High-performance, low cost inertial MEMS: A market in motion!

The latest advances in MEMS inertial sensors for applications where size, weight, power, and cost are key considerations are having profound effects on the market place. MEMS industrial and tactical-grade sensors are the most dynamic technology in the high-performance inertial industry. Vole Development sees the market growing from $381.8M in 2011 to $638.8M in 2017 for single MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes or assemblies of MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes. However many technical and commercial challenges are predicted for the manufacturers involved in MEMS: how to guarantee a high level of vacuum for keeping high performance over the lifetime, how to bring down the costs when most of the applications are in the 100 or 1000 unit range per year and what are the best business partners to enter new markets which are sometimes captive. Sensitivities of MEMS sensors to vibrations and temperature, that has led to disappointments in recent years because of lower performance and reliability issues. Adoption of MEMS is/was thus slower than expected but the benefits of MEMS are so unique that it is still a strategic technology for most of the largest inertial sensor and system manufacturers. The recent availability of tactical-grade MEMS IMUs is clearly attractive for a wide range of applications. Indeed many applications will find interest in low-cost devices while it also opens new market opportunities such as precision guided munitions or small size UAVs. This explains why nearly every major IMU manufacturer has access to MEMS technology today. The presentation will start with a focus on the MEMS accelerometer market: current technical trends will be described (development of close-loop high-g accelerometers) and an overview of the most important applications will be given. This will be followed by an overview of MEMS gyroscopes to be described in the second part of the presentation. Finally, a ranking of the most important MEMS suppliers will be presented and the impact of MEMS developments on the traditional value chain will be discussed.