MEMS CoST: Tool for MEMS manufacturing cost analysis

LYON, FRANCE: Yole Développement and System Plus Consulting are collaborating to release a new MEMS cost simulation tool dedicated to MEMS devices manufacturing, MEMS CoST. With this cost analysis tool, Yole Développement and its partner, System Plus Consulting propose a relevant tool to analysis MEMS manufacturing cost.

MEMS cost structure is gaining increased importance as it can determine the business model for a MEMS company. Indeed, according to the manufacturing technologies (wet vs.dry, type of bonding, lithography…), but also to the geographical localization of the manufacturing facilities, a MEMS company can select one supplier or another to save money.

Moreover, it is also today obvious that MEMS cost have to decrease to be more widely integrated into consumer applications. But, to achieve that, one must be able to precisely estimate the cost structure in order to identify where the pain points are.

As an example, the Reverse Costing Analysis made by Yole’s partner SystemPlus Consulting, has shown that potential selling price for the gyroscope is below $2 and that shrinking ASIC, MEMS and/or shifting to 200mm wafer size could reduce the cost.

MEMS cost structure analysis (including test, packaging and assembly) is the key of the MEMS business evolution. This is why Yole Développement and System Plus Consulting have released MEMS CoST.

Powerful tool designed for MEMS community
With MEMS devices providing mission critical functionality in more applications, the need for comprehensive cost simulation is paramount. Due to their non‐standard manufacturing process, the cost of MEMS devices can be difficult to estimate. Components such as accelerometers, pressure sensors, inkjet heads or micromirrors involve very different process steps.

This is why a specific and very flexible tool is required for their cost estimation. Yole Développement, leader in the analysis of MEMS applications and markets, and System Plus Consulting, leader in cost analysis of electronic products have joined forces to provide this unique MEMS Cost Simulation Tool (CoST).

Benefits of MEMS cost simulation tool
With Yole’s MEMS CoST, MEMS companies are able to run the cost simulation for a variety of different conditions: region, clean room class, process type, etc.

• Very high flexibility: MEMS CoST allows the user to enter any MEMS process flow. The manufacturing process flows are created dynamically in a friendly hierarchical view where each process step can be moved, modified or deleted. The user can save an unlimited number of process flows, equipment types and materials. Moreover, a project manager function offers the possibility to save all the user created data and scenarios (wafer Fab unit, process flow, yields…) and to reuse them later. This new tool includes two calculation modes: for dedicated fabs and non‐dedicated fabs.

• Simulation of up to five simultaneous scenarios allowing the user to run sensitivity analysis and compare results like yield improvement, manufacturing location impact on cost, etc.

• MEMS CoST uses an Excel interface for maximum usability. This tool will enable you to evaluate the cost per wafer for manufacturing using your own inputs or using the pre‐defined parameters included with the tool.

The use of MEMS CoST:
• Estimation of the MEMS margin
• Understanding of the cost structure
• Competitive analysis
• Cost evaluation for different technology options
• Identification of the cost pain points in your process
• Definition of a business model (fabless, fablight, manufacturing …)

MEMS CoST
MEMS Cost Simulation Tool is now available. Catalogue price: EURO 8,990 (single user license)