IMAPS Device Packaging 2010 Wrap-up

Contributed by Paul Werbaneth, Vice President, Marketing & Applications, Tegal Corporation

Wrap-up, Thursday 11 March 2010

Strolling in Old Town Scottsdale last night after an excellent dinner at Bandera (go early – seems to fill-up quickly after the ballgames let out) I pass the Italian Grotto, a Frank Sinatra-friendly kind of place with good recorded jazz spilling out onto the sidewalk.

So, with apologies to Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, to Paul Anka, to the French songwriting team who originally composed “Comme d’Habitude,” and with a nod to The King, here’s my IMAPS Device Packaging 2010 version of “My Way.”  Sing along if you know the tune!

IMAPS Device Packaging 2010, Day 2

Contributed by Paul Werbaneth, Vice President, Marketing & Applications, Tegal Corporation

Day 2, Tuesday 09 March 2010

Cactus league games cancelled by baseball-sized hail

Tuesday, March 09, 2010 Scottsdale, AZ — Spring cactus league games were cancelled in the Valley of the Sun today due to baseball-sized hail.  Indoor activities, including IMAPS Device Packaging 2010, were unaffected.

IMAPS Device Packaging 2010

Contributed by Paul Werbaneth, Vice President, Marketing & Applications, Tegal Corporation

Day 1, Monday 08 March 2010, Morning

It’s not supposed to rain in Scottsdale, is it?  Or have I come to the wrong place?

Oh well, when life gives you heavy rain, why not make rainbows?

Yole Développement Releases Annual Ranking of MEMS Companies

Yole Développement: Top 30 MEMS Companies

Yole Développement recently published its annual ranking of the top 30 MEMS companies based on 2009 sales revenue — and it’s heartening to see so many MEMS Industry Group members represented among them.

Trip Report: Fab Owners Association 1st Quarter Meeting

Contributed by Monica Takacs, Director of Marketing and Membership, MEMS Industry Group

On February 11, I visited sunny Arizona for the Fab Owners Association’s quarterly meeting hosted by Microchip, a provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors. Microchip also provided attendees with a fab tour–an impressive facility and very interesting for me to see, because I don’t come from a manufacturing background.

MEMS Enabling New Features, Better Performance for Mobile Devices at Mobile World Congress 2010

Whether it’s a new netbook, iPad, or smartphone that has your eye, almost everyone seems to crave sort of mobile information and communication device right now. Here’s just a couple of MEMS-related announcements from Mobile World Congress 2010, going on right now in Barcelona:

HP Finds Novel Use for MEMS Inkjet Printhead Technology

HP and Shell are working together to re-purpose HP’s MEMS technology for use in oil drilling and exploration (Drilling with print heads: Shell and HP develop seismic sensor system – 15/02/2010 – Computer Weekly).

Trip Report: ASME nEMB 2010 Conference – Part II

Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group

For part I of this post, see Trip Report: ASME nEMB 2010 Conference – Part I.

The conference began on February 7 with a day-long program/tutorial on nanomedicine, which I heard was an impressive program focused on graduate and undergraduate engineering students. I attended the programs on February 8 &9, kicked off with a keynote from Dr.Andrew Eschenbach, Former Director of the National Cancer Institute and former FDA Commissioner. Dr. Eschenbach’s presentation was remarkable in that he focused the audience to not go into nanomedicine for the glory of it, but simply to improve the quality of life of humankind.

Trip Report: ASME nEMB 2010 Conference – Part I

Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group

I am back in Pittsburgh’s snowmageddon after being in sunny Houston to attend the ASME First Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology (nEMB) held February 7-10, 2010. For those of you who attended MIG’s MEMS Executive Congress 2009, you’ll remember how Dr. Mauro Ferrari wowed the audience with his keynote speech on silicon as a transformational material for medicine. I came to the ASME nEMB conference at the invitation of Dr. Ferrari and his Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering (nBME) at the University of Texas at Houston.

MEMS Enables Post-Surgery Patient Monitoring Via Cell Phone

Sensor device-maker Gentag is commercializing a disposable “skin patch” sensing platform that will allow otrthopedic surgery patients to monitor themselves during their recovery. Gentag has already developed a number of other disposable diagnostic patches, including devices for fever and diabetes monitoring.