MEMS sensor technology used to train competitive rowers

By Howard Wisniowski, Marketing program manager, Analog Devices, Wilmington, MA

Originally posted on electroIQ.com

What I love about this blog from Analog Devices’ Marketing Program Manager, Howard Wisniowski, is that it starts with the simple idea of making human motion smarter through technology. Last year I broke my ankle while running (avoiding a truck and I fell in a ditch…but I digress). If I had the inertial motion technology described below, perhaps I could have avoided injury and be a smarter, more efficient runner. Think it’s science fiction, a la Bionic Woman? Nope. As this blog will tell you, the technology is here and is being applied in very real-world examples that will revolutionize the way we interact with our environment, thanks to the MEMS inside. Enjoy — Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group.

November 28, 2011 — Whether it’s keeping athletes in top form, improving navigation in medical robots, helping industrial operators extend factory equipment life, or preventing automotive rollovers, high-performance micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensing technology adds a new dimension that transforms many conventional applications.

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Finnish National MEMS Technology Roadmap

By Dr. Toni T. Mattila and Dr. Mervi Paulasto-Kröckel, Professor, Aalto University

MEMS Industry Group (MIG) is pleased to bring you this blog on the Finnish National MEMS Technology Roadmap. Let this be an example of how a group of self-selected, diverse group of manufacturers/researchers in Finland came together to lay out their goals and focus for R&D in Finland. The results are impressive, and MIG members are able to download the executive summary of the report in our MIG Resource Library. I encourage you to read this blog, download the executive summary and share your thoughts on the future of R&D in MEMS to fuel commercialization. We’ll be discussing this topic, and others throughout the year as well as at our annual members’ technical conference, M2M Forum; May 8-9, 2012 in Pittsburgh.  Enjoy! Karen Lightman, MIG Managing Director

Aalto University and VTT have developed, in close co-operation with representatives from the Finnish MEMS industry, a national MEMS technology roadmap. The primary objective of this roadmap is to define focus areas of research and development activities in various institutes and commercial organizations. We hope that this work will contribute in the efforts of maintaining the competitiveness and knowhow of the emerging Finnish MEMS cluster at the highest level. The roadmap will be updated at regular time intervals. This work is also expected to strengthen the co-operation between the organizations in the national MEMS cluster and to generate new long-term growth opportunities for the cluster. As a starting point in the autumn of 2010, Aalto University and VTT, in collaboration with Culminatum, carried out a questionnaire survey, which examined the view and opinions of people closely involved with the field in both commercial and academic setting. The final form of the roadmap was formulated in five workshops that were held during the spring of 2011.

The survey revealed four primary R&D activity areas: a) new applications, b) new materials, c) processing techniques, and d) packaging and integration.

MEMS Executive Congress 2011 Review: A High Growth Market

Originally posted by Tony Massimini, Chief Technology Officer, Semico Research

The MEMS Executive Congress (Nov 2 to 3, 2011) held in Monterey, CA was filled with optimistic and rosy views of the future for MEMS.  This year’s event attracted 225 attendees – a 25% increase.  There were companies in attendance that covered the breadth of the MEMS supply chain: MEMS vendors, manufacturing equipment, materials suppliers, modeling, tools, etc.  Large and small players alike were represented.

Semico Research presented on the panel featuring market analysts.  The consensus on the panel and by many in the audience is that MEMS is a high growth market being driven by high volume applications in consumer electronics, most notably smart phones.  Semico brought a fresh new perspective.  MEMS are becoming more main stream.  The market dynamics for MEMS will more closely resemble the rest of the semiconductor market.  The high volume consumer market is a commodity market.  Therefore, the MEMS market needs to develop a more cohesive ecosystem.  This would allow companies to leverage standard processes and tools for volume production.  This will reduce costs and speed up time to market.

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MEMS Executive Congress 2011 Attendance Grows 25%, Reflects Upbeat Market Conditions in Consumer, Mobile, Automotive and Biomedical MEMS

PITTSBURGH—November 14, 2011—Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) is in the mainstream—and it’s allowing us to interact with the world in exciting new ways. 225 attendees of MEMS Executive Congress, MEMS Industry Group’s annual executive conference held November 2-3, 2011 in Monterey, CA, set an attendance record while getting an inside look at some of today’s most innovative uses of MEMS. From the world’s first GPS-enabled goggles and ingestible “intelligent” medicine to a handheld laser projector that plugs into iPhone and other multimedia devices, MEMS Executive Congress attendees explored “the MEMS inside the machine” during the Congress’s first-ever MEMS Technology Showcase.

“MEMS Executive Congress proved that it really is THE business conference and networking event of the MEMS industry,” said Karen Lightman, managing director of MEMS Industry Group (MIG). “Global innovators from the MEMS supply chain rubbed elbows with top OEMs, investment experts, market strategists and technology press while engaging in thought-provoking discussions on hot topics such as sensor networks, consumer MEMS, and foundry models.”