The vantage point, published.
The full MEMS Journal archive — 441 articles across two decades of sensors, MEMS, and microtechnology.
Welcome -- Meet Our Team!
Mike Pinelis, Ph.D. President and CEO mike@memsjournal.com Dr. Mikhail ("Mike") Pinelis is the CEO and editor-in-chief of MEMS Journal, an independent publication based in Southfield, Michigan that he founded in 2003 and grew to the current 34,800+ subscribers worldwide. Along with MEMS Journal, Dr. Pinelis has…
MEMS becomes the new Moore's Law
by Shahin Farshchi, Ph.D. Senior Associate, Lux Capital Management, LLC Not long ago, the MEMS community borrowed lithography and batch fabrication techniques from IC manufacturing to build precise and inexpensive mechanical devices. Today, MEMS devices have found their way into our phones, automobiles, and…
Microstructured piezoelectric shoe power generator outperforms batteries
by Ville Kaajakari, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Louisiana Tech University Energy harvesting is an attractive way to power MEMS sensors and locator devices such as GPS ; however, the power harvesting technologies often fall short in terms of power output. For example, vibratory MEMS generators might give out only…
Will clean energy drive harsh environment MEMS?
by Paul Pyzowski , Guest Contributor The case for “harsh environment MEMS” -- devices that can operate at extreme pressures, temperatures, and in corrosive backgrounds -- is that they can be deployed in potentially lucrative applications and markets that cannot be served with traditional silicon-based MEMS . Over…
NASA harnesses RF MEMS for climate assessment
by R. Colin Johnson, Contributing Editor MEMS Investor Journal MEMS has enabled a complete phased-array radar to fit on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). NASA has commissioned the Georgia Institute of Technology with a $2.4 million grant to build the lightweight, low-cost and pint-sized phased array radar to map…
Spacecraft-on-a-chip to harness MEMS
by R. Colin Johnson, Contributing Editor MEMS Investor Journal Cornell University researchers have designed millimeter-sized spacecraft that are only microns thick and weigh just a few milligrams. These spacecraft-on-a-chip are currently just prototypes, but if their test launch goes as planned next month, MEMS…
MEMS pico projectors aim at mass market
by R. Colin Johnson, Contributing Editor MEMS Investor Journal Digital micro-mirrors could become the next mass market MEMS chip as pico projectors are built into a wide array of consumer products. Today Texas Instruments (TI) leads with its MEMS digital light processing (DLP) chip for pico projectors. TI's main…
Qualtre preps solid state MEMS gyros
by R. Colin Johnson, Contributing Editor MEMS Investor Journal A new MEMS gyroscope architecture with no moving parts will debut later this year from Qualtre Inc. (Marlborough, Mass.). The startup's inertial sensor designs are based on bulk acoustic wave (BAW) propagation. Qualtre was formed back in 2007, but its…
APM ships MEMS pressure sensor elements to automotive industry
Asia Pacific Microsystems announced that it has shipped over 2 million MEMS pressure sensor elements to a leading global automotive electronic company. APM provides MEMS foundry services for the piezoresistive sensor elements which are key components for the pressure sensor business. With this customer, the first…
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies' energy efficient displays
by Leslie Field, Ph.D. and Shalini Venkatesh, Ph.D. SmallTech Consulting, LLC At a recent seminar sponsored by the IEEE SFBA Nanotechnology Council (March 16th, 2010), Rashmi Rao, a Senior R&D Engineer at Qualcomm MEMS Technologies , gave a well-received talk titled, “From Butterfly Wings to Energy Efficient…
MEMS, energy harvesting and RF communications
As there are increasingly more MEMS, sensors and energy harvesting technologies on the market, it is important to understand newly available communications technologies to transmit data wirelessly. We recently spoke with Cees Links , founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies . His company is based in the…
Seiko Instruments develops MEMS resonator
A resonator is a device that is indispensable in modern electronics products such as computers, digital appliances and telecommunications devices. Currently, resonators that use quartz crystals are mainly used due to their light weight as well as highly precise and stable frequency properties. Research for new…
IMT to produce MEMS wavelength switches for Capella
"We needed a world class technology and foundry partner who had proven before that it could tackle hard problems and bring highly complex MEMS devices into production. We evaluated foundries around the world and chose IMT ," said Larry Schwerin , CEO of Capella.
MEMS enabled high-resolution seismic sensing
The oil and gas industry requires high-quality seismic data to accurately assess exploration prospects for commercial viability and to effectively monitor producing reservoirs. At International Petroleum Week 2010 last week, HP and Shell announced a collaboration to develop a wireless sensing system to acquire…
MEMS business to double by 2013?
With traditional IC categories seeing a slowdown in annual growth rates since the late 1990s, more major semiconductor companies, pure-play IC foundries, and wafer fab equipment suppliers are shifting attention to the MEMS arena in order to boost revenues. The entry of large device suppliers into market segments…
RF MEMS phase shifters
// ![CDATA[ // ![CDATA[ // lt;![CDATA[ // amp;lt;![CDATA[ var TPApp = {}; TPApp.app_uri = amp;quot;http://www.typepad.com/ amp;quot;; // ]] amp;gt; // ]] gt; // ]] // ]] // ![CDATA[ // ![CDATA[ // lt;![CDATA[ // amp;lt;![CDATA[ var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([ amp;#39;t2._setAccount amp;#39;, amp;#39;UA-225723-36…
MEMS based valves for flow control
We recently spoke with Sandeep Kumar, president and CEO of Microstaq . The company was founded in 2000 to commercialize MEMS based valve components for industrial, residential, commercial, medical, and transportation applications, an overall $5 billion market , with an average price of $25 per component . Utilizing…
Applying MEMS technology to intelligent medicine
We recently spoke with Dr. George Savage, chief medical officer at Proteus Biomedical . The company raised $32 million in VC funding last year and is applying semiconductor and MEMS technologies to ingestible and implantable devices and pharmaceuticals with the initial focus on increasing the efficacy of treatments…
Microfabricated diamond probes for atomic force microscopes
We recently spoke with Dr. Nicolaie “Mike” Moldovan , MEMS Lead Scientist at Advanced Diamond Technologies , about the company's microfabricated AFM diamond probes. These probes are based on discoveries at Argonne National Laboratory that resulted in a new form of diamond film called ultrananocrystalline diamond…
Applying MEMS technology to the diagnosis of glaucoma
We recently spoke with Jean-Marc Wismer , CEO of Sensimed AG , a Swiss company with its principal focus on the design, development and commercialization of integrated microsystems for medical devices . The company's first product is a non-invasive solution for continuous monitoring of intra-ocular pressure (IOP) to…
MEMS application for treating cardiac rhythm disorder
We recently spoke with Eric Le Royer , CEO of Geneva-based Endosense , about how his company applied MEMS technology to the development of a new catheter to improve the procedures for treating atrial fibrillation . According to Mr. Le Royer, atrial fibrillation is today’s most prevalent cardiac rhythm disorder and…
MEMS technology for micro projection modules
We recently spoke with Marco Boella , CEO and Dr. Nicolas Abelé , CTO of Lemoptix , based near Lausanne, Switzerland, about their work to integrate high-resolution MEMS-based micro projection technology into information display systems, mobile phones and other applications. According to Lemoptix, the largest market…
MEMS and semiconductors IP strategies
We recently spoke with Marius Domokos , an IP attorney specializing in strategic counseling for technology companies, who also worked as an in-house IP attorney for KLA-Tencor and Intel . Here Marius shares some thoughts on how the MEMS industry should approach IP protection .
Fabless MEMS Operations: Strategies and Tactics
We recently spoke with Dr. Raj Gupta , a consultant in MEMS and silicon sensors, about his experiences with fabless MEMS operations . Specifically, we discussed the transition process from prototype to volume production, the associated costs and challenges, as well as his specific experiences with some major MEMS…