Mainstream foundries are eyeing the large-scale manufacturing of MEMS products with designs provided by fabless and fab-lite companies, gearing up to develop standardized process and technology platforms to enable high-volume manufacturing of MEMS devices,said Gregg Bartlett, senior VP and chief technology officer at Globalfoundries. 

Foundries will play a pivotal role in the MEMS industry's maturation, according to Gregg Bartlett, senior VP and chief technology officer at Globalfoundries. 

"MEMS is strategically important for Globalfoundries," Bartlett noted. "MEMS is still a one-product/one-process world. Going forward, we'll move to the process module level and ultimately to platform standardization."

Globalfoundries is working with resource organizations like IMEC in a move to keep the barrier entry low for companies which are looking to design MEMS, Bartlett indicated. In addition, as a solution provider, rather than a contract manufacturer, Globalfoundries in partnership with EDA and IP companies, and backend houses provides solutions from design support, process technology to assembly and test, Bartlett said.

Globalfoundries will be engaged in the manufacture of inertial devices, RF switches and optical devices, starting out with high-volume consumer and mobile applications, Bartlett disclosed. "There are other apps that we will continue to monitor, but we are a for-profit business and must generate revenue," Bartlett said.

Globalfoundries currently manufactures MEMS products at its 200mm fab in Singapore. Transition to 300mm manufacturing will not be motivated by attempts at reducing costs because MEMS are so tiny, Bartlett indicated. However, the transition "will come but it will purely be an economical decision."

By: DocMemory
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