MEMS devices grow, equipment drops

Accelerometers, digital mirror displays, gyroscopes, micro fluidic devices, microphones, and pressure sensors are the more popular kinds of MEMS devices. Because there are so many different kinds of MEMS, they have fared better than the overall semiconductor industry. MEMS market grew 1.2 percent in 2008, and is forecast to grow 1.7 in 2009. For the same years, the semiconductor industry dropped 2.8 percent in 2008 and will drop a whopping 21.6 percent in 2009.

"The MEMS equipment market dropped 37.5 percent in 2008 and we project a further drop of 31.2 percent in 2009, decreases similar to the 32.5 percent drop in 2008 and our projected 41.0 percent drop in 2009 for semiconductor equipment," noted Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network. "Fortunately, the MEMS equipment market started to rebound in Q2, while we don't see an uptick in the semiconductor equipment market until mid-Q3."