A 40-year-old technology, MEMS devices by the 1990s became commonplace in airbag sensors and air pressure sensors in cars, inkjet printer heads and blood pressure monitoring devices, just to name just a few.
Each of these many industrial sectors account for hundreds of millions of MEMS devices sold every year in a marketplace now exceeding $10 billion a year in sales. Today, though, the MEMS industry is poised to enter the multibillion-dollar consumer products marketplace in force, led by major specialized semiconductor manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and Robert Bosch, as well as a host of creative, venture-capital-backed start-ups.
These companies are pushing MEMS devices into increasingly sophisticated display technology, motion detection (to protect cell phones and laptops from breaking during a fall), even microphones. The growing range of MEMS applications may soon encompass most of the massive global consumer electronics marketplace.
Some of these consumer-related MEMS applications are already entering the marketplace, others may be only a few years away from commercialization. And if the market develops as analysts expect, the total worldwide market for MEMS will grow from $11.5 billion in 2004 to $24 billion in 2009. Consumer products will help drive the doubling of those sales figures, especially digital displays in TVs, mobile phones and other handheld devices, laptop computers and digital cameras, microwaves and washing machines.
MEMS technology is an outgrowth of the highly sophisticated semiconductor industry. Microelectromechanical systems integrate moving mechanical elements, sensors and electronics on pieces of silicon. A typical MEMS device is indeed an engineering marvel that brings together integrated circuit manufacturing processes with “micromachining” to etch away or build up silicon structures of moving parts. The result is a microscale device that combines computational ability with the sensing and control functions of exquisitely sensitive sensors.
The first commercial MEMS devices evolved from the mid-1960s, reaching high-volume production in the 1990s. Since then, industries that absolutely require high-precision MEMS devices, such as automakers, have continually integrated them into high-priced products, passing the cost onto consumers. Meeting the low price demands of mass production (yet low safety) manufacturers of electronic mobile consumer products at a high volume is a very different challenge for MEMS suppliers.
For starters, few MEMS devices are truly “monolithic,” meaning they combine the micromachined silicon structure and electronics on the same chip. More often, the micromachined part and electronics are fabricated separately and then wire bonded together in a single package.
Digital television displays are the most significant and growing arena for MEMS. Texas Instruments dominates the optical MEMS market for digital displays with its digital light processing technology, or DLP.
The heart of DLP is an array of up to 2 million hinge-mounted aluminum micromirrors, known as digital micromirror devices, or DMDs. The mirrors——each about 14 microns wide, or one-fifth the width of a human hair——reflect a digital image from a light source onto a screen. The mirrors tilt toward or away from the light source, creating light or dark pixels; white light, such as a florescent light, is projected through a color wheel to create color.
DLP technology today accounts for one in five very large (more than 40-inch diagonal) digital TV displays, where it competes with more established technologies such as the venerable cathode ray tube as well as liquid crystal and plasma displays, and new technologies such as organic light-emitting diodes. And it’s an important and growing market. Overall, digital TV sales are projected to grow to 9 million units in 2007. Other major markets for MEMS displays are DLP front projectors and commercial cinema.
微型机电系统
MEMS是一项有40年历史的技术，在上世纪九十年代，MEMS装置在汽车的气囊传感器和气压传感器、喷墨打印头和血压检测装置等多种笔记者电脑设备中成了常见之物。
在这些多种多样的行业中，每一个行业类都用了数以亿计的MEMS装置，每年在市场上的销量超过100亿美元。今天MEMS工业在德州仪器、模拟器件、博世等专业的半导体大厂商带领下，一大批风险资本支持的创新企业正昂首阔步地进入几十亿美元的消费品市场。
这些公司将MEMS装置应用到了日益复杂的显示技术、运动检测（以防止手机和便携机跌落时摔破）、甚至麦克风中。不断扩大的MEMS应用不久将占领大多数的消费电子市场。
有些与消费者有关的MEMS应用已经进入了市场，其他的应用离商品化也只是几年之遥。如果市场的开发如分析师所言，MEMS的全球市场将从2004年的115亿美元增长到2009年的240亿美元。消费产品，特别是数字电视机、移动电话及其他的手持设备、数码相机、微波炉和洗衣机，将使MEMS的销售量翻一番。
MEMS技术的增长超过了已经非常先进的半导体工业。微型机电系统将活动的机械部件、传感器和硅片上的电子电路集成在一起。实际上，典型的MEMS装置是工程上的一项奇迹，将集成电路制造工艺与“微型机加工”结合起来，刻蚀或构建出硅结构的活动部件。其成果是这种尺寸微小的装置将计算能力与极其灵敏的传感器的传感和控制功能结合起来。
第一批商品化的MEMS装置是从上世纪六十年代中期发展起来的，到九十年代达到了批量生产。从那时起，绝对需要高精度MEMS装置的行业，如汽车制造业，持之以恒地将MEMS装置做进高价位的产品，将成本转嫁给了消费者。满足低价位的大批量生产（也是低安全性）的电子移动消费产品制造商的需要，对MEMS供应商来说是一个完全不同的挑战。
对于刚起步的新公司来说，很少有真正是“单片式”MEMS装置，所谓单片式就是在同一芯片上将显微机械加工的硅结构与电子电路结合起来。通常，显微机械加工的部件和电子电路是分开制造的，然后在同一封装块内用线将它们连在一起。
数字电视显示是MEMS最重要、发展最快的领域。德州仪器公司以其数字光处理技术（DLP）控制着MEMS的数字显示器市场。
DLP的心脏是一个多达200万个安装在铰链上的微型铝镜（称作数字微镜装置，即DMD）阵列。这些微镜，每个只有14微米宽，为人的头发丝的五分之一，将来自光源的图像反射到屏幕上。微镜相对于光源进行转动，造成像素的或明或暗。白光，如日光灯的光，通过色彩轮投射出去，从而产生颜色。
今天，DLP技术占据了两成的大屏幕（对角线超过40英寸）数字电视显示器的市场，它正与早已入市的老式阴极显示管以及液晶和等离子显示器、以及诸如有机光发射二极管等新技术进行竞争。这是一个重要的、发展中的市场。预计到2007年，数字电视的销量将达到900万台。MEMS显示器的其他市场还包括DLP正向投影机和商业电影院。
文章来源于领测软件测试网 https://www.ltesting.net/
