Digitimes, the Taiwan news site, reports that TSMC is about to offer a one-stop MEMS process that will halve the cost of fabricating MEMS. TSMC is said to be refusing to comment on the expected announcement.
Apparently TSMC's CMOS MEMS process will allow the manufacturing of both logic circuitry and MEMS structures on the same wafer, so avoiding the need to move to a specialised MEMS fab for the MEMS part of the manufacturing process. This, it is said, will halve the cost of fabricating MEMS devices.
Digitimes adds that TSMC's MEMS process has passed validation and will complete trial production in Q409 'at the earliest'.
TSMC announced its intention of entering the MEMS business in May last year. The company said it intended to offer services such as bulk and surface micromachining and manufacturing processes for CMOS-MEMS integration and packaging.
TSMC has been making some MEMS devices in low volume for over a year. These include acceleration sensors, micro-displays, inkjet heads angular velocity sensors, microphones, micro-mirrors, and optical and RF devices.
In 2007, SVTC Technologies, a spin-off from Cypress Semiconductor which specialises in CMOS and MEMS integration, announced a technology development programme with TSMC.