October 4, 2007 — Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. (ISSYS) has received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract from the National Science Foundation. The two-year project, “Wafer-Scale, Hermetic Packaging of MEMS-Based Systems,” is aimed toward development of a novel packaging method that will greatly simplify the packaging of MEMS and their associated electronics, the company said in a press announcement.
“This technology is highly enabling for commercialization of viable MEMS products,” Nader Najafi, president and chief executive of the Ypsilanti, Mich.-based company, said in the news release. “The practical hermetic integration of electronics and MEMS devices allows the commercialization of a variety of MEMS-based products that are currently not possible due to high cost of manufacturing or packaging problems.”
Applications include products that require the MEMS device to be in direct contact with the media, yet the electronics need to be isolated from the environment, intelligent catheters and implantable intracranial pressure (ICP) monitors for traumatic brain injury. Other potential applications include devices industrial, analytical, defense, safety, or biohazard detection.