MEMS is an important technical branch of sensors and even the entire semiconductor industry. It is currently in the outbreak period of the third industrial wave. It is in the ascendant. The MEMS industry in China and the world is changing. Old and new companies are up and down. The MEMS overlord has changed hands several times. .
This article tells us the history of the global MEMS industry in the past ten years: the history of Bosch's dominance, Broadcom's transformation into the second largest MEMS in the world after being acquired, Texas Instruments TI's weak growth, HP's strategic mistake and the sale of its measurement department to become Broadcom today , ST ST Semiconductors used MEMS sensors to help Toshiba launch "anti-collision data protection" notebooks ; the biggest changes and markets in the MEMS market in the past 10 years; the two largest transmitters in China rely on American sensors ; China's MEMS inertial sensor leader MEMSIC The history of being split after the privatization of the US stock market; China's MEMS power such as Gore, Sensing, Meixin, Xirenma, GM, etc. is rapidly rising...
At the end of the article, a question about the MEMS industry is raised: in the future, where is the market that will change the current MEMS pattern?
To obtain sensor knowledge and reports, please click the blue word to view the content of "100+ sensor professional knowledge materials, there is always one suitable for you~" , which gathers many authoritative sensor knowledge materials and continuously updates ing...
No public
Original author: Lin Xueping | General Manager of Beijing Lianxun Power Consulting Co., Ltd., part-time professor of Tianjin University School of Precision Instruments
(Note: This article has some deletions)
Human behavior is being tracked in all directions. Behind these products, such as mobile phones, wrist watches, weighing scales, and wearable devices, are inconspicuous smart particles, which can identify people's behavior status in all weathers and in all spaces, and record consumer habits and logical connotations exactly. They even know themselves better than people themselves.
This smart particle is a kind of sensor called MEMS. It is half a chip and half a machine, like a miniature mecha warrior armed with a full chip, which has profoundly changed the interaction between man and nature. Here's what's so refreshing about it: It's the first sensor that transcends human senses.
Smartphones hide this mystery. As early as 2012, the iPhone 5 used four MEMS sensors. In the past five years, the true wireless headset TWS, which has become more and more popular, is behind the contribution of MEMS.
And the world of suppliers in this field is basically calm. Thirty companies can account for 90% of the overall sales. They are basically old faces on the list , half machine and half chip, competing on the track.
The global MEMS market is changing, two heroes are fighting for hegemony, South Korea is absent, and China is rising
Global MEMS revenue will reach a market of more than 100 billion yuan in 2020. There are still many old faces in the arena. However, HP, the king of ten years ago, has gone from the first place to the back, while Broadcom has suddenly emerged. After sinking and floating, behind it is the era of desktop computers, which has turned to the mobile Internet in an all-round way.
The sales of printers have declined, while the MEMS sensors required for printer inkjet continue to decline, while the market for radio frequency sensors for smartphones has expanded sharply , making it difficult for suppliers like Broadcom not to make money.
Overall, this is a boring arena. Not many surprises. The chip industry is pointing to great integration. But the MEMS sensor is an alternative. It refuses to choose the form of oligopoly, but maintains the situation of multiple competition.
It probably presents a situation where two big brothers lead more than 20 younger brothers. Broadcom and Bosch are two heroes, each leading the industry with a revenue of nearly 10 billion yuan ; followed by mid-level players who cut in half, at about 5 billion yuan. They are like the keys of a piano, continuously and evenly arranged from the high register to the low register. With a revenue of 500 million yuan, it can almost enter the global Top30 list.
▲The list of MEMS Top30 companies in 2022, source: Yole
The pattern of MEMS sensors has basically followed the footsteps of the semiconductor industry, and the strongest is still the United States , accounting for most of the country. Europe is dominated by big-name manufacturers such as Bosch, ST, and NXP, while Japan is unique in its multi-brand. South Korea was unexpectedly absent , while China occupied two positions with the microphone of true wireless headsets.
Bosch and Broadcom are the only two giants, but there are many challengers
Among the global MEMS sensors, Broadcom and Bosch are the two dominant reasons.
But the reasons for the two lead are different.
Bosch has been at the top of the list for many years. Its most powerful feature lies in its ability to step on multiple boats in the application market.
It is too strong in the consumer and automotive markets, where an average new car contains 5 Bosch MEMS, and half of the world's smartphones contain at least 1 Bosch MEMS.
Different from the diversification strategy of other manufacturers, Bosch only provides MEMS sensors but not products in this field (For example, although AAC has 17 billion yuan in revenue in 2020, most of it is contributed by headphones rather than sensors ). This also makes Bosch's success in the MEMS business particularly dazzling.
The trouble with Bosch MEMS sensors is that there are a lot of harassers, like a lion being targeted by a pack of mustache dogs. Ruyi Semiconductor, which directly competes with the same type of devices in the consumer market, is not active in the automotive market; NXP has sensors that can compete, but it is only successful in the automotive field. While Bosch occupies both the consumer electronics and automotive fields, no one has such strength.
Broadcom was originally an outsider. Although it is a chip giant, it had no place on the list before 2016. In 2016, a MEMS RF sensor acquired Broadcom, and continued to name the new company Broadcom (accurately it should be called New Broadcom) . This made Broadcom the runner-up in the 2016 rankings, and became the world's largest MEMS manufacturer in the second year.
This amazing market driver is from smartphones. The popularization of mobile Internet with 4G mobile phones has greatly increased the demand for such sensors. Smartphones have rewritten the industrial structure of MEMS. STMicroelectronics ST and Texas TI, the top 3 manufacturers in the past, were rudely pushed to the back by smartphones.
Broadcom's troubles are lonely and sharp. Because, it is being chased by a cheetah with stronger acceleration. This cheetah is the US Qorvo. In the RF-MEMS space, both companies are strong players in the same device category. In the ranking of the top 30 MEMS companies in the world in 2016, Qorvo has already begun to show amazing acceleration.
10 years of wind and cloud, the desolation of the former MEMS overlord
Ten years ago, Texas Instruments TI and Hewlett-Packard held the top spots.
In the past ten years, the most helpless should belong to Texas Instruments TI. Its MEMS product revenue has been maintained at the level of 800 million US dollars. Due to the saturation of the original products, the sales growth was weak, and TI had to wait for the maturity of the new market. However, applications such as 3D gesture recognition, car head-up helmet HUD or smart lighting have not yet formed an obvious start for TI's products. These are the embarrassments of TI. Its turnaround still depends on the lidar in the car market.
HP is a twilight hero in the dark night. It sold off the measurement part from the computer department that year, which was obviously a misjudgment of the future. This sold department eventually evolved into Broadcom, the global leader in MEMS sensors.
The sale of HP that year seemed to have sold its soul. At that time, HP executives thought that there was only one track, and that personal computers and printers were the king of home installation.
At that time, Texas Instruments TI also showed an aging pace, and its digital processor failed to catch the fast boat of LCD flat-panel TV. The first place is a competition between two seniors, but the times have turned. There are fewer and fewer home printers. People are using smartphones and tablets instead of printing out reams of documents.
During this period, Jinshan WPS software did not gain a firm foothold in the desktop market, but it showed its talents in mobile phone reading pages. The reason why WPS can rise in a curve is the killer of HP's positive decline. The decline in printer sales will affect the demand for inkjet heads. Similarly, the sensor business of Canon and Epson in Japan has also been dragged down by the decline of printers , which is quite sympathetic. Under the big waves, it is often not a family that sinks, but all the competitors in the past, all capsized.
Melee: No One Device Can Really Change the MEMS Landscape
The MEMS business of STMicroelectronics once had a glorious history. The "anti-collision data protection" notebook launched by Toshiba was amazing for a while. When the notebook is in a falling state, MEMS will automatically sense and start, and shut down the data hard disk, thus effectively protecting the data.
This is a scenario developed by ST for Toshiba and subsequent IBM notebooks (this story is described by the author as "long-arm grayscale innovation" in the book "Greyscale Innovation"). Now, although it has been struggling to gain ground in the automotive and industrial MEMS markets, it still has a strong backing, with Apple as its most important customer. As the only major customer, it has been in a state of vigilance .
Qorvo currently ranks fifth, and this company is on the list of indispensable chips in Huawei's high-end mobile phones. As a radio frequency manufacturer, it is really a newborn calf, and it has made rapid progress in recent years. Qorvo was formed in 2015 by the merger of two RF solution suppliers, and also has a strong background in defense and military industry . Subsequently, it caught up with the great development of radio frequency sensors.
After the establishment of Qorvo, it carried out several mergers and acquisitions to expand its product line. Qorvo's fierce offensive is destined to bring a lot of trouble to champions like Broadcom.
The rest is brother melee. Infineon, Sensata, Denso, Amphenol, and Melexis focus on the automotive market. Alps, Asahi Kasei AKM, Sony, and Murata mainly serve the consumer market. Panasonic focuses on In the industrial field, Honeywell is in the industrial and aerospace military industry . Tyco TE NXP NXP has been involved in many markets. Due to multiple acquisitions, Tyco's diversification capabilities have been greatly enhanced.
In the past 10 years or so, the biggest change in the MEMS market has come from smartphones and related products such as smart earphones. In addition, there is no device that can really change the MEMS market structure. Surprisingly, despite the rise of automotive electronics, it has not added new faces to the market. And augmented reality AR and other thunderous noises, people have to express disappointment.
Cruel market: MEMS independent manufacturers have huge market potential and are constantly being merged and acquired
TDK, a Japanese electrical and chemical company, has always been a pioneer in electronic raw materials and components. Once the king of tape recorder tapes and computer disks, it now specializes in capacitors and sensor systems of all kinds. It has many different brands.
For the MEMS business around 2015, it can be said that TDK took down three companies in a row with its suddenly realized belief and the determination to catch the old house on fire. Become the top brand among nearly ten MEMS manufacturers in Japan, overwhelming Panasonic, Denso and Asahi Kasei. It is noteworthy that the two acquired by TDK are the third and fourth listed MEMS companies in the world.
Another listed MEMS company, MEMSIC, was founded by a Chinese. After becoming the first company listed in the United States in 2009, it had a bright future, but it became a victim of eager capital. In 2012, due to continuous losses, it was acquired by IDG Capital and completed privatization . Subsequently, IDG began to prove that it was the legendary hot-handed destroyer, and the main business of MEMS was diluted
After a series of rescues, passing the drums on, and then passing on the drums, the current MEMSIC has been dismantled into three companies. There is only one goal, and that is to go public impatiently, and the final destination of this effort is the Science and Technology Innovation Board. The capital eager for quick success and instant benefit adds a lot of small forks to the original excellent resume of a good student. The country seems to exist, but the face is no longer.
The sudden emergence of Chinese power in the MEMS track
The sensor is a super short board made in China. It is regrettable that this market has so far lacked sufficient attention. But of all the sensor categories, MEMS sensors are the standout one, seizing the smartphone microphone opportunity.
MEMS microphones are the most dazzling star in the past two decades. Knowles mass-produced the first MEMS microphone in 2002, followed by China’s AAC and Goertek , while other opportunities were left to Infineon, TDK, NJRC, etc.
Chinese manufacturers have made impressive breakthroughs in MEMS, including microphones for smartphones and wearable devices, and have the potential to compete with Knowles in the global market.
In 2013, Knowles reached a revenue of 3 billion yuan, and then it was like being jumped into a magic circle of Monkey King, and it has never been able to jump out until now.
That is, in this year, Knowles Electronics launched an intellectual property investigation on Goertek , starting from the packaging patent; Goertek also quickly counterattacked. A year later, the two parties not only shook hands, but also concluded a further business cooperation relationship.
The advantage of China's low-cost manufacturing has been proven to be a strong core competitiveness , which is beyond the reach of foreign companies.
AAC and Goertek have proved the feasibility of catching up with mature market models. In this 150 billion market for true wireless TWS earphones, China's second wave of challengers has begun to enter the market .
There are Suzhou Minxin , which will be listed in 2020, with a revenue of 330 million yuan in 2020, and Fujian Xirenma, a cutting-edge force . The latter just launched a new MEMS microphone in May this year. As a domestic sensor company that adopts the vertical manufacturing IDM model, The innovation of this company is worth looking forward to .
And General Micro GEMES , which has just completed financing , is also eager to try. The high-end products it designs will be entrusted to the world's second largest MEMS foundry - Sweden's Silex, a subsidiary of Saiwei Electronics. The latter is a rare merger and acquisition in China's sensor field.
Where will the MEMS market be in the future? MEMS clock? MEMS speakers?
It is not easy to figure out the future pattern of MEMS. As a component, it cannot exert its own strength and can only rely on the development of smart products.
American TE companies grasp their own destiny through mergers and acquisitions. As the world's largest sensor and connector company with an annual revenue of US$13 billion , it has performed well in consumer goods, industry and medical fields. In 2019 it acquired Germany's FirstSensor, the most important sensor for transformers in the chemical industry. Chongqing Chuanyi, the most important transmitter manufacturer in China, has been using this brand of sensors.
Another transmitter manufacturer is Beijing Far East Rosemount, which is a subsidiary of Emerson in the United States. This means that the two largest transmitters in China rely on American sensors . The keys to life are all in the pockets of Americans. This move has greatly stimulated Chinese instrument manufacturers.
Many emerging markets are waiting for MEMS sensors. Drones, for example, combined with satellite navigation is a new excitement. E-cigarettes are also an emerging market. Digital differential pressure MEMS sensors can realize the airflow detection of electronic switches. In this regard, Hefei Micro-Nano, Goertek, Suzhou Minxin and Shanghai Silicon Core have layouts.
There is also the field of MEMS clocks. The leader is SiTime in the United States, with a market share of up to 90% . As an all-silicon oscillator, it completely replaces traditional crystal oscillator products with high performance and low cost.
What do we need timing like this for? The car has proven itself to be a four-wheeled supercomputer. And the variety of electronic devices determines that there must be a heartbeat system that is in step. A car needs as many as 70 timing devices, and the familiar timing devices such as GPS and backup cameras are actually just insignificant scales.
The precise timing required by self-driving cars needs to be kept to nanoseconds. Or think again, when the da Vinci scalpel is performing surgery, more than 400 sensors need to have amazing consistency. These are the thrilling moments of the MEMS clock. And Sitime is looking for its own market space in these time scales that humans cannot touch.
New MEMS products are like water flowing in the field, it is constantly looking for the direction of least resistance. Now that in the field of microphones, many companies, such as TDK and Infineon, have continuously released new digital MEMS microphones suitable for such voice applications.
The next breakthrough is the speaker. In the past few years, several companies have developed MEMS-based micro-speakers, trying to change this ancient technology that has echoed for a long time. Perhaps the old speaker brand Dr. Bose should also tremble. Will speakers be overturned by these emerging technologies? Anyway, the earphones have been dried up.
The consumer business unit of Sennheiser, the world's top audio giant and the head of the four traditional HiFi brands, was sold in May . The purchase price is 1.6 billion yuan, but its revenue in 2020 will be 2 billion yuan. It can be said that it was almost sold at a premium, and it fell under the knife of the full-fidelity headset TWS .
Vehicle electrification has brought mixed messages to the MEMS industry. The good news is that electrification and autonomous driving have brought a bigger cake to MEMS . The good news continues for HEVs that include internal combustion engines, which require multiple pressure sensors.
But for pure electric vehicles, since there is no internal combustion engine, there is no need for powertrain sensors. The automotive powertrain accounted for 51% of the total demand for MEMS pressure sensors . This means that the leaders, such as Bosch, Infineon and Denso, have to brake early to change lanes.
Conclusion : Where is the market that changes the current MEMS pattern?
Even so, MEMS sensors are still a kind of prophecy, all things have eyes, and spoil the future. Every move of MEMS manufacturers is like a reference book about future products, heralding various possible intelligent roads.
In the future, where is the market that will change the current MEMS pattern?