Agile MEMS packaging for mass customized MEMS products

The market for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) is becoming increasingly competitive especially for small and medium sized enterprises. The progressing trend in mass manufacturing leads to very few competitors that dominate the MEMS market. This competitive environment results in cheap devices with limited variation, therefore opportunities at the tail end of the market are usually neglected. The MEMS research community predominantly focuses on new device types and manufacturing methods with a high impact factor and those are naturally settled in the mass market segments. This paper introduces an approach for research and development that aims to open the opportunities within the long tail of the market. It consists mostly of a combination of new design approaches for MEMS and packaging, software tools and digital manufacturing technologies to ensure that solutions developed are ones that can be adapted to different customer requirement on a level that is perhaps uncommon in the MEMS community.