STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), the leading supplier of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices for consumer and portable applications, announced that Benedetto Vigna, Group Vice President and General Manager of its MEMS, Sensors and High Performance Analog Division, has delivered the opening keynote speech at  the  SEMICON Taiwan 2010 MEMS Forum to discuss the challenges of sensor integration and the trends for future smart-sensor system solutions, with a key focus on the application requirements of the mobile market.
 
The phenomenal success of applications such as gaming platforms – like the Wii – and smartphones – like the iPhone – is spurring the development of MEMS technology, products and applications.
 
“ST has manufactured more than 850 million units of MEMS including both accelerometers and gyroscopes and has 50% share in consumer and mobile MEMS market and 21% in all other markets such as automotive and industrial,” said Benedetto Vigna. “We are the first company to enter the mobile phone market with a 3-axis digital gyroscope and by the end of 2010, we will have shipped over one billion MEMS sensors in all applications. We also intend to exploit the economy of scale resulting from our huge success in the consumer field to address other markets, such as healthcare, industrial and automotive.”
 
As the one-stop MEMS supplier of choice, ST is paving the way to smart sensor modules. With its high degree of sensor and application expertise, scalable manufacturing capability, especially at the assembly and testing level, ST is able to provide integrated system solutions in a package that include various components such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, microphones, microcontrollers, interface ICs, and connectivity components that enable wirelessly interfacing the systems with the outside world.
 
The integration of multiple sensors into a package, on top of the miniaturization and cost advantages, customers can be benefited from number of different advantages including:
 
•    Reduced design cycle time;
•    Ability to sense many degrees of freedom enabling a larger number of applications;
•    Shorter application development time;
•    Reduced number of external components;
•    Higher performance and reliability; and
•    Easier assembly, which decreases the failure rate during the assembly itself.