Taipei, Sept. 10, 2008 (CENS)--Some Taiwan IC assembly and test service providers have been venturing into the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) business to cash in on the rapidly growing market.

Driven by new demand from consumer electronics and wireless applications, the global MEMS market would expand to US$8.8 billion in 2012, up from US$6.1 billion in 2006, according to a recent forecast made by iSuppli Corp.

MEMS technology used to be applied in mainly inkjet heads and digital light processing (DLP) chips. Nintendo`s Wii game console, however, introduced new applications for such technology.

Some IC assemblers and testers in Taiwan, including Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (ASE), Lingsen Precision Industries Ltd., Sigurd Microelectronics Corp., Tong Hsing Electronic Industries Ltd. etc. have stepped into the MEMS field in recent years. ASE utilizes the WLCSP (wafer level chip scale package) technology to develop MEMS assembly and test techniques and the company has been focusing on major application products such as optical MEMS, radio-frequency (RF) MEMS etc.

Lingsen, Siqurd, and Tong Hsing concentrate on the development of automotive electronics, and have developed MEMS sensors, MEMS pressure gauges, microphones etc.

For the global MEMS market, iSuppli analysts forecasted that four main segments together would account for slightly more than 60% of total MEMS market revenue in 2012, including consumer electronics, cellphones, automotive, and industrial process control.

The sources added that MEMS microphones have gradually become a mainstay in cellphone application due to their compact sizes, though the prices are about 30% higher than traditional counterparts. So Lingsen, Siqurd, and Tong Hsing have stepped into MEMS microphone packaging market.

Lingsen started to devote itself to MEMS packaging in 2003 by utilizing its complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) production technology. The company has been aggressively cooperating with customers in developing MEMS application in handsets, and reportedly has begun small-batch shipments to integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) in Japan and fab-less customers in the United States.

Sigurd is actively contacting local MEMS microphone makers and three-axle accelerator manufacturers in Japan. The company plans to expand its monthly capacity to over 600,000 MEMS microphones.

Tong Hsing has tied up with a partner in the United States to produce MEMS microphones applied to notebook PCs and the company hopes to extend the production application into handsets.

(by Quincy Liang)