Marrying diversification, innovation with high-volume manufacturing

kofkoy2000

貌似这年头，啥要是搭上苹果就发了。A股上众多苹果股也涨了爆多。

MEMS搭上苹果，也发了。

Marrying diversification, innovation with high-volume manufacturing – the MEMS puzzle[url=]
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By Sara Verbruggen

Initiated by Apple’s launch of the iPhone, the subsequent explosive growth of the smartphone market has provided the MEMS industry with one of its biggest opportunities to supply high-volume demand. But if motion sensing in our portable electronics – enabled by accelerometer and gyroscope MEMS applications for example – is the tip of the iceberg for MEMS technology how can the semiconductor industry ensure that high volume markets like consumer electronics benefit from all that MEMS potentially has to offer.

As the MEMS industry evolves, in terms of further diversification of device applications in higher volumes, this creates manufacturing challenges.

‘Organizations like MIG are helping to set standards across classes of devices in terms of specifications, rating, test interfaces, and system interfaces, and this is a great advancement in helping the industry to grow. On the manufacturing side though it is unlikely that a “standard” MEMS flow will emerge even within individual foundries except for very specific and limited types of MEMS – Invensense NF Process is an example of an attempt at this,’ comments Silex Microsystems’ VP of marketing and strategic alliances Peter Himes.

The emergence of MEMS technology over the last decade into high volume markets – consumer electronics especially – has presented the semiconductor industry with the challenge of designing and fabricating devices with different functionalities (as opposed to focusing on scaling down while ramping performance). This has paved the way for electronics in industries as diverse as healthcare, energy, security and environment. The long-term growth of MEMS depends on functional diversification but also being able to manufacture devices for these various applications in significant volumes and bringing down cost.

More than Moore techniques and processes

Wafer-scaling fabrication and process technologies, to enable these ‘More than Moore architectures’ are beginning to become established in MEMS manufacturing, for high volume markets.

SEMI’s chief marketing officer Tom Morrow says: ‘To be competitive in high-volume MEMs markets, 8” production equipment and economies will be, if not already, needed. Deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) “tuned” for MEMs technologies are also required, coupled with advanced cleaning solutions such as plasma. Bonding is, with DRIE, the other key MEMS-specific technology, used for wafer level capping and wafer level packaging.’ Critical concerns include providing good hermetic solutions to maintain performance of sensitive moving parts like gyros, while taking up less area on the wafer with bond lines. ‘The bonding process tends to take time, so throughput is typically low. Room temperature bonding and temporary bonding are areas of major improvement,’ adds Morrow.

DRIE and wafer bonding are the technologies subject to significant process improvement as both technologies are increasingly used in the mainstream semiconductor industry for 3D-TSV. In addition packaging and bonding technologies today support increasing standardization.

‘While contact and proximity aligners remain prominent lithography tools for MEMs, there is some movement towards projection steppers for better CD uniformity and automated 8” volume production,’ according to Morrow. Tools also need to be able to handle thin wafers and manufacturers also demand better overlay precision.

TSV is a critical technology, agrees Silex Microsystems’ Peter Himes. The company has specialised in TSV integration into MEMS since 2005 when its Sil-Via technology went into first production. This process, developed for the mobile industry, consisted of an all-silicon interposer for 2.5D integration of a MEMS microphone and asic onto a silicon substrate which was then solder- bumped and mounted directly onto the PCB.

‘Since then, we have been developing more TSV options for our customers, including TSV for buried cavity MEMS, TSV for capping solutions of either MEMS or CMOS, and both metal TSV and TGV through glass substrates for RF and power applications,’ says Himes.

As MEMS companies increasingly move beyond competing on manufacturing technology to competing on functionality, more of TSV/WLP packaging solutions will become widely-used platforms, predicts Yole Développement. This would also make more use of the outsourced infrastructure to reduce costs and speed-up development time.

‘Today, a few MEMS companies such as VTI, STMicroelectronics, Robert Bosch or MEMSIC have successfully implemented 3D wafer-level packaging concepts by using TSV/TGV vertical feedthrough, redistribution layers, and bumping processes to directly connect the silicon part of the MEMS/sensor to the final motherboard but without using a ceramic, leadframe, or plastic package. We believe this trend will be accelerated even further with the shift to 200mm wafer manufacturing for MEMS: it just makes sense to use wafer-level packaging, because as soon as you can add more dies on a wafer, it is more cost-effective,’ says Eric Mounier from Yole.

AMAT’s Mike Rosa points out that wafer-scale integration techniques, to enable more device functionality on a per die area basis, in combination with system-on-chip technologies to enable greater intelligence on die is becoming a standard requirement for more advanced MEMS.  ‘The end-users (system integrators – like Apple or Samsung for example) now require the MEMS device to do a lot more of the signal processing than has traditionally been the case – hence MEMS designers have to include more signal processing (CMOS) capability on die,’ says Rosa.

Fabless model

The fabless approach in the MEMS industry is now well-established, where, in order to speed up MEMS development device cycles, foundry companies partner with designers to provide them with process modules around which designers can develop MEMS devices.

But for the fabless model to facilitate the development of more differentiated and disruptive MEMS and to ensure companies remain competitive manufacturers need to be able to embrace and adopt new manufacturing processes and material technologies – which accompany disruptive new MEMS devices. ‘In the foundry space, it’s the foundry partner who is strongest in technology development that will win market share – this there is already a clear ‘pecking order’ with the big three foundries today and that is for a very good reason,’ says Rosa.

Silex is an example of a successful business servicing the fabless segment, through its program with AMFitzgerald. ‘The fact is that new companies cannot afford the cost of building a MEMS manufacturing line, and need a foundry infrastructure to get their products to market,’ says Himes.

Several key factors point to a strengthening fabless market in the long term, he observes. These include an ongoing reduction in overall development times for MEMS over the past two decades, lowering the time to market for new MEMS devices ‘though Yole is correct in saying that it needs to come down further,’ he adds. Increasingly fabless start-ups are driving innovation in MEMS-based functionality. ‘The percentage of MEMS revenues which comes from components not on the market before 2006 has been steadily growing, pointing to increased diversity and expansion of the MEMS- enabled market,’ says Himes pointing to a recent iSuppli presentation.

‘In terms of what works, Silex’s systematic SmartBlock-based approach toward process integration coupled with our defined new product introduction (NPI) process has proven to be the best way for us to manage the risk and uncertainty which comes with any process development. While customers always want shorter time to full production, an early focus of our customer programs is to get the customer fully functional samples as early as possible so that the rest of the component or system can be developed,’ Himes explains.

According to Mounier a successful fabless model relies on a MEMS designer, or similar business, finding a reliable foundry working on the long term. ‘Depending on the application, the foundry will have to be competitive on cost (consumer, automotive) or performances (defense, industrial applications). However, as many new MEMS devices are emerging in for new applications, such as touchscreens and flat speakers, MEMS foundries must be able to think about adapting the customer design to their own process flow.’

The RocketMEMS program run by AMFitzgerald & Associates is a good example. The company has defined a product design platform for rapidly commercializing semi-custom MEMS devices (pressure sensors is the first area) based on a pre-qualified manufacturing flow at Silex. ‘We think that this is an efficient path toward design enablement that can avoid the “one product, one process” paradigm in the long term,’ says Himes. Customers would be prioritizing time to market and customized form-fit-function over fully customized and optimized MEMS process flow. ‘We can envision many more such programs being set up worldwide, and thereby expanding the capability of doing MEMS design from the PhD level down to a broader class of component design engineers,’ he adds.

There are various challenges in the MEMs industry, owing to both the required process craftsmanship seen in advanced devices and the sheer proliferation of device types. Morrow observes: ‘Foundries continue to address these challenges through process capability improvement, and are benefitting from a maturing design process ecosystem that understands the need for integration with manufacturing, particularly in high-volume segments such as inertial sensors, microphones, and optical MEMs. Lower volume products, highly specialized device types, unique packaging or ASIC integration requirements seem to support IDM-type manufacturing.’

kofkoy2000

baidu的翻译，凑合看吧。
苹果推出的iPhone发起，随后的智能手机市场的爆炸性增长提供了MEMS行业最大的一个机会，供应大批量的需求。但是如果我们的便携式电子产品的感知运动–启用的加速度计和陀螺仪的MEMS应用例如–是冰山的一角，MEMS技术如何半导体行业确保高容量的市场消费电子产品一样受益于MEMS可能已提供。

As the MEMS industry evolves, in terms of further diversification of device applications in higher volumes, this creates manufacturing challenges.
随着MEMS行业的发展，在更高容量设备的应用进一步多元化，这创造了制造业的挑战。

‘Organizations like MIG are helping to set standards across classes of devices in terms of specifications, rating, test interfaces, and system interfaces, and this is a great advancement in helping the industry to grow. On the manufacturing side though it is unlikely that a “standard” MEMS flow will emerge even within individual foundries except for very specific and limited types of MEMS – Invensense NF Process is an example of an attempt at this,’ comments Silex Microsystems’ VP of marketing and strategic alliances Peter Himes.
组织像米格正在帮助设定在类的设备规格，等级，测试界面，和系统的接口，这是在帮助工业发展的一大进步。在制造方面虽然这是不可能的一个“标准”的MEMS流量将出现，甚至在个别工厂除了非常特定类型的MEMS–应美盛NF过程是在这一尝试的一个例子，”评论石英微系统的营销副总裁彼得希姆斯和战略联盟。

The emergence of MEMS technology over the last decade into high volume markets – consumer electronics especially – has presented the semiconductor industry with the challenge of designing and fabricating devices with different functionalities (as opposed to focusing on scaling down while ramping performance). This has paved the way for electronics in industries as diverse as healthcare, energy, security and environment. The long-term growth of MEMS depends on functional diversification but also being able to manufacture devices for these various applications in significant volumes and bringing down cost.
MEMS技术的出现，在过去的十年中为高容量的市场–消费电子产品尤其是–提出了半导体工业和制造设备的不同功能的设计挑战（而不是以缩小而提高性能）。这铺平了道路为电子行业如医疗保健，能源多样化，安全和环境。MEMS的长期增长取决于功能的多样化也能生产设备，这些不同的应用，大量降低成本。

More than Moore techniques and processes
比穆尔的技术和过程

Wafer-scaling fabrication and process technologies, to enable these ‘More than Moore architectures’ are beginning to become established in MEMS manufacturing, for high volume markets.
晶片尺度制造和工艺技术，使这些“比穆尔架构”开始成为MEMS制造了高容量的市场。

SEMI’s chief marketing officer Tom Morrow says: ‘To be competitive in high-volume MEMs markets, 8” production equipment and economies will be, if not already, needed. Deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) “tuned” for MEMs technologies are also required, coupled with advanced cleaning solutions such as plasma. Bonding is, with DRIE, the other key MEMS-specific technology, used for wafer level capping and wafer level packaging.’ Critical concerns include providing good hermetic solutions to maintain performance of sensitive moving parts like gyros, while taking up less area on the wafer with bond lines. ‘The bonding process tends to take time, so throughput is typically low. Room temperature bonding and temporary bonding are areas of major improvement,’ adds Morrow.
半的首席营销官汤姆明天说：“在大批量MEMS市场竞争，8”的生产设备和经济都会，如果没有，需要。深反应离子蚀刻（DRIE）“调谐”MEMS技术也是必需的，再加上先进的清洗解决方案，如血浆。结合，DRIE，其他关键的MEMS技术，用于晶片级封盖和晶圆级封装。“关键问题包括保持敏感的移动部分像陀螺性能提供良好的密封解决方案，同时占用更少的面积和键合线晶片。的接合过程中，往往需要时间，所以通常是低吞吐量。常温接合和临时粘接的主要改进的地方，说明天。

DRIE and wafer bonding are the technologies subject to significant process improvement as both technologies are increasingly used in the mainstream semiconductor industry for 3D-TSV. In addition packaging and bonding technologies today support increasing standardization.
DRIE和晶圆键合有明显的工艺改进等技术被越来越多地用于半导体工业的技术主流3D-TSV。另外的封装键合技术支持增加标准化的今天。

‘While contact and proximity aligners remain prominent lithography tools for MEMs, there is some movement towards projection steppers for better CD uniformity and automated 8” volume production,’ according to Morrow. Tools also need to be able to handle thin wafers and manufacturers also demand better overlay precision.
在接触和接近对准光刻工具的MEMS仍较突出，有一些运动对投影光刻机更好的CD均匀性和自动化批量生产8“，”根据明天。工具也需要能够处理薄的晶片制造商也需要更好的覆盖精度。

TSV is a critical technology, agrees Silex Microsystems’ Peter Himes. The company has specialised in TSV integration into MEMS since 2005 when its Sil-Via technology went into first production. This process, developed for the mobile industry, consisted of an all-silicon interposer for 2.5D integration of a MEMS microphone and ASIC onto a silicon substrate which was then solder- bumped and mounted directly onto the PCB.
TSV是关键的技术，”彼得他同意石英微系统。公司拥有专业的TSV集成到MEMS 2005后其SIL通过技术进入第一生产。这个过程，开发的移动通信行业，包括一个全硅中介层的MEMS麦克风和集成到硅衬底上，然后撞上焊料的2.5D直接集成到印刷电路板。

‘Since then, we have been developing more TSV options for our customers, including TSV for buried cavity MEMS, TSV for capping solutions of either MEMS or CMOS, and both metal TSV and TGV through glass substrates for RF and power applications,’ says Himes.
“从那时起，我们已经开发的为我们的客户更多的TSV的选项，包括TSV埋空腔MEMS，TSV上限的解决方案或CMOS MEMS，和两个金属TSV和TGV通过射频功率应用的玻璃基板上，”他说。

As MEMS companies increasingly move beyond competing on manufacturing technology to competing on functionality, more of TSV/WLP packaging solutions will become widely-used platforms, predicts Yole Développement. This would also make more use of the outsourced infrastructure to reduce costs and speed-up development time.
随着MEMS的公司越来越多地超越对制造技术竞争的功能竞争，更多的TSV / WLP封装解决方案将成为广泛使用的平台，预测DéYole发展是实现。这也将使更多的使用外包的基础设施，以降低成本，加速开发时间。

‘Today, a few MEMS companies such as VTI, STMicroelectronics, Robert Bosch or MEMSIC have successfully implemented 3D wafer-level packaging concepts by using TSV/TGV vertical feedthrough, redistribution layers, and bumping processes to directly connect the silicon part of the MEMS/sensor to the final motherboard but without using a ceramic, leadframe, or plastic package. We believe this trend will be accelerated even further with the shift to 200mm wafer manufacturing for MEMS: it just makes sense to use wafer-level packaging, because as soon as you can add more dies on a wafer, it is
今天，一些MEMS公司如VTI，意法半导体，罗伯特博世或美新公司已经成功地实现3D晶圆级封装的概念，通过使用TSV / TGV垂直贯通，再分配层，和碰撞过程的直接连接的MEMS /传感器的硅部分最终主板但不使用陶瓷，引线框架，或塑料包。我们相信，这种趋势将进一步加快MEMS为200mm晶圆制造转移：就使用晶圆级封装，因为一旦你可以添加在晶片上的模具，它是
无厂模式

The fabless approach in the MEMS industry is now well-established, where, in order to speed up MEMS development device cycles, foundry companies partner with designers to provide them with process modules around which designers can develop MEMS devices.
在MEMS产业的无晶圆厂现在的做法是行之有效的，在那里，为了加快开发周期的MEMS装置，铸造企业合作与设计师提供他们周围的设计师可以开发的MEMS器件的工艺模块。

But for the fabless model to facilitate the development of more differentiated and disruptive MEMS and to ensure companies remain competitive manufacturers need to be able to embrace and adopt new manufacturing processes and material technologies – which accompany disruptive new MEMS devices. ‘In the foundry space, it’s the foundry partner who is strongest in technology development that will win market share – this there is already a clear ‘pecking order’ with the big three foundries today and that is for a very good reason,’ says Rosa.
但对于无厂模式来促进发展的分化和破坏性的MEMS和确保企业保持竞争力，制造商必须能够接受和采用新的制造工艺和材料技术–伴随着破坏性的新的MEMS器件。在铸造的空间，它的合作伙伴谁是最强的铸造技术的发展，将赢得市场份额–这已经有一个清晰的层次性和三大铸造今天就是一个很好的理由，”罗萨说。

Silex is an example of a successful business servicing the fabless segment, through its program with AMFitzgerald. ‘The fact is that new companies cannot afford the cost of building a MEMS manufacturing line, and need a foundry infrastructure to get their products to market,’ says Himes.
石英是一个成功的商业服务的无晶圆厂段为例，通过与amfitzgerald程序。“事实是，新公司不能建立MEMS制造成本线，并需要一个铸造的基础设施，来营销他们的产品，”他说。

Several key factors point to a strengthening fabless market in the long term, he observes. These include an ongoing reduction in overall development times for MEMS over the past two decades, lowering the time to market for new MEMS devices ‘though Yole is correct in saying that it needs to come down further,’ he adds. Increasingly fabless start-ups are driving innovation in MEMS-based functionality. ‘The percentage of MEMS revenues which comes from components not on the market before 2006 has been steadily growing, pointing to increased diversity and expansion of the MEMS- enabled market,’ says Himes pointing to a recent iSuppli presentation.
几个关键因素，指出加强无晶圆厂半导体市场的长期观察，他。这些包括一个持续的减少整体发展时期的MEMS在过去的二十年时间，降低对新的MEMS器件虽然Yole是说需要进一步下降正确的市场，”他补充道。越来越多的无晶圆厂的初创企业是MEMS功能驱动创新。的MEMS的收入来自组件不在市场前2006稳步增加的百分比，指向增加多样性和MEMS扩展功能的市场，”他指着一个最近的iSuppli表示。

‘In terms of what works, Silex’s systematic SmartBlock-based approach toward process integration coupled with our defined new product introduction (NPI) process has proven to be the best way for us to manage the risk and uncertainty which comes with any process development. While customers always want shorter time to full production, an early focus of our customer programs is to get the customer fully functional samples as early as possible so that the rest of the component or system can be developed,’ Himes explains.
在什么样的作品而言，石英的防火墙基于系统对过程集成与我们定义新产品导入的方法（NPI）的方法被证明是为我们管理的风险和不确定性，这是任何过程发展的最佳途径。而客户总是希望短时间充分生产，我们的客户程序的一个早期的重点是让客户完全功能的样品尽早使组件或系统的休息可以开发，”他解释说。

According to Mounier a successful fabless model relies on a MEMS designer, or similar business, finding a reliable foundry working on the long term. ‘Depending on the application, the foundry will have to be competitive on cost (consumer, automotive) or performances (defense, industrial applications). However, as many new MEMS devices are emerging in for new applications, such as touchscreens and flat speakers, MEMS foundries must be able to think about adapting the customer design to their own process flow.’
根据穆尼耶-一个成功的无晶圆模式依赖于MEMS设计师，或类似的业务，寻找一个可靠的铸造厂工作的长期。“根据应用的不同，铸造必须具有竞争力的成本（消费，汽车）或表演（国防，工业应用）。然而，许多新的MEMS器件的出现在新的应用，如触摸屏平板扬声器，MEMS代工厂商必须考虑适应客户设计自己的流程。”

The RocketMEMS program run by AMFitzgerald & Associates is a good example. The company has defined a product design platform for rapidly commercializing semi-custom MEMS devices (pressure sensors is the first area) based on a pre-qualified manufacturing flow at Silex. ‘We think that this is an efficient path toward design enablement that can avoid the “one product, one process” paradigm in the long term,’ says Himes. Customers would be prioritizing time to market and customized form-fit-function over fully customized and optimized MEMS process flow. ‘We can envision many more such programs being set up worldwide, and thereby expanding the capability of doing MEMS design from the PhD level down to a broader class of component design engineers,’ he adds.
通过amfitzgerald & Associates运行rocketmems程序是一个很好的例子。该公司已迅速商业化的半定制器件定义产品设计平台（压力传感器是第一区）基于预先具有资格的制造流程在石英玻璃。我们认为，这是对设计实现，可以避免“一个产品的一个有效途径，在长期的一个过程”，他说。客户将优先上市时间形式的拟合函数的完全定制和优化的MEMS工艺流程和定制。我们可以设想许多这样的程序是建立在世界范围内，从而扩大从博士水平下降到更广泛的一类构件的设计工程师在MEMS设计能力，”他补充道。

There are various challenges in the MEMs industry, owing to both the required process craftsmanship seen in advanced devices and the sheer proliferation of device types. Morrow observes: ‘Foundries continue to address these challenges through process capability improvement, and are benefitting from a maturing design process ecosystem that understands the need for integration with manufacturing, particularly in high-volume segments such as inertial sensors, microphones, and optical MEMs. Lower volume products, highly specialized device types, unique packaging or ASIC integration requirements seem to support IDM-type manufacturing.’
在MEMS产业面临的各种挑战，由于所需的工艺技术先进设备和设备类型的纯粹的增殖。莫罗说：“工厂继续通过过程能力改进应对这些挑战，并受益于一个成熟的设计过程，了解生态系统集成制造的需要，特别是在高容量的片段，如惯性传感器，麦克风，和光学MEMS。低量的产品，高度专业化的设备类型，独特的包装或ASIC集成的需求似乎支持IDM型制造业。”

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