June 10, 2003 – A rugged, reliable gyroscope that could be useful in aerospace, military, automotive and consumer markets took top honors in MEMGen Corp’s 3-D MEMS Design Challenge, according to a news release.

Cenk Acar, a Ph.D. student in the University of California, Irvine’s MicroSystems Lab, submitted the design. He will receive $10,000 and a SolidWorks Office 2003 3-D CAD package.

Second place went to a floating electro mechanical systems design for highly sensitive accelerometers, filters and inertial navigation systems. Jason Clark, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student, will receive $5,000. Third place was a microgyroscope for commercial and military applications entered by Said Emre Alper and Tayfun Akin of the Middle East Technical University’s Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in Turkey. They will receive $2,500.

Winners also will receive a prototype of their design made using MEMGen’s EFAB platform, which integrates 3-D computer-aided design with MEMS manufacturing processes. The company says its system can provide mass production capability without a clean room.
MEMGen said the contest, judged by a panel of independent industry experts, received 132 applications from 24 countries.