By Karen Lightman, managing director, MEMS Industry Group
Typically at MEMS Executive Congress, both US and Europe, we have panel topics that fit neatly into neat little packages like “MEMS in Consumer” or “MEMS Automotive.” This year in planning for our US event, our steering committee wanted to shake things up a bit to delve into what’s next for MEMS (beyond iPhone and Galaxy, Kinect, Kindle and name-that-new-and-exciting automotive safety or driver-assist application). After all, the theme of MEMS Executive Congress US is “MEMS is in the mainstream—so what’s next?” And what’s next is emerging technologies.
Our “MEMS in Emerging Technologies” panel will help to foretell what’s next. Staffed by experts who are at the forefront of emerging technologies in their respective fields, our panelists, these are the guys who are doing the “blue sky” thinking; they are tinkering in the lab and thinking the “what if” questions, and yes, they are doing it with MEMS. I am thrilled to have as panel moderator, Steve Whalley, director, Sensors, Intel Architecture Group, Intel Corporation.
Steve and I recently spoke about MEMS in Emerging Technologies and he gave me an introduction of our impressive panelists and a sneak peak into what the panelists will be discussing at MEMS Executive Congress US 2012.
Q: Steve – I am impressed by the combination of research and real-world experience of your panelists. Can you tell me more about who they are?
A: Jon Kindred is senior director of signals and systems, Starkey Laboratories. Jon provided technical and managerial leadership during Starkey’s ascent in becoming best in class in many significant signal-processing features.
Jon is joined by Hughes Metras, vice president, strategic partnerships, North America, CEA-LETI. Hughes has been involved in microelectronics, addressing power conversion for industrial, automotive and PV applications, and solid-state lighting, as well as sensor technologies for healthcare and environmental issues.
And last but certainly not least is Todd Miller, lab manager, MicroSystems and MicroFluidics, GE Global Research. Todd has focused on design and development of high-volume manufacturing devices and systems in safety-critical applications, with a concentration in system engineering, MEMS design and establishing design and quality control methodologies to support high-volume production.