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Viewing report
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The enablingMNT Review on Suppliers of Materials for MST/MEMS Production
4M2C Patric Salomon GmbH, Sep 2004, Pages: 100
Although still considered to be the smallest of MST/MEMS markets, the demand for specific materials (substrates, resist, etc) is growing. Equally relevant is the fact that users are operating in a fast changing and diverse environment, forcing the suppliers to develop and sustain a range of application specific products.
The enablingMNT Review on Suppliers of Materials for MST/MEMS Production shows that a multitude of companies ranging from small start-ups to the chemical and plastics giants are supplying the MST/MEMS community. Having noted the neglect by the suppliers of large quantities for the high volume electronic industries, small companies started to develop customised material solutions for the MST/MEMS market: where, for example, high aspect ratio resist as well as thin resist for nanoimprinting are offered by relatively small companies.
The quality and properties of materials are essential for the successful development, commercialisation and operation of any MST/MEMS product and the choice of appropriate materials must be seriously addressed during the design phase. Demand for MST/MEMS specific materials (substrates, resist, etc) is growing, but the leading driver in this market is application specificity. There is, as a result, a limit to the extent of uptake of new materials where, in general, production engineers are very reluctant to change base materials in their line, especially if such materials are critical to the process. As the position of materials is changing from just a commodity to an enabling factor, suppliers of “only” standard materials need also to change their business model. They, in turn, should adapt to market forces in order not to lose market share to the numerous specialty suppliers.
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