SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. today announced it has begun offering foundry-manufacturing services for electromechanical systems (MEMS), based on technology licensed from the Sandia National Laboratories.
Fairchild said it plans to ramp MEMS foundry production into high volume at its 6-inch wafer fab facility in South Portland. The company believes MEMS devices--such as sensors and actuators--will represent a $7 billion worldwide market by 2004.
To tap that potential market in telecom and consumer product applications, Fairchild has licensed the Sandia Ultra Planar Multilevel MEMS Technology (SUMMiT) IV process technology. Terms of that agreement were not released.
"Utilizing the SUMMiT IV process technology will enable Fairchild to develop RF and optical MEMS devices," said W.T. Greer, senior vice president and general manager of the company's Interface and Logic Group.
Fairchild said the patented SUMMiT IV process enables higher performing MEMS products due to tight control over film stress and device topography.
The Sandia Labs has been providing access to SUMMiT technology through a prototyping program. The agreement with Fairchild will enable SUMMiT customers to support high-volume applications, said Sandia Labs officials.
"It has been a goal of our MEMS effort to make our technology available for broad commercial applications, and the relationship with Fairchild is an important step in achieving that goal," said Jay Jakubczuk, deputy director for Defense Programs Microsystems Applications at Sandia.
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