But even during those difficult periods, the underlying long-term trend has been steady positive growth, thanks almost entirely to the continuous technological developments going on ‘behind the scenes'; epitomized by Gordon Moore and his famous law.

Cost Pressure Switches from Consumer to Automotive Applications
By Andreas Nagy, Multitest
For every semiconductor company, final test and quality control adds cost without adding additional functional value to their product. That is why cost of test is constantly under pressure. In the early days of MEMS, cost-per-unit were not considered that critical, as MEMS prices were sometimes lower then traditional sensor prices by a factor of 100. But starting with the growing competition in the consumer area, cost pressure has also reached MEMS production. Today, advanced automotive MEMS application are also facing this challenge. At the same time, MEMS sensors have become the standard in the automotive industry due to significantly lower cost and smaller package size then traditional sensors.