Development and commercialization of MEMS in Taiwan - A bumpy exciting experience

Advanced MEMS technologies, devices, applications, and commercialization have been in the focus of many international conferences for nearly two decades. However, successful commercialization of MEMS devices with volumes is only limited to a few products. This paper will discuss from various aspects how to enable this so-called enabling technology starting from development going through commercialization more effectively to shorten product's time-to-market.. The paper is organized in two parts; one is dealing with the infrastructure build-up for MEMS industry, and the other is sharing the personal experience in bringing a MEMS company from ground zero to the number three MEMS wafer foundry provider in the world within five years. It is identified that joint efforts and work together closely from the MEMS interested community right from the beginning is a key successful factor.