Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading Edge Engineering from the 1996 NAE Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Large-Market Applications of MEMS
Large-Market Applications of MEMS
Pages 67-72
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From page 67... ...
The entire field of MEMS has been enabled by the massively parallel fabrication methods established in the semiconductor industry, but the economy of scale and other economic models governing the semiconductor markets are still transposed too often without sufficient differentiation to make rational predictions about the markets for MEMS-based products. And although these parallels are both undeniable and enabling, the successful MEMS venture today is likely to be the one that focuses on differences rather than parallels with mainstream semiconductor markets.
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From page 68... ...
, and the associated development cost can be recovered only if a large volume market exists for the product. The economy of scale that rules the semiconductor industry in general obviously also requires the existence of large volume markets because of the high infrastructure investment cost, but the subtle difference is that MEMS, unlike mainstream electronics, requires a large market for the product, not just for the technology.
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From page 69... ...
It is clear, though, that MEMS foundry processes will never aspire to reach the same levels of generality and breadth of applicability as the standard semiconductor foundries, simply because of the different nature of the problem. For practical purposes, MEMS development is, unlike custom integrated circuit design, less of a "software" activity and much more of a "hardware" activity, where most of the added value is realized at those locations having a strong internal development capability.
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From page 70... ...
Modeling tools generally are recognized as a high priority for the advancement of the MEMS field, though, and progress is being made rapidly. THERMAL INKJET CASE STUDY A success story concerning the introduction of MEMS technology in a high-volume market involves the disposable printheads in the TIJ printer products now dominating the low-end color printing market (Courtney et al., 1994~.
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From page 71... ...
The market volume has been further sustained over time because the TIJ printheads are disposable that is, the MEMS components are embedded in consumable supplies. Time to market is typically not excessive in these applications, because TIJ heater wafers can be piggybacked readily on slightly modified baseline MOS processes and because the fluid-flow pathways are relatively uncomplicated micromachined parts.
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From page 72... ...
Thermal efficiency is achieved through a thicker-than-usual field oxide to avoid thermal losses to the substrate, and the MOS circuitry is protected from the ionic ink environment with an extra polyimide passivation film. The ink cartridge (i.e., packaging)
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