Top MEMS Foundries: TSMC passes specialty MEMS players in Yole's annual ranking

Lyon, France - April 29, 2013 -- In 2012, TSMC’s MEMS foundry business enjoyed ~80% growth, achieved ~$42 million in sales and moved up to third place in Yole Développement’s annual MEMS foundry sector rankings. The Taiwanese foundry’s MEMS business is now the largest of any open foundry, putting it shoulder-to-shoulder with pure-play specialty MEMS foundries like TELEDYNEDALSA (~$39 million), according to Yole figures.

TSMC’s strong growth is mainly the result of a production ramp-up to support InvenSense’s ~$40M in additional inertial sensor sales. Also, TSMC manufactures consumer MEMS devices for Analog Devices, and inkjet heads for Memjet. Please note that Yole Développement’s figures only count the MEMS manufacturing value, not the value of the ASIC, even if bonded to the MEMS device.

Thanks to its contract production for Hewlett Packard, STMicroelectronics continues to dominate the MEMS foundry business. Though ST’s foundry income declined about 20% last year when demand for HP’s inkjet heads dropped off, its $200M in revenue still accounted for almost one-third of the ~$600M MEMS foundry business.

Meanwhile, Sony’s foundry revenues benefited from strong MEMS microphone demand for mobile phones and tablets. Thanks to this, along with Sony’s contract production for Knowles Electronics, the company achieved ~30% growth.

Beneath these two large-contract/single-customer producers exists a tight cluster of leading open foundries with sales between $30M - $40M, including TSMC, Teledyne DALSA, Silex Microsystems, and the combined sales of Asia Pacific Microsystems and its parent, UMC.

Foundries in the $10M - $20M range continue to fight for a piece of the high-value, low-volume specialty MEMS manufacturing market. Overall, however, the foundry business is not seeing the same fast growth as the MEMS industry, since IDMs have captured most of the increase in the high-volume consumer mobile business.

One newcomer to our rankings is GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a MEMS company that experienced ~50% growth thanks to production ramp-up for its customers, including InvenSense.

More than ever, Yole Développement’s MEMS law rings true: each company has the process knowledge to create its own devices, thus rendering moot the idea of industry standardization and the emergence of large foundries.

About Yole Développement :

Founded in 1998, Yole Développement has grown into a group of companies providing marketing, technology and strategic consulting, media, and corporate finance services. With a strong focus on emerging silicon and micro-manufacturing applications, Yole Développement has expanded to include more than 50 associates worldwide, covering MEMS, Compound Semiconductors, LED, Image Sensors, Optoelectronics, Microfluidics & Medical, Photovoltaics, Advanced Packaging, Nanomaterials and Power Electronics. Yole supports companies, investors and R&D organizations worldwide, helping them to understand their markets and stay abreast of technology trends in order to grow their business.