The MEMS market will usher in rapid growth;
China MEMS will enter a golden period of opportunity. Domestic MEMS foundries urgently need to start from their own reality and seize this historic opportunity.
The full name of MEMS is micro-electromechanical system (Electromechanical System), the use of semiconductor manufacturing processes and materials, the sensor, actuator, mechanical mechanism, signal processing and control circuits and other integrated micro devices or systems, its internal structure is generally in the micro or even nanoscale, mainly contains two parts: sensors and actuators. Among them, sensors are devices used to detect and detect physical, chemical, biological and other phenomena and signals, while actuators are devices used to achieve mechanical movement, force and torque.
Compared with traditional mechanical sensors, MEMS sensors have the advantages of small size, integration, intelligence and low cost, which can meet the requirements of sensors in the era of the Internet of Things.
With the growing popularity of the Internet of Things in semiconductors, the increasing demand for smart consumer electronics and wearable devices, and the increasing popularity of automation in industry and the home, the MEMS market will usher in rapid growth.
According to Yole Développement (Yole), the MEMS market was worth nearly $12.1 billion in 2020, up more than 2% year-over-year. After a period of weakness in 2019 and 2020, Yole's analysts expect the market to grow 11 percent to $13.4 billion in 2021. The MEMS market is expected to reach $18.2 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of approximately 7% (2020-2026).
MEMS is a multidisciplinary complex system, the entire industry chain involves design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, software and application solutions. This article will focus on the development of the MEMS foundry market.
Three categories of major participants
According to Statista data, the growth of 200 mm semiconductor manufacturers worldwide by product type between 2016 and 2021, of which MEMS products rank first with a growth rate of 60%. The MEMS market has exploded, and the era of MEMS foundries will eventually come.
Image source: Statista
At present, there are three main types of players in the MEMS foundry market:
(1) Pure MEMS foundry
Pure MEMS foundry enterprises do not provide any design services, enterprises according to the MEMS chip design scheme provided by customers, process development and foundry production services. Representative companies include Silex Microsystems, Teledyne DALSA, Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM), Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) and others.
(2) IDM enterprise foundry
IDM enterprises are vertically integrated device manufacturers, which in addition to integrated circuit design, generally have their own packaging plants and test factories, and their business scope covers all aspects of integrated circuit design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. While meeting its own wafer manufacturing needs, IDM enterprises will outsource the remaining capacity and provide MEMS foundry services. Representative companies are mainly global chip industry giants, Ruyi Fa Semiconductor (ST), Texas Instruments (TI), Sony and so on.
(3) Get involved in the traditional IC foundry of MEMS
Based on the original CMOS production line, the traditional IC foundry enterprises involved in MEMS nest some special production MEMS process technologies and convert some of the old production lines into MEMS foundry lines. Due to the outstanding mass production capacity, such companies tend to concentrate on providing FOUNDC to MEMS products in the consumer electronics field with high shipments, which are represented by TSMC and Global Foundries.
In recent years, Fabless mode MEMS device manufacturers have developed rapidly, and independent MEMS foundries have strived to standardize processes to enhance economies of scale, reduce manufacturing time and reduce costs, making independent MEMS foundries grow rapidly, but IDM foundries are still in a market leadership position.
Below is the 2019 MEMS foundry sales ranking published by The Yole Report. (In general, MEMS Foundry also has the function of semiconductor Foundry, here is only mems Foundry sales statistics)
Image source: Yole
According to the analysis of JW insights, the top 18 MEMS foundries are basically foreign manufacturers. Domestically, only TSMC in Taiwan, Taiwan's Asia-Pacific Advantage Microsystems (APM), World Advanced (VIS), and UMC are listed.
The current situation of DOMESTIC MEMS FOUNDRY
As shown in the above table, the basic situation of foreign MEMS foundry has been basically listed, so what is the current situation of domestic MEMS foundry?
JW insights has sorted out the main manufacturers of Chinese mainland MEMS foundries, including SMIC, Huahong Hongli, Shanghai Advanced, Sai Microelectronics, Silan Microelectronics, China Resources Microelectronics, Hanwang Microelectronics and other enterprises, basically based on 6-inch and 8-inch production lines.
It is worth mentioning that Sai Microelectronics (formerly Newei Technology) launched the acquisition of Sweden's leading pure MEMS foundry enterprise - Swedish Silex Microsystems AB in 2015, and achieved 100% control in 2016. After the acquisition, the process level and standardization degree of Sai Microelectronics have been continuously improved, which has greatly improved the level of domestic MEMS foundry. At the same time, Sai Microelectronics introduced the national large fund and simultaneously invested in the construction of MEMS foundry production lines in China. In October 2020, the first Beijing 8-inch MEMS international foundry line through the line was put into operation, adding 10,000 pieces / month. In June this year, Sai Microelectronics's "8-inch MEMS International Foundry Line Construction Project" (FAB3) met the conditions of completion acceptance and agreed to the completion and acceptance of the project, and the total design capacity of the 8-inch MEMS International Foundry Line was 30,000 MEMS wafers/month.
In terms of traditional wafer foundries, SMIC and Huahong Hongli's MEMS foundry also have a certain process accumulation.
SMIC's MEMS solutions focus on MEMS microphones, accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure, microscopes, ultrasonic sensors, and RF devices. In March 2018, SMIC, Shaoxing Municipal Government and Shengyang Group jointly funded the establishment of SMIC Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Shaoxing) Co., Ltd. SMIC Shaoxing layout MEMS, MOSFETs, field stop (Field Stop) IGBT structure. According to the news in July 2021, SMIC Shaoxing's production capacity has climbed to 70,000 pieces/month, and the yield rate has reached more than 99%.
Huahong Hongli has three 8-inch fabs (Huahong Plant 1, 2 and 3) in Jinqiao and Zhangjiang, Shanghai, with a monthly production capacity of about 180,000 pieces. On the 8-inch manufacturing platform, Huahong realizes the full compatibility of MEMS devices with standard CMOS processes and production lines, and the products that have been tape-out include magnetometers, accelerometers, pressure sensors, etc.
According to SEMI, MEMS & sensor foundry capacity will increase from 3.9 million pieces/month in 2019 to 4.7 million pieces/month in 2023. In addition, the "2020 China MEMS Manufacturing White Paper" also specifically pointed out that in 2019, China's MEMS corresponding to wafer demand totaled 707,800 pieces, of which 6-inch wafer demand was 360,000 pieces, accounting for 51%, and 8-inch wafer demand grew rapidly to 347,800 pieces, accounting for 49% of nearly 6-inch wafers. From the perspective of the corresponding demand of MEMS products, the 8-inch wafer demand required for MEMS microphones is the highest, followed by the 6-inch wafer demand required for MEMS pressure sensors.
Therefore, JW insights believes that when China's MEMS industry is about to enter a golden period of opportunity, it will also be an opportunity for the rapid development of domestic MEMS foundries. Domestic MEMS foundries need to continuously cultivate "internal strength" and seize historic opportunities.
Domestic MEMS OEM opportunities and challenges coexist
It should be pointed out that in the face of opportunities, the development of domestic MEMS foundry will also face some challenges.
On the one hand, from the perspective of process, MEMS technology is fundamentally different from IC technology, and the core areas of technology lie in process and manufacturing. The IC industry can support the entire product generation through a single process, and its product manufacturing process is highly standardized and the mass production is relatively simple. MeMS products are rich in variety and different functions, and the process development process presents the characteristics of "one type of product, one manufacturing process". MEMS chips or devices of up to tens of thousands, obvious personality characteristics, in addition to the use of the same silicon material, different MEMS products between the complete standard process, product parameters more, each type of product varieties to achieve mass production needs to be re-invested from the front-end research and development, the process development cycle is long, and the mass production rate is lower than the traditional semiconductor production industry, relying on a single type of MEMS products is difficult to support a company.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the market, the current local MEMS industry is obviously lagging behind the international level, the domestic market is heavily dependent on imports, the market share is basically monopolized by Bosch, ST, ADI, Honeywell, Infineon, AKM and other international large companies, the proportion of high-end MEMS sensor imports reached 80%, and the import ratio of sensor chips was as high as 90%. JW insights believes that the MEMS foundry link is one of the important factors restricting the development of the domestic MEMS industry. The weakness of the foundry link leads to the inability of good design to be quickly productized and introduced to the market, which greatly restricts the development of the domestic MEMS industry, and the middle reaches of the industry urgently need manufacturers with process experience and high-end technology to fill the depression.
Although the hardware conditions of domestic MEMS foundries are similar to the international level, the development capabilities are far less than those of overseas foundries. Domestic MEMS foundry enterprises have not yet accumulated enough process technology reserves and large-scale market verification feedback experience, the consistency and repeatability of the processing process can not meet the design needs, and the yield and reliability of the product can not meet the requirements of large-scale production. Therefore, local design companies in the commercialization stage are more willing to cooperate with overseas mature foundries.
However, in recent years, the international trade environment has been complex and changeable, and the domestic industry and market side are facing many challenges, while at the same time, it has also brought unprecedented opportunities. The first is the establishment of the science and technology innovation board, which will accelerate the survival of the fittest of MEMS enterprises and promote the rapid development of the industry; secondly, the new infrastructure opportunities, the new demand that the 5G and Internet of Things markets will bring; and finally, the state's support for the MEMS industry will continue to increase.
With the continuous improvement of the domestic MEMS manufacturing level, coupled with the advantages of localization services and costs, the trend of MEMS manufacturing links to China will be more obvious, which will also lead to the acceleration of China's MEMS fab construction and further enhance the overall capability of domestic MEMS manufacturing.
It is reported that the production and manufacturing links include meMS sensor new process development, MEMS sensor processing pilot process, MEMS sensor mass manufacturing process and other secondary industrial chain links. Therefore, JW insights believes that in the MEMS manufacturing process, the most important thing is to establish a domestic advanced MEMS platform, such as the development of multi-size compatible advanced MEMS research and development platform. (Proofreading/Holly)