MEMS Speeds up Its Recovery after Japan Earthquake

It has been several months since Japan earthquake and tsunami impacted the global industry supply chain. Global MEMS industry, which has been influenced little by this serious disaster, has recovered quickly.
So far, the supply for MEMS sensor and exciter only impacted little by the disaster. The main influence of Japan earthquake is reflected in the demand aspect, but not in the supply aspect. The manufacturers of MEMS sensor and exciter suffered even than the suppliers. Meanwhile, the other aspects in supply chain affect the manufacturers’ production as well.

MEMS devices are not only used for smart phones and tablet computers, but also used in some other spheres, such as, industrial, medical and aviation spheres. Since there are 9 Japanese enterprises of the world biggest 50 MEMS enterprises, and Japan is the powerful production base for many MEMS enterprises headquartered in the Western countries, Japan is vital for MEMS production and supply.

In 2010, its annual sales revenue was about $1.38 billion, taking 21.3% of the global market demand. Moreover, Canon, Panasonic, Epson as well as Denso were listed into the 20 biggest MEMS enterprises group.

According to the revenue of Japan MEMS manufacturers and foreign MEMS rooted in Japan, in 2010, MEMS sensor and exciter, which shared 32.5% of the global revenue, had been processed in Japanese factories. The Western MEMS enterprises which have factories in Japan are as follows, Freescale Semiconductor, Knowles Electronics, Goodrich Corp as well as Texas Instruments (TI). Moreover, among them, CMOS circuit of TI DLP was made in Japan.
Additionally, almost the whole world’s compasses are entirely produced in Japan. Meanwhile, this device has become the standard equipment for the tablet computers and cell phones which have GPS function. According to the research of IHS iSuppli, in the year of 2010, the shipments for the global digital compass had reached to 263 million units, increased 354% by comparing with the shipments of 2009, 58 million units. It is expected that the shipments of it would be 1.28 billion units. Meanwhile, the total production of four main Japanese enterprises, AKM Semiconductor, Yamaha Corporation, Aichi Steel Works Ltd together with ALPS, had taken 97% global supply.

As for the global MEMS industry and Japan MEMS industry, because of the geographic reasons, its losses are less than other industries. Most MEMS factories and foundries locate in the south of Japan, Honshu where is far away from the mostdevastated area, the north Japan. What’s more, before the happening of Japan earthquake and tsunami, the suppliers ofMEMS and compass have been dependent on several factories for their production.
This is from http://www.hqew.net