Yole presents market analysis on MEMS microphone

FRANCE: Yole Developpement has release its new report entitled “MEMS Microphone”.

MEMS microphones are already widely used in consumer applications such as mobile phones and laptops. More and more mobile phones are using 2 or more MEMS microphones for Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and other consumer applications such as laptops, camcorders etc. are also tending to use MEMS microphones array (2, 4 or 6 microphones) to have the multidirectional function.

The mobile phone market is still the largest consumer of MEMS microphones. With the penetration of MEMS microphones in the iphone 4 and other smart phones, Yole estimates rapid growth of the market in 2011-2016. By 2013, shipments will increase to over 1 billion units.

Until now, Knowles has remained market leader with more than 80 percent market share. Even though competitors are growing, such as AAC Acoustic Technologies, Hosiden and BSE, how to compete with Knowles remains the big question for the rest of the players in this industry.

And therefore, the business models of some players are changing. Infineon has turned into a microphone die supplier and works with Asian MEMS microphone players and meanwhile other companies are trying to become microphone manufacturer instead of being just foundry. Some players say that it is just a step of transition to buy microphone dies from others. This report offers a more in-depth discussion on this scope.

As the industry becomes more and more competitive, the IP rights and packaging patents are critical for manufacturers to achieve performance and cost challenges. This report will include a special focus on this part and will describe recent disputes of main players.