This is one of the greatest MEMS stories, period! MEMS microphones are a great example of silicon gradually replacing the incumbent technology. In 2011, 50% of mobile handsets were using MEMS microphones, up from 38% the year before. Plus, MEMS microphones are multiplying! While only one accelerometer, compass or gyroscope is needed in a tablet or mobile phone—and these are increasingly being sold as a single multi-sensor package or “combo”—the number of MEMS microphones per phone grows. Witness Apple’s new iPhone 5, which features 4 MEMS microphones! The upshot is that an estimated 1.8 billion MEMS microphones will ship in 2012, more than double the 700 million that shipped just 2 years ago. By 2016, more than 4 billion silicon MEMS microphones are anticipated in the market.

 

Why this sharp uptick in the market? Good acoustics and voice command have become a differentiator in consumer electronics devices. This requires a level of performance that has so far staved off the dramatic price erosion experienced by accelerometers used in the same products. But there is more to this story than just impressive growth numbers. The supply landscape is very dynamic—characterized by a significant leader in the shape of Knowles Acoustics, but with many challengers. This presentation will address many features of the MEMS microphone industry: the dirty IP wars on one hand, the alliances and efforts to emancipate from suppliers on the other, not to mention the companies that bit the dust along the way and those that received the kiss of life and come back from the dead.

 

MEMS from its beginning has always been about finding new use to existing devices and launching on the market new devices which are either replacing bulky mechanical modules/devices or providing a complete new function. The growth of the MEMS market is mainly coming in the last years by new applications that are enabled by MEMS devices. Now, after several years (and may be more than that…), several brand new innovative devices are arriving on the market and will generate the next wave of growth of the MEMS industry. This talk will focus on such new devices and the linked design and industrial infrastructure which is enabling the emergence of such innovative devices.

 

Tony Massimini, Chief of Technology, Semico Research
Tony and Semico are examining the growth and development of sensor fusion across several markets. The main focus for sensor fusion is not only designing in more than one type of sensor, but also how to most effectively use the wealth of raw data available. Tony will discuss the applications and trends that will drive adoption of sensor fusion, the potential TAM by application and the issues that companies working in sensor fusion must consider.

 

Apple set of a firestorm with the incorporation of MEMS motion sensors in its iPhone and iPad mobile products. A string of Apple competitors began incorporate accelerometers, gyros and magnetic compass devices in their handsets and tablets — lifting fortunes for several MEMs sensor suppliers, and leaving consumers wondering “what’s next.” Depicting revenue growth for what Gartner calls “non-optical sensors” tells only part of the story… We know that your phone will support “location-based services” (even without GPS tracking). It will count your footsteps inside a shopping mall, and (increasingly unbidden) direct you to the nearest Starbucks. But are we looking at diminishing returns? Sooner or later, every phone will have an array of sophisticated gyros — drastically price-reduced. Rather, sustained growth will come from ever more sophisticated and granular monitoring. Future applications include facial recognition, context aware gesture recognition, even personal medical monitoring. This presentation asks how some of these dramatic possibilities sustain or derail MEMs revenue growth.