Dear readers of MEMSblog and friends of MEMS Industry Group™,
MEMS Industry Group™ (MIG) wishes you all the best for a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year! Thank you to those who have contributed articles and, of course, to our loyal readers. We look forward to providing you more MEMS content in 2010 and beyond.
Click here to view a special holiday message from MEMS Industry Group™.
Sincerely,
The MIG team
Contributed by Jérémie Bouchaud and Richard Dixon, Principal Analyst and Senior Analyst, MEM, iSuppli
In the bio-medical field, drug delivery is one of the areas that attract the most attention for MEMS because of its promise to make drug delivery less invasive, more precise and intelligent, less painful, etc. The fact that STMicroelectronics is partnering with a SME in this area – with the full might of its 8” fab – bears witness to the hope for significant volume shipments in this field.
Commercialization cycles are very long, however, not only because of the clinical tests and certification, but also for less obvious business reasons pertaining to the pharmaceutical industry. In this article iSuppli summarizes the status of commercialisation and the market outlook for the next 4 years.
iSuppli has identified 5 typical families of MEMS devices on the market or in R&D for drug discovery as summarized in Table 1. Continue reading
Contributed by Paul Werbaneth, VP Marketing & Applications, Tegal Corporation
Autumn in Japan:
Temple maples blaze
Ginko’s yellow bokeh shade
Miso turnip steams
If you are going to visit Japan after a long (OK, a year) absence, then you should try to combine your niece’s wedding in Kyoto with a visit to the ancient capital, Nara, brilliant late Fall colors, the Cornell Club of Japan American Holiday Dinner, and SEMICON Japan 2009 all in the same trip. Continue reading
You might have noticed that there’s been a lot of news coming from MEMS Industry Group™ lately about BioMEMS. We’re very excited about this field, its opportunities for the MEMS industry, and the improvements to healthcare it will bring.
In case you missed it, MIG recently sat down with Dr. Mauro Ferrari, Professor and Chairman of the Department of NanoMedicine and Biomedical Engineering (nBME) at the University of Texas Health Science Center (and MEMS Executive Congress™ 2009 keynote speaker), to discuss his work in the field. You can read the entire interview as featured in the most recent MIG newsletter here. Dr. Ferrari mentions some amazing technologies like Personal Molecular Drug-delivery Systems (PMDS) and nanoporous silicon — these are really cool examples of how BioMEMS could dramatically improve health and quality of life for all.
If you’re a MIG member and as enthused about BioMEMS as we are, then you should also know about MIG’s newly announced workshop, MEMS Education Series™: Spotlight on BioMEMS and NanoMedicine (March 18, 2010, Houston, TX). Because our members have asked for it, we are offering this one-day executive education workshop at Dr. Ferrari’s nBME center — for MIG members only — focusing on the opportunities for BioMEMS commercialization.
Why wait? Check out www.memseducationseries.com right now for more details on this special opportunity!
Contributed by Laurent Robin, MEMS Analyst, Yole Développement
Until 2009, the MEMS industry was traditionally driven by the automotive area. This was true for pressure sensors for instance, and also for inertial sensors: MEMS accelerometers for airbags became the first high-volume application for MEMS inertial sensors. But whereas the market for motion sensors is now mature for many automotive applications, more and more consumer electronic devices integrate MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes.
Often considered as more mature than the gyroscope industry, the accelerometer industry has seen a significant announcement in October: the fast-growing MEMS accelerometer manufacturer Kionix (USA) was acquired by the Japanese company Rohm (J). Continue reading
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