LONDON — Hewlett Packard Co. was the largest MEMS maker in 2007 with more than $850 million of trade driven by its inkjet print-head based on its scalable printing technology, according to market research organization Yole Developpment (Lyon, France). The top 30 vendors are estimated to have MEMS sales of $5.6 billion, representing about 80 percent of the global market.
Hewlett Packard, with a 10 percent increase in MEMS sales took over from Texas Instruments. TI has done well in MEMS over the years based on the sale of its moving-mirror digital light processing (DLP) devices. Yole said TI MEMS have come under price pressure from other flat panel display technologies in 2007.
Yole's ranking runs: Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments $800 million; Robert Bosch, $400 million; Lexmark $300 million; Seiko Epson and STMicroelectronics on about $240 million; Freescale Semiconductor on $230 million; Canon, $220 million; Analog Devices $210 million. Systron-Donner is ranked 10 with just under $200 million in annual MEMS sales.
"Nine companies are above $200 million sales, compared to only four companies two years ago. Analog Devices is a newcomer, boosted by MEMS accelerometers demand for consumer applications," said Jean Christophe Eloy "Only two companies are expected to decline in sales in 2007. Apart from Texas Instruments, Lexmark is reporting a slight global decrease in 2007." The sales of the top 30 MEMS companies is growing at a 7 percent annual growth rate, slightly lower than the 9 percent annual growth shown by the overall MEMS market, Yole said. This indicates there is still vitality in the small and medium players looking for niche applications. As in previous years, print-head manufacturers have dominated the top 10 of the MEMS market with HP, Lexmark, Seiko Epson and Canon, although this year Lexmark recorded a decrease in global sales.
Yole expects business to follow a similar pattern in 2008 with big changes set to happen in 2009 or 2010, after a wave of mergers and acquisitions and as manufacturing moves from 6-inch to 200-mm diameter wafers.
