Cost-Driven Design of Smart Micro Systems

The market of micro systems with advanced data processing functionality is permanently growing due to the declining costs of the fabrication technologies. That cost development is mainly driven by the reduction of manufacturing costs in the field of microelectronics. The prices of digital integrated circuits (IC) decline by approximately 30% per annum. The reasons for these cost advantages are basically the steady reduction of feature sizes and the higher yield of increasing wafer area. The annual cost reductions of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are mostly lower compared to integrated circuits due to the high technological diversity and the smaller market volume. The packaging technologies for dense module integration accompany the development of a permanent cost reduction. As a result, the area of the printed circuit boards (PCB) declines by 15% and the costs fall by 25% in the field of mobile phones each year.