【Media Focus】Minshen Shares: Applications Drive the Entire MEMS Industry Chain

In the face of the sudden COVID-19 pandemic, infrared thermometers have become commonplace, safeguarding people's health. The most crucial component in these infrared thermometers is the detector formed after the infrared MEMS chip is packaged. Besides infrared thermometers, the mobile phones we use daily for communication also rely on MEMS chips. In portable consumer electronics with sound-capturing capabilities, such as mobile phones, the core of the silicon microphone sensor is also a MEMS chip. Suzhou Minsic Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Minsic") is a company that provides core MEMS chip products for the medical and consumer electronics industries.

MEMS sensors have quietly infiltrated various life scenarios. As the vice general manager of Suzhou Minsic Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., Hu Wei told a reporter from China Electronic News, "With the advent of the 5G and Internet of Things era, the application scenarios of MEMS chips are accelerating."

In 1947, the invention of the transistor by Bell Labs in the United States marked the birth of the modern semiconductor industry and brought semiconductor technology into the public eye for the first time. In the early 21st century, foreign companies such as Knowles widely applied MEMS sensors to consumer electronics such as smartphones, triggering a wave of commercialization in the MEMS industry.

Foreign companies have thrived in the MEMS industry, having started the commercialization process much earlier. China's MEMS industry, however, started relatively late. In the early 21st century, domestic companies focusing on the MEMS field were few and far between. Seeing the vast market awaiting development and sensing the great opportunities in small machines, Minsic set its sights on MEMS sensors, a "rising sun." Driven by professionalism, interest, and passion, the Minsic entrepreneurial team was determined from the outset to choose the MEMS sensor track.

Our advantage in the MEMS sensor field is that we started early. Recalling the entrepreneurial experience, Hu Wei frankly told a reporter from China Electronic News, "Starting early means accumulating more resources in the industry chain, allowing earlier access to the capital market, and subsequently forming a capital barrier."

Seizing market opportunities early, Hu Wei's "starting early" allowed Minsic to start from scratch, giving it the opportunity to continuously explore and conduct in-depth research and development of MEMS products and production processes, gradually accumulating deep core technologies. However, everything is a double-edged sword. In Hu Wei's view, "starting early" also means encountering and overcoming challenges in technology and application earlier.

Minsic, which started from scratch to develop China's MEMS industry, faced an almost non-existent MEMS industry chain. "The biggest difficulty the company encountered in its development was the incomplete industry chain." Hu Wei told a reporter from China Electronic News, "For example, there was a lack of R&D platforms, analysis and testing platforms, and there was no way to conduct wafer mass production, packaging, and testing."

Fortunately, during this somewhat difficult process of building a complete MEMS industry chain from scratch, the Suzhou municipal government provided great assistance to the company. "The government has built some platforms, such as the CAS Institute of Nanotechnology, which is open to us, giving us a place to conduct R&D." Hu Wei told a reporter from China Electronic News, "Later, the government built a pilot test platform and introduced some testing companies, so the industry chain gradually became complete, enabling us to conduct small-batch pilot tests of some products."

The combination of its own technological and market advantages and government support allowed Minsic to gradually build a complete domestic MEMS industry chain. At present, Minsic possesses core technologies in MEMS product chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging, and testing, has strong MEMS chip design capabilities, connects the entire industry chain of MEMS sensor design and manufacturing, and has the ability to mass-produce MEMS products.

As the sensor industry enters the fast lane of development, MEMS sensors have quietly infiltrated various life scenarios. Whether it's the silicon microphone sensor and the accelerometer sensor used for portrait and landscape screen applications in mobile phones, or pressure sensors in automobiles, the core is the MEMS sensor chip. With the advent of the 5G and Internet of Things era, the application scenarios of MEMS chips are accelerating.

"The company's MEMS microphone products have been applied in mobile phones, tablet computers, smart speakers, headphones, and televisions." Hu Wei told a reporter from China Electronic News that Minsic is also involved in pressure sensors and accelerometers. It is understood that currently, Minsic's MEMS sensor products cover consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablet computers, laptops, smart homes, and wearable devices, and are also gradually expanding into the automotive electronics and medical fields.

Driven by a wealth of application scenarios, RF, filters, and optical micromirrors related to autonomous driving have become hot spots in the current development of the MEMS industry. In Hu Wei's view, the development of these hot areas will further drive market demand expansion, making the domestic MEMS industry chain increasingly complete, and the problem of the "weakness" of the domestic sensor industry's development level is expected to be solved. "Weakness" is a matter of time. As the market grows larger, the domestic industry chain will gradually improve, and the demand for localization will become stronger, and the problem of industry "weakness" can be solved." Hu Wei told the reporter.

When discussing the future technological development trends of the sensor industry, Hu Wei said that the sensor industry will continue to develop in the direction of miniaturization and intelligence, and more low-power and high-performance sensor products will emerge. What efforts should companies make to adapt to the development trend of the sensor industry?

In response to this, Hu Wei also expressed his views to a reporter from China Electronic News. He said that for enterprises, core technological R&D and innovation, the construction of a complete industry chain, and the development of a broader market are unavoidable keywords. "In the future, we will extend upstream and downstream, especially to applications, which will expand the breadth of the sensor industry." Hu Wei told the reporter that the company will continue to increase its R&D efforts, develop and produce more types of sensor products, and help the sensor industry achieve "flourishing branches and leaves" under the impetus of diversified application scenarios.

Government support is also crucial for the development of enterprises. Hu Wei suggested that the government should continue to strengthen investment attraction, especially investment attraction for upstream and downstream enterprises, to better achieve cluster effects. In addition, the government should also build various platforms and introduce some industrial support policies.