July 8, 2011 – JCN Newswire — The Institute of Microelectronics (IME), an institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) brought Touch Micro-System Technology (tMt), Taiwan-based 8" micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) foundry, into its efforts for lab-to-fab MEMS supply chain development.
tMt will help refine areas in IME’s three-party collaboration model for MEMS prototyping and mass production for medical, consumer, and other applications. tMt will bring its mass production expertise to the fabless/fablite partners at IME, looking in particular at cost pressures and the transition from concept to product. The foundry tMt will bring the partners "beyond R&D and prototyping," said Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of IME, "towards productization and mass production."
IME has added other speciality foundries to its research consortium, recently partnering with specialty foundry TowerJazz on MEMS and other projects. GLOBALFOUNDRIES joined the IME in late 2010 to work on MEMS Capacitive Sensor Platform Technology.
The Institute of Microelectronics (IME) is a research institute of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. Its key research areas are in integrated circuits design, advanced packaging, bioelectronics and medical devices, MEMS, nanoelectronics, and photonics. For more information, visit IME at http://www.ime.a-star.edu.sg. A*STAR is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven Singapore.
Touch Micro-System Technology (tMt), spun off from Walsin Lihwa MEMS Business Unit in 2004, is a specialized 8" MEMS foundry, partnering with over 30 global MEMS companies to develop and produce pressure sensor, motion sensor, MEMS microphone, micro-mirror, and other products. Please visit http://www.tmt-mems.com/.