The ramp to mass production of GMEM’s MEMS microphones products will be on Tower’s 0.18um flow, which has been custom developed for GMEMS products.
Tailor designed for the rapidly growing demand of the earbuds and cellphone markets, GMEMS’s advanced microphones have been developed to offer a substantially smaller solution. Utilizing Tower’s advanced facilities and platforms provides high volume manufacturing and capacity assurance, enabling the company to meet the demands of these fast-growing market demands.
According to Yole Development, the MEMS microphone market is expected to grow from $1.2bn (5.8bn units) in 2019 to $1.7bn (9.3bn units) in 2024, representing a 6.6% CAGR.
“We are very pleased to have partnered with Tower to enhance the manufacturing capability for our highly demanded microphone products. We chose Tower for its advanced technology platforms and its capability to manufacture MEMS at large scale due to the compatibility with its CMOS flow,” said Dr. Mark Wang, GMEMS CEO. “The joint effort between GMEMS experts and Tower’s exceptional R&D team enabled a successful ramp to a stable high volume manufacturing of our products, as well as to set a roadmap for the development of our next-generation microphones“.
In addition to a very small die size, Tower’s flow offers multiple advantages for the manufacturing of the MEMS microphones including high dynamic range and high SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), key features when addressing MEMS microphone market demands, especially for mobile devices.
“Our tight and well-aligned collaboration allowed to effectively ramp GMEMS excellent products to high volume mass production using best in class technology,” said Dr. Avi Strum, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Sensors & Displays Business Unit, Tower Semiconductor. “We look forward to accomplishing additional achievements together allowing to realize even greater market potential”.
