SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In 2008, the MEMS market saw significant changes in terms of the top-30 vendor rankings, according to Yole Developpement, a market research and strategy consulting firm.
Despite a decline in MEMS sales in 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) are still the world's first and second largest vendors, respectively, in the arena, according to Yole.
Moving up the ranks, STMicroelectronics Inc. was the world's third largest MEMS player in 2008, according to the firm.
Delphi and Sanyo are moving out of the top-30 rankings, while Kionix and IMT are entering the list. IMT is the leader in the independent MEMS foundry business, according to Yole.
''Overall sales of the top-30 MEMS manufacturers decreased by 2 percent compared to previous year, reaching $5.5 billion,'' said Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO of Yole Developpement. The current economic crisis impacted the rankings, he said.
According to Yole, here are the winners--and losers--for MEMS in 2008:
Winners:
*Thanks to its growth of the consumer market, STMicroelectronics' MEMS business had a profitable 2008 with $200 million for its accelerometer business (twice 2007 sales). STMicroelectronics moves from 4th position in 2007 to 3rd in 2008.
*Panasonic had a good 2008 with a 10 percent increase in yen compared to 2007. Yole believes Panasonic has taken market shares in gyroscopes from Murata and SSS.. Panasonic is now in 16th position, from 19th in 2007.
*Boeringher Ingelheim microParts showed good performance, showing that the biomedical market was not impacted by the crisis.
Losers:
*Ink-jet head players. Impacted with a decrease in both sales and units. This is the case for HP and Lexmark, the latter undergoing the strongest decrease for ink-jet heads. However, HP is still the number one MEMS company for 2008.
*TI. Saw its DLP chip sales by about 13 percent.
*Systron Donner Automotive. Saw a decrease because of its automotive business (minus 14 percent). This moves it from 10th position in 2007 to 13th in 2008.
*FormFactor underwent the strongest decrease (minus 51 percent). This moves it to 27th position (20th in 2007).
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