Dallas, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/24/2012 -- This has been driven by a large increase of the consumer market: mobile phones and tablets for accelerometers; gaming for gyros; mobile phones for magnetometers. Along with "stand-alone" MEMS devices, inertial combo sensors, a combination of several inertial sensors into a single package, are also coming. Main applications are consumer (e.g. accelerometer with magnetometeror accelerometer with gyro) and automotive for ESC and rollover functions first.

Inertial MEMS & magnetometers are today driven by 4 major market trends:

- Future generation of sensors will deliver functions and will become "solutions"
- Fusion of sensors (combining data from different sensors) is starting to be widely used
- New architectures are developed
- Price pressure is still very strong (5% drop per quarter for consumer applications).

On the technical side, form factor is ever decreasing with reduced footprint and thickness. And power consumption has been reduced to a few microA while performances are still increasing.

The most successful type for inertial MEMS is based on capacitive transduction. Reasons are simplicity of the sensor element, no requirement for exotic materials, low power consumption and good stability over temperature. But will comb-drive architecture for accelerometers continue to be the main detection principle as MEMS die size keeps shrinking?

Regarding gyroscopes, most are falling into the categories of tuning vibrating fork/plate (STM, Bosch) or vibrating shells (Silicon Sensing Systems). This very common design gives ease of fabrication and possible integration in standard IC manufacturing industry.

For magnetometers, Hall Effect has been the dominant technology for a long time, but today it is changing as Magneto Impedance, Giant Magneto Resistance and Anisotropic Magneto Resistance are used. A new approach, Lorentz effect based on MEMS technology, is currently in R&D (VTT and others). This could bring easier integration in MEMS combo sensors.

Keys features of the report

The objectives of the reports are the following:

- Provide an understanding of the market drivers for inertial MEMS
- Consumer
- Automotive
- High-end
- Give trends about packaging and tests strategies
- Provide in-depth analysis for 23 MEMS devices in terms of:
- Production cost breakdown for MEMS, ASIC, Packaging & Test
- ASIC litho nodes
- Die & package size
- Package type
- Comparative analysis in terms of performance, production cost for MEMS, ASIC, sizes, year for market introduction.
- For each device, photos are depicting:
- MEMS close-up structure
- MEMS dimensions
- ASIC dimensions
- Package view
- Specific process steps
- Cost breakdown

Companies cited in the report

Acutronic, Advanced Microsensors, Advantest, Afore, Aichi, AIS/SSS, AKM, Analog Devices, ASE, Baolab, Bosch Sensortec, CascadeMicrotech, CEA Leti, Colibrys, Epson Toyocom, Freescale, Gladiator Technologies, Honeywell, Invensense, Jyve, Kionix, KYEC, Litef, Memsic, Multitest, Murata, Panasonic, Polytec, Qualtre, Rohm, Sensonor, Sensordynamics, Sony, SPEA, SSS, STM, Systron Donner, TEL, Teradyne, Thales, Tronics, VTI, VTT, Yamaha.

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