Only two of Europe's 77 MEMS fabs are Top-10

According to a study conducted by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) Europe has 77 MEMS fabs. In Europe there are 285 semiconductor facilities. Of these 77 are MEMS fabs, 102 are conventional silicon analog and digital integrated circuit production facilities, 24 R&D facilities, 37 make power semiconductors and 24 make compound semiconductors of various sorts. The remaining 48 factories are packaging facilities. SEMI said that out of the 285 facilities 12 of those fabs are capable of manufacturing 90-nanometer or more advanced process technology. "There are 24 R&D facilities in that list, places like Fraunhofer, but apart from that they are commercial fabs", Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe commented. "There are 24 R&D facilities in that list, places like Fraunhofer, but apart from that they are commercial fabs", Kundert added. Other key facts revealed by the audit are that Europe has close to 2.5 million square meters of clean room with more than 30,000 people working in wafer fabs. Europe also has 36,000 square meters of clean room at world-class research institutes. According to the results from the study there are despite the 77 MEMS manufacturers in Europe, only two of them in the top ten, Bosch Sensortec and STMicroelectronics. SEMI reckons European MEMS manufacturers have about 16 percent of a $6 billion global MEMS device market in 2006.