Research and Markets, the leading source for international market research and market data, has announced the addition of "MEMS Switch and Varicap Market Report" to their offering.
MEMS switches and varicaps products are getting to commercialization today
These products either replace existing switching products or create new features. The industry is just emerging with early sales levels in 2006. Successful sales of MEMS switches have been registered for ATE (Automated Test Equipment) and other defense and industrial applications since 2006.
Despite a market growth in 2007 the two industrial market leaders, Teravicta and Simpler Network have nevertheless stopped their activity in December 2007. It will be a challenge for the industry to recover from this difficult start.
But acquisitions in the field of the cell phone module industry (such as EPCOS acquisition of NXP MEMS varicap activity) raise commercialization expectations in the next 2 years. Report highlights who is poised to be the next leading players and which applications will drive the MEMS switch and varicap sales in the 2007-2012 period. Six players are currently commercializing or sampling products on the market (RadantMEMS, MEW, Advantest, XCOMwireless, MEMtronics, Wispry) and more than 20 additional products development projects have been listed in the report. M&A activity will certainly increase in the next 5 years in order to push forward the commercialization of these technologies like EPCOS did this year. The potential market for switches and varicaps is thereforelarge because MEMS based switches are expected to both:
- substitute existing products
- enable new applications, particularly for mobile phones within the short term
There is complex market segmentation for the products to fit with a large set of parameters for each application: Supply voltage, size, and cost structure, RF power handling capability, reliability level, and fit with the supply chain requirements
Our forecasts that the main market drivers are the following:
- Weight and size benefit for space and ATE (Automated Test Equipment) applications
- Increased RF switching performance at constant size and cost, for cell phone and radars applications
- Ability to create switching matrix being low cost and good RF performances in wired and wireless telecom applications
MEMS switch and varicaps will generate over US$ 650M sales by 2012. The market will be mainly driven by cell phones applications.
Price erosion be a major concern from MEMS manufacturers as volume ramps up. Market leaders will have a major advantage in this complex technology development period.
This report not only describes the market at the player and application level, but it provide a global view of the RF MEMS switch market allowing to build diversification strategies taking into account technical requirements.