various applications including night vision systems, military applications, search and recovery, surveillance, and a variety of scientific and medical applications. The largest segments by far are the security markets both civilian and military, with automotive growing significantly this decade. The exact size of the overall market is difficult to pinpoint, and different estimates vary widely. The total market for IR imaging systems is cited variously between $2.5 and $4 billion; the sensor market is estimated at approximately 5% of the total systems revenue, which implies a market size for the “microbolometers” of between $100M and $200M. Growth in the IR sensor market is likely to be driven by newer applications, such as night-vision for passenger cars, security and surveillance, industrial sensing and control, environmental monitoring, and others. As prices come down for MEMS uncooled sensors, new applications are enabled in the consumer and commercial markets. CAGR estimates range in the 20s percent for unit volumes and in the TEENS percent for revenue, due to price/performance improvement. Forecasts for total IR MEMS revenues mid-decade are between $300M and $400M. 63 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Companies Companies involved with infrared MEMS include large defense contractors such as: BAE Systems Raytheon DRS Technologies Other producers of thermal MEMS products are: The infrared division of L-3 Communications, a defense C3 contractor rolled up from units of Lockheed Martin, which produces an amorphous Si device. • Fluke Corp., based in Washington state and owned by conglomerate Danaher Corp, has a proprietary image capture mechanism that allows mixing of visible and IR, called IR-Fusion® • FLIR Corp., based in Oregon, produces VO2 based imaging arrays is listed by several analysts as among the top 25 of all MEMS producers • ULIS SA, based near Grenoble, France was spun-out from Sofradir, a manufacturer of traditional IR sensors, with MEMS technologies developed at the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the French Atomic Energy Commission. A new 17μm pixel-size sensor was launched in Q2.2010. • SCD SemiConductor Devices, based in northern Israel, makes MEMS IR devices (and also lasers). In 2009, it launched a biopharma spin-off called DIR (Detection IR) Ltd., with a US investment fund, for non-contact pharmacological testing related to both narcotraffic interdiction and pharmaceutical process quality control. • Cantilever MEMS design A start-up in the Bell Labs corridor of New Jersey, Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII) published papers in the mid-000s on a more complex cantilever MEMS design with supposedly better sensitivity, range, and adjustment performance. In 2008 MII was acquired by Agiltron, a photonics company whose portfolio also includes a MEMS optical attenuator, and who subsequently acquired SensArray Infrared a longtime supplier of lead-alloy IR detectors and IR arrays. Wavelength Conversion design A spin-off of Aegis Semicon near Boston called RedShift Systems aimed to eliminate complex micromachining by offering a layered array that converts infrared signals into visible signals then passed to off-the-shelf digital camera sensors. In 2009, they reported a strategic investment from diversified electro-mechanical component company Emerson, but by 2010 their website states “not currently taking orders or providing quotes” Uncooled LWIR design Fraunhofer, which already produces laser-scanning micromirror and diffraction grating devices, and spun-out HiperScan (see section §6) for near-infrared spectrometry, released a paper in Q310 for a long-wave infrared range MEMS-array that detects with neither cooling nor an A-to-D converter, allowing for higher resolution automotive and mobile applications. Analysts estimate samples within 1 year. Other vendors moving into the market MEMS players of all sizes are watching the increase in civilian applications and preparing to expand beyond inertial and pressure sensors: the largest: Bosch Sensortec, newly independent Sensornor, Swedish design shop Faun AB, and the American Agiltron with the MII and SensArray acquisition are all reported to be developing new MEMS thermal sensors for sampling in 2011 or 2012. 64 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 8: MEMS Thermal Imaging Companies Thermal Imaging Producers Large Corporations Location Description Transaction History Investors Raytheon BAE Systems DRS Technologies Emerson Investment in RedShift Systems tunable optical filter (below) Bosch Sensortec Anticipated in 2011 or 2012 Mid-range Corporations L3 Communications Dallas, TX Amorphous Si imaging devices Fluke Corp./Danaher Corp. Everett, WA/ Wash DC Proprietary visible/IR on same device FLIR Corporation Tualatin, OR VO2 specialized systems ULIS/Sofradir FRANCE Amorphous Si imaging devices New 17µm pixel sensor – Q2.10 SCD SemiConductor Devices ISRAEL VO2 specialized systems Sensornor NORWAY Anticipated in 2011 or 2012 Agiltron, Inc. Woburn, MA Cantilever MEMS actuator New biopharma spin-out, DIR, Ltd. for application to non-contact pharmacological testing In DIR LTD Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII) IN M.I.I. acquired in 2008 for undisclosed amount SCP Vitalife, investment fund of SCP Partners SAS Investors Rho Capital Partners Spencer Trask Batelle Ventures Innovation Valley Partners Non-MEMS but related PbSe and PbS infrared detectors and infrared arrays Acquired SensArray Infrared in 2009 for undisclosed amount Recent Financing Activity Investors Newer Ventures Location Description Faun AB SWEDEN Anticipated in 2011 or 2012 Mikrosistemler San. veTic. Ltd. Sti. TURKEY Low-cost CMOS 128x128 Array sensor Dormant ? Location Description Recent Financing Activity Investors RedShift Systems Burlington, MA Thermal Light Valve™ (TLV), tunable optical filter that translates thermal energy into visible images $6M Series B, February 2009 $12M Series A, January 2006 Emerson Corporation InterWest Partners Vesbridge Partners Alta Partners Technology Venture Partners Megunticook Management YankeeTek Ventures 65 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A9 – Microfluidics A logical extension of MEMS technology from interactions with vacuum, gas, and photons, is to develop MEMS devices to interact with liquids. As with other MEMS applications, the initial work in fluidic MEMS goes back decades. Some of the earliest versions of pressure sensors used in automotive and blood pressure sensing applications were, in fact, measuring fluid pressure. Pressure sensors have led to the broader category of flow sensors and also integrated measurement systems, where the micromechanics is integrated with on-chip processing for calculation and communications. The medical space is probably the largest market for microfluidic sensors because it’s essentially a “consumer good” and typically involves relatively simple designs until you get into the more recent emerging area of implantable devices. The industrial market for sensors for fluids, including volatile fuels, and non-corrosive industrial gases, is more a niche because of fewer application sites and more challenging requirements. We will review these two markets in the first part of this section. Another application of microfabrication to fluid processing is termed “lab-on-a-chip” or, alternatively, “Micro Total Analysis Systems” or µTAS. Fabrication of these devices is often quite different from usual semiconductor-based processes and materials, and often may not utilize the mechanical flexion typically associated with MEMS devices. These are complex microsystems that can take in several fluid streams, measure properties such as pressure, flow rate or temperature, can control mixing and reaction processes, and more. Typical applications include life sciences research, gene sequencing, blood gas analysis, disease diagnostics, and others. These µTAS micro-chemistry concepts have, more recently, been taken beyond medicine into the realm of bulk industrial chemistry with the concept of “microreactors”. Mostly still in the research phase, the concept stems from the fact that most chemical reactions and catalysis take place at surface interfaces, and the inefficiencies in achieving ultra-complete mixing in bulk reaction vessels can be overcome through the use of miniaturized chemical reaction systems. One specific twist on this notion is the miniaturization of fuel cell reactors, which at least two start-up ventures are working on, along with some large Japanese companies. We will review these two areas in the second part of this section. Medical Pressure/Flow Fluidics IC Transducer had the first MEMS blood pressure sensor. Another firm initially developing automotive manifold sensors – IC Sensors, founded in 1983 – hired Janusz Bryzek from ICT to work on a blood application and, soon, blood pressure sensing became ICS’s most successful product. Many mergers later, ICS is now part of Measurement Specialties, Inc., a global instrumentation company also offering MEMS inertial sensors. The same year (1983) 66 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Motorola’s semiconductor unit launched several MEMS designs including a blood pressure sensor. Today, medical sensors remain a mainstay of Freescale’s MEMS product line. Two years later, NovaSensor was launched, also with early input from Janusz Bryzek, and medical has become one of its strongest segments - continuing today as part of GE’s Measurement and Sensing Group. Shortly after that, Omron became one of the earliest Japanese entrants into this market, and is today Japan’s leader in the medical MEMS market. An extract from a brochure by Measurement Specialties, Inc. shows a sample of the wide range of current applications of MEMS to the clinical market. Table 9: Clinical Market Applications for MEMS ARTERIAL TONOMETRY MEMS pressure sensor measures heartbeat and blood pressure at wrist BP CUFF MEMS pressure sensor measures inflation pressure DISPOSABLE BP SENSOR Low-cost MEMS pressure sensor in-line with IV to measure backpressure ANGIOPLASTY PUMP MEMS pressure sensor measures inflation of angioplasty balloon ANGIOPLASTY DIE INFUSION MEMS pressure sensor controls injection of contrast media during surgery OXYGEN CONSERVER MEMS pressure sensor detects inhalation and opens oxygen flow valve VENTILATOR/RESPIRATOR MEMS pressure sensor measures air flow in breathing machine CRYOGENIC ANGIOPLASTY Si-MEMS based stainless steel sensor measures pressure of cryogenic gas used to decease clogged arteries GAS MONITORING MEMS pressure sensors detect gas flow in hospital gas systems INFUSION PUMPS MEMS diaphragm used to drive fluids at very slow rates. INFUSION PUMPS MEMS pressure sensor to detect presence and/or flow SPINAL COLUMN TESTING MEMS pressure sensor used for spinal column die testing BLOOD TRANSFUSION Si-MEMS based stainless steel pressure sensor used in blood separation device INTRA-UTERINE SENSOR Low-cost MEMS pressure sensor monitors contraction frequency and amplitude during labor OCULAR SURGERY MEMS pressure sensor maintains fluid pressures in eyeball during surgery. BABY DELIVERY SYSTEM MEMS sensor monitors pressure on vacuum-assist baby delivery system KNEE SURGERY Low-cost MEMS sensor measures knee pressure during surgery BODY HEAT EXCHANGE MEMS very-low-pressure sensor measures partial vacuum used to expand blood vessels for quick heat exchange SYRINGE/INFUSION PUMP MEMS force sensor and strain gage detects blockage of medication flow SLEEP APNEA MEMS low-pressure sensor maintains positive airflow to breathing mask Source: Measurement Specialties, Inc. 67 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Another example is using MEMS as a thermal flow sensor for monitoring changes in a patient’s body temperature as a warning indicator. Omron has a high-sensitivity thermal flow device for detecting changes in human breathing patterns. The MEMS sensor detects the flow of gases as low as 1 mm per second by detecting the temperature change of a built-in heater. The sensor is used in respirators controlling oxygen flow during surgical operations. To increase the sensing area and prevent heat from escaping, Omron uses a "crepe structure" which has an inverted trapezoidal dent formed through micromachining, which allows the sensing area to be enlarged while maintaining the cubic volume of the silicon substrate at the same level as that of a conventional sensor. While blood pressure is an early MEMS application, a sensor for blood viscosity was recently introduced by Microvisk, Ltd., using a cantilever as basically a “stick in the water” and measuring the bending moment caused by the blood flow. While standalone sensors have many applications, the real benefit of MEMS will be when the mechanical sensor is integrated on the same substrate with electronics for calculations and communications. An example of this concept is CardioMEMS, Inc., an Atlanta venture based on IP from Georgia Tech. In 2006 it launched the first implantable MEMS device to receive FDA clearance for general use. It combines a MEMS pressure sensor attached to a blood vessel stent and an RF wireless transmitter, allowing regular check-ups to be performed by waving an antenna in front of the patient’s chest, from which a low-power RF signal activates the RF chip which relays a log of pressure measurements to an external receiver and monitor. The results have been sufficiently promising for the company to have received over $120 million in financing through 6 rounds. Another university spin-off, in Michigan, Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS), is likewise developing implantable wireless heart and brain monitors. While still far from approval, ISSYS announced a development agreement with a leading manufacturer of implantable medical devices – Greatbatch, Inc. – in July 2008. A novel application by Sensimed AG in Switzerland is a soft contact lens incorporating a MEMS pressure sensor embedded along with a microprocessor and RF antenna for real-time monitoring of intraocular pressure, an important indicator of eye disease. Figure 40: Sensimed RF pressure sensor contact lens Source: Sensimed via theEngineer(UK) 68 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Industrial Fluidics The typical application here is flow sensing. For decades macro scale flow sensors have taken measurements based on thermal differentials, often based on heaters surrounding capillaries. When shrinking this to chip-level scale, typically some heating element is placed in a channel with temperature sensors mounted symmetrically upstream and downstream from this heater, not unlike an acoustic wave sensor. Figure 41 shows several illustrations from both the large incumbent in the space -- Omron of Japan -- and a newer 1998 Swiss venture -- Sensirion AG. Sensirion’s CMOSens® products use gas-flow sensors that consist of a pressure-stabilized membrane, which has a glass-passivation layer and which is closed from the front, is etched into the silicon chip from below. A controllable heater element is mounted in the middle of this pressure-stable membrane and temperature sensors are mounted symmetrically upstream and downstream from this heater element in the direction of flow. Any flow over this membrane causes a transfer of heat and thus generates a precise measurable signal. Thanks to the low thermal mass of the membrane, the sensor reacts to changes of the gas flow within only 1.7 ms. Figure 41: Schematic Diagram of MEMS Infrared Thermal Detectors Omron Electronic Components Sensirion AG Source: OMRON, Sensirion 69 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Microfluidics Market Forecasts Microfluidics is a tough market to get your arms around. Most forecasts, such as Yole, focus on what is sometimes called lab-on-a-chip, which we are covering in §9.1. The listing of ventures alone indicates the preponderance of entrepreneurship applied to lab-on-a-chip, and the heavy cost and infrastructure burden of current bio-diagnostic methods suggests the upside to be gained by the deployment of small, light, efficient, portable diagnostics promised by microfluidics. Yole’s estimates for just ‘production’ diagnostics show microfluidics already near the top of the “MEMS” segments and, with a 25% CAGR, aiming to be nearly as large as the combined accelerometer/gyroscope market by 2015. The market for research applications is seen growing even faster, at over 30% CAGR. Those two alone are estimated to amount to nearly $3½ Billion by 2015. There are no precise forecasts for “other” microfluidic applications like medical pressure/ flow fluidics or the industrial fluidics MEMS devices outlined in this section. About the only thing certain is that the applications of our §9.2, the micro-reactor or micro-electro-chemicalsystem [MECS] markets are very early stage and unlikely to ‘break out’ in the next half-decade. 70 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Companies The market is dominated by several large firms in the U.S., Japan, and Europe: Freescale GE NovaSensor Measurement Specialties OMRON Honeywell Schneider Electric SA Bronkhorst Hi-Tech BV MEMSCAP Smaller Ventures • Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS), of Michigan, founded in 1995 and self-funded through angels and research grants, started with flow sensors and is now developing an implantable medical sensor. Between Q3.09 and Q2.10, ISSYS received 3 Patents for new microfluidic designs using resonating micromachined tubes to produce Coriolis mass flow meters, density and chemical concentration sensors, drug infusion systems, fuel cell concentration sensors, and other devices. • Microvisk Ltd., of England is developing a blood viscosity sensor using a MEMS cantilever. Having launched with £800K in 2006, Microvisk recently raised another £4.5M in 2010. • Debiotech SA of Switzerland has developed a wearable MEMS insulin pump in collaboration with STMicroelectronics. Now branded as the JewelPUMP™, it won “Best in Show” at the 2010 annual conference of the American Diabetes Association. • Sensimed AG in Switzerland developed a soft contact lens that incorporates a MEMS pressure sensor embedded along with a microprocessor and RF antenna for real-time monitoring of intraocular pressure. Now branded as Triggerfish®, the product and company gained new recognition and financing in 2010. During the summer, Sensimed won 3 prestigious awards and closed on a Series B financing so successfully oversubscribed, that they nearly doubled the closure at the end of Q3. • Sensirion AG, of Switzerland, founded in 1998, holds patents on a process to combine logic circuits with the microsensor on the same chip, which they brand CMOSens® and apply to both medical and industrial applications. Sensirion technology came from ETH, where the founders won the first ETH Business Plan competition in 1998. • Theon Sensors is an 11-year old specialized sensor firm in Greece that launched a MEMS division in 2004. Its first products are a mass air flow sensor and capacitive pressure sensors (see §1). • Siargo, Ltd. Is apparently based in China, with US offices in Silicon Valley and apparently was founded in the 2006-time frame. The company is promoting flow sensors for both medical and industrial applications. In 2H 2008, Siargo announced mass deployments in gas meters with a Chinese utility and a distribution agreement with a Japanese trading company. Production of their 2nd generation of sensors was announced for the start of 2010. • CardioMEMS, Inc. of Atlanta, GA, founded in 2000, which received FDA approval for an implantable RF MEMS sensor in 2006. Funded through six rounds to over $120M, it completed a major clinical trial in Q2.2010 meeting its goal of a 30% reduction in heart failure hospitalization rates at 6 months with patients using their implant. 71 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 • Ion Optics of Massachusetts was founded in 1996 and developed MEMS gas sensors aimed at sensing specific gas types, for leakage and containment purposes. Ion Optics was acquired in 2005 by ICX Technologies and renamed ICX Photonics in 2007. ICX was acquired by FLIR of Oregon, originally an infrared sensor specialist, in Q4.2010. • Microstaq, Inc. of Texas offers a micromechanical hydraulic valve. The founders came from the drive train components group at GM/Delphi, so they well understood the limitations and opportunities regarding macro-scale hydraulics. Launched in 2000 as AluminaMicro, it settled in northwestern Washington State in 2002 and received initial venture funding from Yaletown Partners in Vancouver, BC. In 2007, Microstaq moved to Austin, TX and in early 2008 announced a partnership with Freescale to develop an intelligent refrigerant superheat control system combining Freescale's process controls and MEMS pressure sensors with Microstaq's MEMS valves. More recently, Microstaq has moved strongly into the CHINA market, starting with a manufacturing agreement in 2008 with Taiwanese OEM Quanmax, thence to Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation [SMIC] in late 2009, and in Q2.2010 opening its own Microstaq-license sales office in Guangzhou Science City. • Bartels Microtechnik GmbH, a German product development contractor focused since 1996 on microfluidics, launched its first branded product in 2006, a MEMS micropump, and formed an early partnership with Nitta Corporation, a large Japanese industrial equipment firm. A second generation of MEMS micropump was launched at the 2008 Hannover Fair • Eksigent Technologies, Inc., was founded in Silicon Valley in 2000 by a team from Sandia National Laboratories. Its first microflow product was launched in 2002 and its first electro-kinetic micropump product in 2004. In 2003, it won a $2 million NIST grant for chip-based high performance liquid chromatography. A 2nd generation product was introduced in 2008 to such success that it ramped production 40% in 2009. In Q1.2010, Eksigent was acquired by AB SCIEX, an instrumentation joint-venture between Life Technologies Corp. and MDS, Inc. which was itself just recently acquired by Danaher Corp. (who also owns FLUKE with infrared MEMS IPR) in Q3.2009 Figure 41: Various Miniaturized Hydraulic Valves and Pumps Source: Microstaq, Eksignet Technologies, Bartels Microtechnik 72 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 10: Fluidic MEMS Companies Fluidic MEMS Producers Large Corporations Location Description Transaction History Freescale Semiconductor Investors Austin, TX Medical and industrial flow sensors Internal development starting at Motorola in the early 1980s GE Meas. and Control Solutions USA Medical and industrial flow sensors GE Measurement and Sensing Grp buys NovaSensor from TRW in 2002 TRW gets NovaSensor as part of its acquisition of Lucas (England) in 1999 Lucas acquires privately held NovaSensor in 1990. Measurement Specialties / Visyx ICSensors Norfolk, VA / Fremont, CA / CHINA Medical and industrial flow sensors Sensors of fluid properties including density, viscosity & dielectric constant Acquired Visyx in 2007. Visyx was spun-off from R&D firm Symyx in 2006. MEMSCAP RTP, North Carolina Medical and industrial flow sensors Acquired Cronos subsidiary of Sensonor for €10M in 2001 Honeywell A&CS Group USA Medical and industrial flow sensors IDEX Health & Science Group Oak Harbor, WA Nanoliter flow instrument using Honeywell MEMS flow sensor Honeywell acquired Invensys in 2002. Invensys was spun-off from Siebe when Siebe merged with Foxboro in 1997. Foxboro acquired ICTransducers in 1974. Schneider Electric/Kavlico Moorpark, CA/ FRANCE Medical and industrial flow sensors Bronkhorst Hi-Tech BV NETHERLANDS Industrial flow sensors OMRON JAPAN Danaher / AB SCIEX / Eksigent Technologies, Inc. Dublin, CA Micropump and micro-chromatography Acquired Eksigent in Q1.10 KWJ Engineering/ Transducer Technologies, Inc. Newark, CA MEMS gas contaminant sensors Acquired Transducer Technologies, Inc.in 2007 FLIR / ICX Photonics/Ion Optics Oregon, Billerica MA MEMS gas pressure sensors (e.g. CO2) FLIR acquired ICX in Q4.2010. ICX acquired Ion Optics for $4.6 M, 2005. Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity Integrated Sensing Systems (ISSYS) Ann Arbor, MI Flow sensor and develops implantable RF MEMS cardiac and cranial sensors. Funded through angles, commercial partnerships, government grants and revenues Medical and industrial gas and liquid flow sensors Acquired IC Sensors in 2000 from Perkin-Elmer née EG&G in 2000. EG&G acquired ICSensors from its founders in 1994 Schneider Electric acquires Kavlico from Solectron for $200m in 2004 Solectron gets Kavlico as part of its acquisition of CMAC (Québec) in 2001 CMAC acquires independent Kavlico in 2000 Participated in initial Japanese µsensor development program in late ‘80s Investors Expanded MEMS fab completed Q4.10 Microvisk, Ltd. ENGLAND MEMS viscosity sensor for blood £2.5M rights issue, July 2010 £2M round, January 2010 £800K early round, 2006 Debiotech SA SWITZERLAND MEMS micropump for insulin Primary business is contract research and engineering of medical devices for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes Sensimed AG SWITZERLAND MEMS pressure sensor embedded within soft contact lens CHF10M CardioMEMS, Inc. Atlanta, GA Implantable blood pressure Stent sensor combined with remote wireless telemetry capabilities $37.9M Series F, May 2010 Arcapita Ventures (lead) $33M Series E, December 2007 Boston Millennia Partners (>$120M total to date) Medtronic, Inc. ArboretumVentures Easton Capital Partners Foundation Medical Partners Guidant Corp. Deerfield Capital Management Vision Capital Advisors Aperture Ventures Rockport Venture Securities Johnson & Johnson Development Sensirion AG SWITZERLAND Medical and industrial flow sensors with integrated on-chip controls Siargo, Ltd. Santa Clara / CHINA Industrial flow sensors /gas metering Not disclosed Theon Sensors GREECE MEMS mass air flow sensor Privately held, longer established business supplying traditional sensors Microstaq, Inc. Austin, TX MEMS hydraulic valves Partnerships for HVAC markets with $12.5M Series B, September 2008 (>$22.5M total to date) Bartels Microtechnik GmbH GERMANY Rainbow Seed Fund Rising Stars Acceleris Welsh National Assembly. Series B, July 2010 raised to CHF18.5M in September CHF8M Series A, January 2008 Not disclosed FREESCALE, QUANMAX, SMIC MEMS micropump Wellington Partners Vinci Capital - Renaissance PME Agate Medical Investments LP New Value AG MonaLisa/Swisscom Blue Ocean Ventures Good Energies (lead) Yaletown Venture Partners Polygon Group Primary business is product engineering services re: microfluidics 73 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A9.1 – Lab-on-a-Chip / Micro Total Analysis Systems / µTAS. This area differs from other MEMS applications in that the primary pathway of activity is a fluid channel or capillary, and often the primary substrate is glass or polymer rather than silicon and metal. While there are micron-scale features, these are often derived from micro-grinding or even injection molding rather than typical semiconductor chemical etching and deposition processes. While features are often “doped”, in the case of biolab or µTAS chips, they will be “doped” with bio-reactive materials, such as proteins and the like, to create specific reactions. Often these µTAS chipsets are singleuse or few-use and disposable because the “doped” biocatalyst is consumed and/or the capillary is contaminated by the test fluid passing through. Thus some businesses produce whole µTAS systems; others produce just the chips in a consumable ‘razorblade’ business model, while others focus on customizing chips with specific dopants. The simplest analogy is to consider the wire racks of 10~15ml test tubes which you used to see in medical labs or biology classrooms, perhaps a 10x10 rack of 100 tubes. A person would manually pipette samples into each tube and then manually, or in a vibrator, swish around the entire rack to mix and generate a set of reactions. Fundamentally, µTAS simply shrinks the test tube rack down to sub-thumbnail size and expands the number of ‘tubes’ by 2 to 10 fold, but performing essentially the same operation. The test tube now becomes the “micro-well”, literally a micro-machined cavity that typically holds picolitres of a fluid sample. The rack becomes the so-called “microarray” which can look, even to the naked eye, like an evenly polka-dotted slice of glass with hundreds or thousands of micro-wells lined-up across its surface. A network of micro-capillaries similar to semiconductor circuit traces, convey fluids to the microwells. That conveyance can involve pressure which may come from gravity, a manual bubble-button pump, or some kind of MEMS diaphragm which may or may not be part of the same microwell fabrication. Fluids may also be conveyed using laminar flow effects which significantly affect fluid dynamics at dimensions so small that surface tension effects won’t develop. Along the way, electricity or light, laser or otherwise, may be applied to the fluid in flow or stationary in the microwell for either catalysis or resistance/refraction measurement. MEMS switching or optical micro-mirrors can be utilized at this step also. Continued 74 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Beyond this example, there are endless variations. Microfluidics today is very much in the “let a thousand flowers bloom” stage similar to where microelectronics was in the 1970s or optical ICT was in the 1990s. As with other microsystems, pioneering work was done decades ago, but didn’t really progress until the mid-90s, especially when breakthroughs in genomics created heavy demand for speedy analysis of high-volumes of DNA. µTAS engineering has taken off more recently. An annual conference on “miniaturized systems for chemistry and life sciences” begun in 1996, only crossed the 1,000 attendee threshold in 2008. There is a wide variety of test equipment vendors and microarray suppliers making commercial sales, each one with a unique piece of microfluidics innovation. Following is a summary of some microfluidics players that have developed significant technology. Table 11: Microfluidic Companies Microfluidic Companies Large Corp. -Themselves Location Description Recent Financing Activity Agilent Palo Alto, CA Microfluidic chips for the Bioanalyzer 2100 are supplied exclusively by Caliper Life Sciences (see below) Affymetrix, Inc. Santa Clara, CA Among original lab-on-chip firms, combining semicon fab w. chemistry, now has leading market position with GeneChip™ µTAS systems and supplies. New desktop “personal” system launched Q1.2010 $90M IPO in 1996 Caliper Life Sciences Hopkinton, MA LabChips contain networks of microfabbed channels. The instrument and software control the movement of fluids via pressure or voltage. Reagents are dispensed from reservoirs on the chip and mixed w.compounds in the channels. Reactions occur in the channels and the resulting reactant and product are separated by electrophoresis. Finally, the signals are measured by laser-induced fluorescence. $72M IPO in 1999 October 2010 – new 7 year agreement to be the Agilent’s exclusive supplier of µfluidic chips for [A]’s 2100 platform. January 2010 – Caliper’s IP portfolio licensed to Becton Dickinson for their next gen molecular diagnostics system Cepheid Sunnyvale, CA Also among original lab-on-chip firms, co-founded by MEMS pioneer Kurt Petersen, now has two volume platforms -- SmartCycler and GeneXpert – which can perform rapid molecular testing for a number of purposes, inclu. diagnosing infectious diseases and cancer, testing food and agricultural products, and detecting biothreats such as anthrax. Upgraded system revision launched Q2.2010 $30M IPO in 2000 75 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Microfluidic Companies Large Corp. -ACQUISTIONS Location Description Recent Financing Activity Boehringer Ingelheim MicroParts GmbH Germany Combination of precision microscale injection molding of polymers for wells and capillaries plus micro-optics spectrometry for analysis result in assay card called the Lilliput® Chip, now nearly 10 years since launched. Technology derived from STEAG’s work with inkjet print MEMS. STEAG microParts GmbH acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2004 FLIR / ICX Nomadics Oklahoma City, OK Microfluidics and microsensors combined for surface plasmon resonance analysis tool for specific analysis applications including binding specificity, kinetics, affinity, concentration assays and binding stoichiometry. Now branded as SensIQ® Acquired by FLIR, Q4.2010 ICX holding company formed in 2003 through multi-way merger. Bayer/Zeptosens AG SWITZERLAND SensiChip System uses planar waveguide technology whereby a laser beam is directed into the thin PWG layer by a coupling grating. The light propagates within this PWG layer and generates a strong electromagnetic field. This evanescent field decays exponentially in relation to the distance to the PWG layer, limiting its penetration depth to approximately 300 nm. Detection of fluorescent molecules is restricted to the sensing surface with the capture probes and their bound target molecules with no background noise beyond the penetration depth of the field. Q4.2009 - new software rolled out. Q3.2010, reverse protein array product portfolio completed, creating full solution provider for reverse protein arrays. Acquired by Bayer in 2005. Spin-off of Novartis in 1998 Analytik Jena / AJ eBiochip Systems GmbH GERMANY Proprietary electrical biochip technology and microfluidic systems supports electrical detection of biological recognition events which enables construction of integrated and highly sensitive analytical systems for nucleic acid-based assays, immunoassays and other binding assays. Acquired by Analytik Jena in 2007. Spun-out of Fraunhofer Institute in 2000 Immucor/ BioArray Solutions, Ltd. Norcross GA / Warren, NJ The BeadChip™ format combines micro particle bead chemistry with semiconductor wafer processing to deliver a flexible, universal array format for complex nucleic acid and protein analysis. European CE approval received Q2.2010 Acquired by Immucor in March 2008 for $117-million in cash. Beckman Coulter / Advalytix AG GERMANY Surface acoustic wave fluidic controller chips with electromechanical transducers and optional integrated thermal MEMS sensors for manipulating liquid volumes ranging from picolitres to microlitres. note- Advalytix brand phased-out Q3.2010. Olympus Life Sci Europa Gmbh acquired by Beckman, Q3.2009 Advalytix acquired by Olympus, Q2.05 Johnson & Johnson / Åmic Biochips SWEDEN A highly ordered array of micro pillars drive flow of liquid in an open channel by capillary action. The flow of liquid through the chip is controlled by the pillar geometry and channel length. Leverage optical phenomena in the chip for a highly sensitive optical fluorescence detection system Acquired by Johnson & Johnson, June 2008 Life Technologies / Ion Torrent Guildford CT, S. San Francisco, CA Photochemical reactor systems fabbed in CMOS from traditional Silicon. 20 layers of etched circuits and memory topped by ion sensor and ionattractants and micromachined wells for the biochemical reaction. System measures the release of hydrogen ions as nucleotides get incorporated by DNA polymerase. First released Q1.2010. Acquired by Life Technologies, October 2010 76 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Microfluidic Companies Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Financing Activity 3dbiosurfaces Inc. Tucson, AZ Micro-relief surface treatment to enhance bioavailability of array samples Patent granted in September 2007, looking for partners Advanced Liquid Logic Research Triangle, NC Digital microfluidics, using electrodes to independently control droplets, thus software-programmable to combine sequences of droplet operations for complex liquid handling protocols. 100s of droplets simultaneously and independently manipulated for complex assays to be reliably implemented. Spun out of Duke University in 2004. Total of $5M in dozens of loans and grants in past 4 years $5.2 Million 4-year NIH contract for diagnostic device development – Q4.09 Advion BioSciences Inc. Ithaca, NY Microfluidics chip contains an array of nanoelectrospray nozzles etched in a silicon wafer. Unique field strength created by electrospray nozzles allows for a more efficient and stable spray for chromatography and spectrometry. Q1.10 – US Patent issued for reconfigurable multistage microreactor cartridge apparatus Spun out of Cornell Univ. in 1993. $15M Series B in May 2002 Amnis Seattle, WA Flow cytometry for individual cell imaging with lasers. Q2.09 – US Patent issued for diagnostic uses of multispectral cell imaging $11.3M, Series C, March 2006 ($21 Million total raised) Axela / Xceed Molecular [Kimberly Clark + Infineon] Toronto, CANADA The Axela Diffractive Optics Technology (DOT™) involves – rather than scanning a flow – instead immobilizing capture-molecules on the surface of a prism-shaped sensor, which is then lit with a laser, causing diffraction patterns whose signal intensity is then measured to determine results. The core IPR was licensed from Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 2006. Axela – venture funding unspecified C$ • VenGrowth Private Equity Partners • Primaxis Technology Ventures Inc. • Royal Bay Capital • Kimberly-Clark • MMV Financial • Investment Saskatchewan Xceed – venture funding unspecified C$ • VenGrowth Private Equity Partners • Infineon Ventures GmbH In Q3.10 Axela acquired Xceed, formerly MetriGenix and GeneXP, whose Flow-Thru Chip® was originally developed by Infineon in the early 000s. FTC is a microporous silicon microarray with a three-dimensional matrix of microchannels. Multiple capture reagents are deposited in a grid to permit parallel analysis of nearly 500 probe molecules per chip. Ayanda Biosystems SA SWITZERLAND Multi-electrode array biochips are used for electrophysiology to stimulate and record extracellular electrical activity of excitable biological tissue from as many as 60 recording sites simultaneously. In most cases, single unit activity and/or slow field potentials are recorded in preparations such as dissociated cell cultures (neurons, heart muscle cells) and organotypic or acute tissue slices (brain, spinal cord, retina, etc.). MEA biochips are fabricated on transparent microchips and are adapted to the commercially available MEA60 signal amplification and data acquisition system. 2001 spin-off of EPFL - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Biocept, Inc. San Diego, CA Struggled to commercialize semicon bio-array and, according to it's own PR, "lost the battle to Affymetrix", with NO commercial product after 13 yrs. Revived in 2010 to aim at a breast cancer test, soon to go into clinical trial, using the microfluidic platform tailored for rare-cell capture. A mathl model is used to develop flow rates and place posts in a microfluidic device in order to maximize the capture of cells in the MEMS channel. Specified antibodies are then used to selectively attach to target cells, which create an enriched cell sample. After capture, those cells can be used for molecular diagnosis either as intact cells or after lysis. $5M funding round, currently OPEN $2.3 M bridge tranche closed Q2.2010 continued 77 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Biomolex NORWAY Microarray reader can determine the surface distribution isotopes with an accuracy of 50u enabling high resolution screening of target molecules labeled with radioactive isotopes. Microarray reader is based on a 64mm x 32 mm n-doped silicon detector, 300 µm thick. The front side of the detector is divided into 560 (p+ doped) strips running in the x-direction, and the backside contains 1260 strips running in the y-direction. A particle that enters the detector will generate charge both on the x- and y-side, and the system is thus able to determine the hit position. Based on total charge deposition, the instrument also determines the energy (keVs) absorbed in the detector. CellASIC San Leandro, CA Microfluidic cell culture chambers allowing multiplexed continuous medium perfusion bio-mimetic nutrient and gas transport and improved in vitro tissue models and is developing a µfluidic toxicity platform for cancer research. 2nd Generation products released mid-2010 NIH “Lab to Marketplace” Grant received Q1.2010 Fluidigm Corporation S.San Francisco, CA IFC - Integrated fluid circuits allowing nearly 10,000 data points generated in a palm-sized cartridge. Microchannels controlled by the NanoFlex™ valve. It consists of a membrane that deflects under pressure to pinch off the flow of fluids in a microchannel. In the 1970s engineers attempted to make microvalves using the semiconductor material silicon, but its rigidity made it impossible to fabricate structures that could regulate fluids at nanoliter volumes. The NanoFlex™ valve is made from two separate layers of elastomeric rubber that have been placed on a micro-machined mold. The surface of the substrate and the recesses of the bottom layer form the liquid flow channel. When pressurized gas is applied to the channels of the upper layer, the rubber deflects at precisely the intersection of the channels in the bottom layer. This constitutes a simple, effective valve. $80+million IPO withdrawn, Sept. 2008 $37 Million, Series E, January 2007 $21 Million, Series D, January 2004 $34 Million, Series C, November 2001 $37 Million in earlier rounds • AllianceBernstein LP • Singapore Econ. Devel. Board • Invus LP • Lilly BioVentures Fluxion Biosciences S.San Francisco, CA Patented microfluidic device designs feature the ability to interface to any number of channels simultaneously, allowing accurate control of flow velocities and electric field application throughout the microfluidic network $6.5 Million Series B, October 2007 • Kodiak Venture Partners • Claremont Creek Ventures • Life Science Angel Investors Home Dialysis Plus Corvallis, OR Applying arrays of microfluidic chemistry microreactors to perform the dialytic function previously requiring large-scale equipment $50M funding line from Warburg Pincus, February 2010 $170K grant from Oregon Nano/Micro Institute Fund Fabrication partnership with Starfish Medical, Victoria BC Canada Spun-out of Oregon State Univ. in 2004 continued 78 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 IntegenX, Inc. name changed from Microchip Biotechnologies, Inc, March 2010 Dublin, CA Microfluidic processing chips including proprietary microvalve technology for significant improving in thorough mixing of fluids, overcoming diffusion limitations due to laminar flow. With MBI's microfabricated onboard valving, their systems are capable of performing complex, integrated processes with great efficiency. $18.1 Million Series B, November 2009 $4.5 Million Series A, August 2006 • Domain Associates • Samsung Ventures • Western Technology Investment , • RONA Syndicates, LLC • In-Q-Tel Ventures Micronics, Inc. Redmond, WA ORCA Microfluidics™ involves an IC that combines various microfluidic elements, such as H- and T- plumbing connections, mixers, reactors, microvalves, laser optics, etc., in a disposable card-like format for point-ofanalysis of complex fluids, including whole blood. Self-contained ORCA labcard integrates sample preparation with point-of-care analysis, ease of use and waste containment, allowing creative responses for drug discovery, protein crystallization, hematology, and particle cytometry. OCTOBER 2010 - $2.6M Army contract to develop rapid field assay devices for detecting bloodborne pathogens Spun-out of U of Washington in 1994. $9 Million Series B-C, 2H.2008 • SW Michigan First Life Science Fund • Ardesta RiverCities Capital • Elf Stone LLC SunRise Capital • Washington Research Foundation Neurosilicon Calgary, Alberta, CANADA Technique developed to culture neurons on silicon wafers in industry-std 24-well plates, whereby a beam of light targets target a cell of interest while applying a voltage bias across the silicon wafer. When combined with fluorescence imaging of various molecular probes, activity-dependent cellular processes can be dynamically monitored. Spin-out from Univ. of Calgary in 2005 Angel, friends/family funding to date. Scandinavian Micro Biodevices ApS DENMARK Compact microfluidic diagnostics similar to Fluidigm and Micronics, targeted at the VETERINARY market, under the brand QuickVet® Management buyout, November 2006 from Inverness Medical, Inc. Vincogen Corporation N. Brunswick, NJ IC chip for bioassays consists of an RFID system, a metal option that uniquely identifies the chip through the RFID system without the need for internal memory, a transponder to which solid state antibodies, antigens, or other biological molecules are fixed with a phage or peptide display system; and an electrode to use electrochemical luminescence wireless. Each chip has a set of biological molecule “beads” fixed to its transponder, against which beads the analyte (or tested substance, e.g. blood) will react. Once exposed to the substance to be tested, the solid-state beads may or may not bond with components of the analyte. The chip responds by inducing any newly bonded molecules to emit electrochemical luminescence, which is detected by the user. Because the individual biochips have unique identities that correspond to the solid state that has been applied to them, ICBiochips need no internal memory function to track data, making them different from others in development. Chip can also be read using fluorescence, radioisotope probes, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Founded 2001 $1+-million invested over several rounds Graveyard i-LOC, spun out of the University of Alberta in 2007 was developing a handheld microfluidic device to perform automated, real-time diagnostic tests by sorting and selecting cells, multiplying markers of interest via polymerase chain reaction, then detecting and quantifying target molecules via capillary electrophoresis, integrated with silicon computational circuits to provide software analysis and output. Went dark toward the end of the 000s. Combimatrix CustomArray was launched in the latter 1990s, with the intent to bring to market a specially modified semiconductor adapted for biology. ICs contain arrays of microelectrodes individually addressable to selectively generate chemical reagents by means of an electro-chemical reaction. These chemical reagents facilitate in situ synthesis of complex molecules like DNA oligonucleotides. After burning through over $80M in venture financing and going public, the DNA arrays never panned out, the company merged with a separate bio-diagnostics business, and the semiconductor division was shut down in Q3.10. Biocept v.1 was launched in 1997 to develop a Combimatrix-like semiconductor microarray. After struggling for 7 yrs in that space, new management now says that “it basically lost the battle to Affymetrix”. It then moved to microFLUIDICS and burned through the next 6 years to find the right disease target. Biocept v.2 was re-financed with a focused product development plan in mid-2010. 79 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 A9.2 – Chemical Microreactors (MECS) and Fuel Cells A further extension of microfluidics is their application to general chemical processing. This is variously termed Micro Reactor Technology [MRT] or, to more closely mimic the MEMS acronym, Micro Electro Chemical Systems [MECS]. The basic idea is that most chemical reactions take place at the surface of the material or at the interface between two materials, so following the general concept of nano-material-science, if you can increase the surface-area-to-volume ratio, you can achieve better results. A related concept, though not limited to microfluidics, is that of flow chemistry which simply means: “A chemical reaction is run in a continuously flowing stream rather than in batch production. In other words, pumps move fluid into a tube, and where tubes join one another, the fluids contact one another. If these fluids are reactive, a reaction takes place. Flow chemistry is a well-established technique for use at a large scale when manufacturing large quantities of a given material. However, it is relatively new to use it in the laboratory environment.” It is precisely this concept of implementing flow chemistry at the scale of micromachined capillaries, although often massively in parallel to achieve scale, which is the essence of MRT/MECS. Microfluidic flow chemistry is viewed as follows: “Helps process intensification by reducing the size of the reaction volume, the amount of reagents and catalyst, enhancing the speed of reaction and heat exchange. Enables higher chemical efficiency, leading to higher yield obtained at lower temperatures and with less catalyst. Permits new processes and new chemical pathways. It will lead to the synthesis of new molecules that were previously not achievable.” One of the first markets where this is gaining traction and generating commercial sales is pharmaceuticals. Drugs are an excellent candidate for massive production of small batches or doses, and the payoffs for increased efficiency and yield can be substantial. MRT/MECS has also been used in production of fine chemicals and pigments. This has proven to be a tough market. Companies large and bootstrapped have been working on fuel cells for years and none have moved beyond demo trials. A few entirely European firms with corporate or university backing seem to be moving forward with microreactors for the chemicals and materials industry; at the same time MECS startups in both USA and Israel shut-down during the past year, showing MECS is one of the longest-to-payoff of micro-device markets. Most analysts don’t see this segment really ‘taking off’ until at least the second-half of the twenty-teens decade. 80 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 12: MRT/MECS Companies Chemical Micro Reactor Producers Large Corporations Location Description Toshiba NEC Sony Panasonic JAPAN Working on small scale fuel cells. Unknown if technology is truly MECS or not Newer Ventures Location Description Recent Activity Syrris, Ltd. BRITAIN Microreactors for industrial chemical production Founded 2001. Next-gen product released January 2010. Brasil office opened in Q1.10 expands footprint to 30 nations. Microfluidics International Corp. Newton, MA Microreactors for industrial chemical production. 2nd generation product branded Microfluidics Reaction Technology™ (MRT) announced Q2.2010 Producing more macro small-fluidics since the early 1980s began R&D on true µfluidics in 2004 with first shipment in ’07. Traded on OTC bulletin board: [MFIC] Chemtrix, Ltd. BRITAIN / NETHERLANDS Microreactors for industrial chemical production. Scale-up version for “tonne-scale” material synthesis introduced in Q2.2010 Launched 2006 by the University of Hull Business and Community Knowledge Exchange with fabrication partnership with Lionix BV, operating at the University of Twente (NL) Thales Nanotechnology Ltd HUNGARY Microreactors focused on pharmaceutical production. Installed in world’s top 20 pharma companies Q3.2010 – US Patent granted for microreactor system. Q4.2009 – Collaboration w/ Hungarian nanomaterials vendor NANGENEX to use Thales system to synthesize nanoparticles $3.3M funding round, September 2008 • Dominic Gallello • Dave Tapolczay Micronit Microfluidics BV NETHERLANDS Microreactor, micromixer and cross-channel chip components for chemical synthesis Undisclosed Trillium Fiber Fuels Corvallis, OR Prototype of microchannel cellulosic ethanol reactor Seed-stage bootstrapping Q3.2009 – $750K DOE Phase II SBIR Neah Power Systems Bothell, WA Microporous nanocoated silicon reactor for methanol-based fuel cells Reverse merger with Growth Merger Inc., 3/2006 PREVIOUS FUNDING • Intel Capital Alta Partners WestAM • Frazier Technology Ventures • Alta Partners Castile Partners Graveyard Medis Technologies Ltd. of Israel, was developing a microfluidic reactor pack for fuel cell using nonflammable, chemically stable, proprietary constituent chemicals. Went into receivership, Q4.09 NanoBits, Inc. was launched in 2007 from the Chemical Engineering Dept. at Oregon State Univ. to develop microreactors for industrial chemical production. MTEK Energy Solutions successfully demonstrated a high-performance microreactor for biodiesel production, but the collapsed overall market for biodiesel puts this project on the shelf indefinitely. 81 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Financial Overview The MEMS market has experienced extremely volatile swings in investor interest and funding flows over its history. A boom in venture financing was seen in the second half of the 1990s driven mainly by MEMS optical switching and RF MEMS switching applications, both driven by hyper-aggressive growth expectations for optical communications and mobile handset growth that were undercut by the technology bubble implosion after 2000. It is difficult to obtain accurate data on the total amount of venture capital invested in MEMS companies since the early 1980s, but we believe it to be in excess of $2 billion. The private companies mentioned in this report whose funding we were able to determine collectively represent $1 billion in cumulative venture capital, and we believe that we have only captured a fraction of the total MEMS startups of the last 25 years. MEMS is a highly fragmented business, with literally hundreds of different devices targeted at various markets within the 9 major categories we have discussed in this report. With a few exceptions like air bag accelerometers, ink jet print heads, DLP microdisplays, and FBAR filters, it has been difficult for any one product to reach critical mass and achieve the scale necessary to support larger companies that can be viable public entities. The “one product, one process” problem that we mentioned earlier has impeded standardization of device structures and manufacturing flows that would help the industry expand faster. Predictions of increasing standardization in the MEMS market and a migration toward a fabless industry model similar to that of the semiconductor industry has been slow to develop, and the MEMS industry continues to be fragmented with product-specific process technology. There has been some cross-industry consolidation, as some semiconductor companies continue to invest in the MEMS market, in particular Analog Devices, ST Microdevices, and Texas Instruments. A few MEMS companies have been acquired by semiconductor companies where market and applications synergy exists, such as Silicon Clocks’ acquisition by Silicon Labs for its MEMS resonator technology for digital electronics timing applications. We expect to see an increase in acquisitions of MEMS-based companies by different industries, for example MEMS-based sensor companies acquired by semiconductor and consumer electronics firms, and MEMS-based medical devices acquired by medical device and diagnostics companies. M&A will be dictated by MEMSbased solutions providing unique capabilities and synergies that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional solutions. Table 13 is a list of public and large private companies that are involved in the MEMS market. Some are pure MEMS plays, while others are large conglomerates that have significant MEMS market presence. 82 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Table 13: Public MEMS Companies and Large Conglomerates MEMS Large Companies and Conglomerates U.S. Public Companies Company Location MEMS Technology Ticker Symbol Market Cap EV TTM Revenue TTM EBITDA TTM Earnings ($) Analog Devices Affymetrix Caliper Life Sciences Cepheid Delphi Electronics GE Norwood, MA Santa Clara, CA Hopkinton, MA Sunnyvale, CA Troy, MI Fairfield, CT ADI AFFX CALP CPHD DPHIQ.PK GE $5,310.00 $132.39 $40.68 $303.22 $35.57 $74,030.00 $4,150.00 $98.19 $49.59 $376.25 $4,910.00 $565,440.00 $2,450.00 $410.25 $137.62 $169.63 $20,180.00 $181,620.00 $699.74 $90.12 ($9.35) ($11.72) ($66.00) $33,640.00 $1.50 ($4.49) ($0.58) ($0.38) $6.27 $1.72 Honeywell Morristown, NJ Knowles Measurement Specialties MEMSIC Microvision Northrop Grumman Qualcomm RF Microdevices Raytheon STMicroelectronics Skyworks Solutions Texas Instruments Avago Itasca, IL Hampton, VA Andover, MA Redmond, WA Los Angeles, CA San Diego, CA Greensboro, NC Waltham, MA Switzerland Woburn, MA Dallas, TX Palo Alto, CA Freescale Austin, TX Accelerometer, gyroscope, MOEMS MEMS fluidics MEMS fluidics MEMS fluidics Accelerometer, gyroscope, RF switch Pressure, MEMS fluidics Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS thermal imaging, MEMS fluidics MEMS microphones MEMS fluidics Accelerometers MEMS microdisplays RF switch Diffractive displays (Mirasol™) RF switch RF switch, MEMS thermal imaging Accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS timing RF MEMS DLP™ micromirror displays RF switch Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS fluidics MEMS Markets HON $18,160.00 $26,030.00 $36,560.00 $4,430.00 $3.76 — MEAS MEMS MVIS NOC QCOM RFMD RTN STM SWKS TXN — — $43.43 $39.02 $76.25 $11,530.00 $55,170.00 $210.71 $15,990.00 $3,640.00 $1,150.00 $18,320.00 — — $112.74 ($25.20) $46.35 $14,620.00 $46,290.00 $588.15 $16,040.00 $4,930.00 $979.03 $15,780.00 — — $223.96 $21.38 $8.07 $33,890.00 $11,220.00 $934.83 $23,170.00 $9,840.00 $859.71 $12,500.00 $1,699.00 — $33.74 $0.60 ($32.34) $3,710.00 $4,230.00 $54.48 $2,910.00 $1,810.00 $142.04 $3,750.00 $331.00 — $0.89 $0.03 ($0.49) ($3.77) $1.65 ($3.27) $3.95 ($0.88) $0.69 $1.45 — — — — $5,226.00 $1,059.00 — Ticker Symbol Market Cap EV TTM Revenue TTM EBITDA TTM Earnings ($) International Companies Company Location MEMSCAP France Schneider Electric SA France Bosch Sensortec Germany ELMOS AG EPCOS/TDK Germany Germany Infineon Germany Alps Electric Company, Ltd. Dai Nippon Screen Hitachi Murata Oki Japan Japan Japan Japan Japan Omron Japan Panasonic Japan Yamaha NXP MEMtronics Debiotech SA BAE Systems Japan Netherlands Plano, TX Switzerland UK Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS fluidics Pressure, RF switch, MEMS fluidics Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS timing, MOEMS Pressure RF switch Pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope, MEMS microphone, MEMS fluidics Pressure MEMS display (acquired SLM) Accelerometer, gyroscope Accelerometer, gyroscope Accelerometer, gyroscope RF switch, MEMS microphone, MEMS fluidics Accelerometer, gyroscope, RF switch, MEMS microphone MEMS microphone MEMS timing RF MEMS switches and filters MEMS drug delivery pumps RF switch, MEMS thermal imaging — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 83 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 There are relatively few pure play MEMS public companies, and they are not particularly well performing stocks and tend to have low valuations. We think this is consistent with the history of the MEMS marketplace: its fragmentation, lack of standardization, full custom or semi-custom products, and lack of killer vertical applications. Invensense, a venture-backed private company that has developed accelerometers and gyroscopes based on a proprietary process technology, filed for an IPO in June 2010, but as of this writing has not completed its offering. The outcome of Invensense’s public offering could have a significant effect on the exit strategies of other successful MEMS startups. In the next couple of years, we expect to see several M&A exits for companies that have developed good technology and have established some market traction. Although we are optimistic about the future of MEMS, we believe it will take a few years before the technology and market opportunities converge to create the mega-revenue opportunities that could lead to IPO or high price M&A exits. In the meantime, acquisitions will tend to be of a strategic nature, to expand the available market for existing MEMS providers, or to create a market entry for companies seeking to establish a MEMS presence. Given the wide diversity of MEMS products, M&A activity is likely to take place in several different industries, including semiconductor, consumer electronics, medical diagnostics, test and measurement, industrial control, defense/aerospace, and others. MEMS Industry Trends Sensors surpass actuators with motion sensors as driving force In 2007 MEMS sensors, driven by motion sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, as well as other sensor applications such as microphones, pressure sensors and flow sensors, have overtaken the traditional actuator applications such as inkjet print heads and micromirror arrays for displays. This is mainly due to the penetration of motion sensors into consumer applications such as game consoles, notebook PCs, digital still cameras and smart phones. The use of motion sensors will spread to toys, remote controls and many new uses on hand sets such as pedometers, GPS dead reckoning, computing and entertainment user interfaces, and other functions. We believe the motion sensor market will continue to see accelerating growth. MEMS timing devices and RF MEMS could be next big emerging markets We think that MEMS resonator-based oscillator devices will begin to displace legacy quartz-based oscillators in certain applications, and could become a large market during the next few years as costs continue to decline. RF MEMS switches, which are used in small volume applications such as ATE, could gain traction in 4G mobile handsets if the cost problem can be solved. MEMS microdisplays, microphones, and microfluidics will be growth drivers We think that microdisplays will get second life as picoprojectors for mobile handsets begin to take off in the next couple of years. We believe that picoprojectors will have to 84 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 use some type of MEMS device for the microdisplay. MEMS microphones are already making significant inroads in the mobile handset space, which will continue, but we think they will also be used in automotive, personal navigation devices (PND), toys, and portable computers, which should continue to drive strong growth. We also expect to see practical MEMS-based audio speaker solutions in the next few years that could have a revolutionary impact on the audio speaker market in much the same way that the MEMS microdisplay (e.g. TI’s DLP) helped to obsolete the analog CRT display. Microfluidics is just starting to establish a toehold in diagnostic and medical device applications, and these areas should experience fast growth as the medical device and diagnostics industries continue to invest in new devices, many of which will utilize MEMS, such as blood analyzers, gene sequencers, and drug delivery systems. Migration toward fabless model Foundry services for MEMS have been around for some time, but have been low volume and not very visible. For example ST Microelectronics produces as much as half of HP’s ink jet print heads and Sony serves as a foundry for Knowles Electronics producing its MEMS microphones. More recently Freescale announced its intent to provide foundry services at its Oak Hill fab in Austin and TSMC is converting some of its 0.35μm semiconductor fabs into MEMS fabs. There are also a number of fabs that specialize in MEMS production such as Innovative Micro Technology (IMT based in Santa Barbara, CA), Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM is a UMC subsidiary based in Taiwan), Micralyne (based in Edmonton, Alberta) and Dalsa Semiconductor (based in Bromont, Québec). We believe the size and growth potential of the MEMS market will drive continued MEMS foundry capacity which will help support a fabless MEMS device company model. Ancillary opportunities will emerge Since every MEMS sensor or actuator will require electronic circuits to measure, process and transmit the sensor’s output, respectively to provide the control signals for the actuator’s input, there will be opportunities for ASIC and ASSP suppliers to provide such ICs. Substrate materials (silicon, glass, metal, plastics) and MEMS fabrication equipment opportunities will emerge for companies further down the food chain from MEMS devices. The packaging of MEMS either on their own or in combination with an IC in a multi-chip package is another area of opportunity driven by the growth of the MEMS market. MEMS Opportunities in Clean Tech We think that MEMS technology is well suited to many clean technology applications and will find multiple opportunities therein. Mesh sensor networks, such as commercial building automation, medical monitoring, and industrial monitoring and control are areas of interest that can utilize MEMS sensor technology to sense pressure, air flow, position and orientation. MEMS could also play a role in energy harvesting to convert ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy through piezo or capacitive energy conversion. 85 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Conclusions The MEMS industry has come a long way in the past few years from serving just a few high volume applications such as inkjet printers and automotive air-bags to entering many new applications in the high volume consumer and automotive markets. As a consequence of new “killer applications” such as the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone the growth rate for MEMS will exceed the growth rate for semiconductors in the coming years, albeit from a much lower but still substantial base. The compound annual growth rate for MEMS through 2014 is expected to be on the order of 25% on a per unit basis and 14% on a revenue basis with certain applications being substantially higher. The overall MEMS market is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2009 to $14 billion in 2014. Of this almost half will be in consumer applications. The MEMS industry is very close to a tipping point in our view. The applications to drive demand for MEMS devices are growing rapidly. Technology to design and fabricate MEMS devices has evolved to the point where it is feasible to manufacture high volumes of MEMS devices at competitive cost, at least for some applications. The MEMS industry is moving toward more standardized fabrication processes so that more companies can pursue a more capital-efficient fabless model. Finally, companies in the semiconductor industry, which is highly synergistic with the MEMS industry, have strong financial motivation to branch out into the MEMS market to generate incremental revenue streams and to exploit synergies that may exist between their core technology and products and complementary MEMS devices. As these factors converge, we think the MEMS market could move through an inflection point and experience tremendous growth in the next 2-3 years. Venture capital investment in the MEMS industry has undergone significant swings in the roughly 25 years that the MEMS industry has existed. After very large investments in the second half of the 1990s, venture investing in MEMS dried up in the first half of this decade following the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000. The MEMS industry also suffered from promising too much, too soon, as predictions of the market penetration and growth of the MEMS business turned out to be overly optimistic. While venture investing is being significantly distorted by the current financial crisis, we think there could be a systemic shift in venture dollars formerly allocated to semiconductor technology companies toward MEMS companies over the next few years. A significant amount of venture capital has already been redirected away from traditional fabless semiconductor start-ups toward industries such as photovoltaic cells, advanced batteries, fuel cells, and other clean technology segments. We think that MEMS is a natural fit for venture investors given the relatively early stage of the market and the potential for venture-type returns as the industry passes the tipping point. We believe there could be a significant amount of M&A activity in the next 2-3 years as 86 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 companies that were funded in the late 1990s or 2000s seek exits and as companies in the MEMS space and semiconductor industry seek incremental competitive advantage in their existing markets or look to enter new markets. It is not surprising that some of the largest MEMS manufacturers today are semiconductor companies, such as Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Analog Devices, Robert Bosch, Freescale and Avago. We expect to see these firms make strategic moves to strengthen their MEMS business units, and we expect to see other chip firms follow in their footsteps. The MEMS industry is in the midst of transitioning from a fragmented, custom device business into a high volume business driven by a number of different vertical segments. The automotive and consumer markets have driven the bulk of the industry’s growth to date in air bag accelerometers, various automotive pressure sensors, ink jet print heads, micromirror image displays, and inertial position sensors. The opportunities in the consumer market should expand very quickly, since the natural synergies of motion, vision, and sound give rise to unique user interface and applications. We think the ability to combine MEMS sensors with microfluidics and electronic circuitry could result in powerful analytical tools for medical diagnostics, genetic analysis, drug management and delivery, industrial control, environmental monitoring, and other applications that are impractically bulky and expensive with traditional mechanical actuators, electronic systems and software. Innovative companies will provide investment opportunities for forward-looking venture investors, and help drive the MEMS industry past the tipping point. Visionary companies that took the risk a decade ago are reaping benefits today, and we expect to see more large firms entering the MEMS business through strategic M&A to create new opportunities. The combination of innovation, availability of “standard” foundry manufacturing capacity, and high volume market opportunities should create some excellent investment opportunities with the potential for high value liquidity events. 87 Boucher-Lensch Associates MEMS Devices Q4.2010 Boucher-Lensch Associates LLC 1250 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 210 Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Telephone: (408) 501-8826 Fax: (408) 501-8808 Web site: www.boucherlensch.com Charles Boucher Telephone: (408) 501-8826 x1709 [email protected] Robert Lensch Telephone: (408) 501-8826 x1710 [email protected] John Martin Telephone: (206) 852-6409 [email protected] Disclaimers This material is based on data obtained from sources we deem to be reliable; it is not guaranteed as to accuracy and does not purport to be complete. This information is not intended to be used as the primary basis of investment decisions. Opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. No part of this report may be reproduced, reprinted, redistributed, or sold without the prior written consent of Boucher-Lensch Associates LLC. Experience Relationships Insight 88