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April 1, 2003 — STMicroelectronics, the world’s third-largest semiconductor company, is ramping up its involvement in medical MEMS and is looking for a partner to market its introduction of a lab-on-a-chip, according to a company spokesman.
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Although ST has long produced MEMS for autos and industry, this new product is its first foray into bioMEMS. The company is punctuating this new chapter by investing in state-of-the-art research facilities to build up a bioMEMS product line.
By creating a lab-on-a-chip made with silicon rather than glass, ST can cut costs through large volume production in its massive semiconductor fabs — in effect giving its bioMEMS the design and production benefits usually seen in the huge clean rooms of semiconductor manufacturing. Instead of the small volumes produced by workshop-style startup companies, bioMEMS would become part of a giant production line.
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The company plans to follow its long-term business strategy of creating products that are marketed through selected partners who have good control over their end markets. Once design wins are secured, the company can turn on the faucet of its massive production lines as one of the biggest semiconductor companies in the world. This could change what has been a niche market into a market that will live by the dictates of high-volume productivity, lower costs and constant market pressure on prices.
A lab-on-a-chip allows small amounts of bodily fluids to be tested in seconds. ST’s prototype is fabricated using microfluidics, which builds on ST’s expertise in inkjet printer chips that combine electronic and fluidic elements.
ST’s prototype integrates two fundamental steps of genetic analysis: amplification and detection. This microscale approach results in time and cost savings. Blood samples do not contain enough DNA for analysis, so scientists “amplify,” or copy the target many times. This is done through a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique for replicating DNA. Under ST’s system, PCR can be performed in 15 minutes — a process that might ordinarily take a day or two. This approach also drastically reduces the dimension of the equipment because the external circuitry driving the chip is very compact (a 20 x 20 x 20 cm box) making it suitable for point-of-care applications. The prototype performs DNA amplification in microscopic channels buried in the silicon and then identifies DNA fragments. Under the PCR process, a prepared DNA sample flows into the buried channels in the chip where it is repeatedly cycled through three temperatures, doubling the quantity of DNA with each cycle. The amplified sample then flows into a detection area on the same chip, where gold electrodes are preloaded with DNA fragments. Fragments attach to matching fragments on the electrodes and are detected optically.
DNA analysis chips are used to diagnose genetic diseases, perform drug discovery, test livestock and monitor water supplies.
Bruno Murari, ST’s director of research, gave a keynote address to last month’s International Solid State Circuit Conference that clearly signaled the company’s increasing interest in bioMEMS.
“From the biomedical point of view, this chip is unusual in that it is based on silicon, rather than on the plastic and glass substrate normally used for DNA detection,” Murari said. “The benefit of the silicon approach is that it will allow much greater levels of integration. Today’s silicon analysis chips already integrate both amplification and detection, but in the future they will also include the sample preparation stage, performing a complete sample-to-result analysis.”
To one MEMS analyst, it’s this use of silicon as base material that sets ST’s prototype apart. “There are many companies developing or offering products like ST’s,” said Marlene Bourne, senior MEMS analyst for In-Stat/MDR. “On the surface, it may seem like they’re entering this market a little late in the game. However, the market really hasn’t come close to fully developing — so in a way, ST has as much a chance as anyone.”
The company has just finished outfitting a 100-square-meter, class-1000 clean room in Catania, Italy, to focus on opto- and bioelectronics, and its lab-on-chip is being distributed to potential customers and research labs.
Other companies in the field include semiconductor giants Motorola Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG, established players such as Affymetrix, and startups such as Aclara, Caliper Technologies Corp., Illumina Inc., Nanogen Inc. and Orchid Biosciences Inc.
According to research by the Freedonia Group Inc., biomedical-related applications represented a $215 million market for MEMS products in 2001. The commercial success of MEMS-based disposable blood pressure monitoring kits has opened the market to other devices.
“MEMS technology is also being touted for any number of other health care-related applications, including blood glucose testing, pacemakers and other implantable devices, nerve and muscle stimulation and biotechnology (biochips, labs-on-a-chip, etc.),” the Freedonia report said.
Demand for biomedical MEMS is projected to grow more than 20 percent a year from $215 million in 2001 through $550 million in 2006, finally topping $1 billion by 2011, according to the report.