MEMS collaboration addresses high volume market
X-Fab has announced a collaboration with MEMS foundry MFI to address the market for high volume MEMS and target sales of $50million per year. The mixed signal/analogue foundry has acquired a 25.5% shareholding of MFI, a move it hopes will broaden and expand its MEMS foundry service and accelerate its expansion in high volume MEMS manufacturing.
Originally a spin off from Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT), MFI will gain access to X-Fab's advanced analogue and mixed signal silicon foundry and MEMS device manufacturing services. "With this joint cooperation we will close the gap between microelectronics and pure MEMS foundry services and establish an outstanding technology bundle," said Dr Peter Merz, ceo of MFI.
The agreement extends X-Fab's mwma capabilities across a range of 8in MEMS technologies for development and manufacturing. In 2010, the company accrued more than $12million of MEMS revenue and has manufactured approximately 1billion devices to date. "We see a huge business potential in this cooperation," said Hans-Jürgen Straub, pictured, ceo of X-Fab. "With strong demand and our combined resources, we aim to increase our annual MEMS revenue to more than $50m in the next five years."
