Evaluate manufacturing cost of MEMS devices

NANTES, FRANCE: System Plus Consulting has released MEMS CoSim+ V3.0: a comprehensive tool to achieve simulation of the non-standard manufacturing process of MEMS devices.

With MEMS devices providing mission-critical functionality in many applications, such as medical instruments, car security systems, mobile phones, tablet PCs and navigation systems, there is a rapidly-growing market for extremely efficient MEMS sensors. Due to their non-standard manufacturing process, the cost of MEMS devices can be difficult to estimate.

To understand the costs of accelerometers, pressure sensors, micro mirrors, gyroscopes and inkjet heads, System Plus Consulting, together with Yole Développement, the leader in the analysis of MEMS applications and market, has introduced a new costing tool to calculate the main cost drivers for different types of MEMS sensors.Source: Yole Développement, France.

The MEMS CoSim+ V3.0 cost simulation tool can be used to understand cost structures, identify cost drivers, make competitive analyses, estimate supplier margin and perform cost evaluation of different technology options. It can also define business models, such as fabless, fablight and manufacturing.

MEMS CoSim+ V3.0 is perfect for Marketing Executives who need to know price structure, Process Managers and R&D Engineers who analyze economic feasibility, and Purchasing Managers who want to understand costs.

MEMS CoSim+ V3.0 is easy to install and features an Excel interface for maximum usability. Final results can be modified and ported, and reports can be created like in any Excel workbook.

Advantages of MEMS CoSim+ V3.0 include the following:
* Complex project setup takes only a few clicks, thanks to processes and operations libraries.
* All project and reference data is stored in a sharable database.
* Each project is built on a hierarchically-defined Bill of Material, which includes any number of MEMS, ASICs and passive components.
* Front-end processes can use several wafers, each of them having its own front-end process.
* Each process can use multiple fabs, with individually-defined cost and overhead parameters
* Easy project data import/export functions allow multi-site data sharing.

The outputs of MEMS CoSim+ V3.0 are:
* wafer cost breakdown.
* wafer equipment cost breakdown.
* wafer material cost breakdown.
* die cost breakdown.
* cost of package assembly.
* cost of component.
* estimation of selling price.