A reminder that it isn't just nanotechnology that can make money for businesses wanting to work on a small scale.
The market for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) could grow from $5.26 billion last year to $9.86 billion in 2010. That's an annual growth rate of 13 percent. This is money now, unlike the money tomorrow promised by a lot of business working on nanotechnology, the next layer down in thinking small.
The numbers come in the announcement of one of those expensive market reports. This tells us that MEMs are already in automobile airbag systems, display systems and inkjet cartridges.
This technology is one of those areas where the USA dominates. "In 2005 more than half of MEMS devices by value ($2.6 billion) were produced in North America. Japan is the next largest MEMS producing region, accounting for one-fifth of the total MEMS device revenues ($1.1 billion) in 2005."
European production sites accounted for about 16% of MEMS sales, over $815 million, last year. But watch our for Singapore which "is also a significant manufacturing location for MEMS manufacturers such as STMicroelectronics, with 11% of MEMS device revenues attributed to Singapore fabs".
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