Road to ultra low cost multi-sensor integration

The IC industry has gone through fast SOC integration process over the past 50 years. We see MEMS IC sensors will follow the exact path in the years to come. After decades of dreaming, technology advancement, and commercialization efforts, accelerometer is the first one deployed in our daily life with shipment volume reaches 1B units/year. Next sensor to reach 1B units/year will be the magnetic compass. Mainly driven by the mobile market, accelerometer price has dropped from $10/axis in mid 90´s to today´s $0.10/axis, a 100× drop in 20 years, while compass price has dropped from $1/axis 3 years ago to today´s $0.10/axis. As the price is continuously trending towards $0.05/axis, sensing system integration through MEMS-SOC will become the next mainstream technology by combining the advanced MEMS process technology, matured MCU, and sophisticated system algorithm. Based on MEMSIC´s MEMS IC commercialization experiences, this paper discusses how the combination of market needs and technology advancement drives the integration roadmap for the integrated MEMS sensing solutions.