Emerging MEMS to drive mergers, says Yole
Working with KnowMade SarL (Sofia Antipolis, France) Yole has analysed a selection of seven emerging MEMS segments, namely: active optical cables, microspeakers, autofocus systems, chemical sensors, ultrasonic MEMS, silicon microfluidics and optical scanners.
Yole said that it has noted that many of the patent concentrations for these sectors are either with startups, universities or with large companies, such as LG and Samsung, most of which do not have MEMS manufacturing. Yole said that it is also notable that access to high-volume manufacturing is a key to market penetration. The conclusion drawn is that partnerships between startups and high-volume manufacturers and acquisition activity is a likely outcome.
"It is interesting to notice that no current big MEMS player has patents in all the different emerging MEMS segments we have covered. STMicroelectronics is one of the rare companies having patents for different devices, in micro speakers and silicon microfluidics. For other devices, most of the patents are held by startups, such as poLight or Cambridge CMOS, or big IC players without significant MEMS activity, such as LG and Samsung," said Yole in a statement.
There are established companies with strong patent positions in single emerging MEMS sectors, Yole said. Bosch is the player with the most micro-speaker patents; ultrasonic MEMS patents are held by major medical imaging companies, such as Siemens, Phillips, General Electric and Hitachi; and silicon microfluidics is mainly explored only by universities, the company said.
Most of the consumer MEMS market value is addressed by the top ten MEMS companies: Bosch, ST, Texas Instruments, Knowles, Denso, Panasonic, Avago, Freescale, InvenSense and AKM.
For the companies not present in the MEMS landscape today but having patents on emerging devices, market access will go either through partnerships with MEMS foundries such as poLight working with ST, or through acquisition. M&A activity in emerging MEMS is just around the corner, Yole said.
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