06/21/2004  As MemsTech is preparing to raise money, it is also raising its profile as a product-oriented company. The Singapore-based company is planning an initial public offering this summer on Malaysia's Mesdaq market. MemsTech expects to raise about $15 million for research and development. But MemsTech wants to be seen as more than the sum of the services it provides.

05/19/2004 

05/18/2004  IntelliSense Software Corp. and PhoeniX BV will combine their MEMS design tools as part of a strategic alliance, according to a news release.

03/23/2004  Industry watchers predict 2004 will see progress in getting “fiber to the home” – telecom’s long-sought solution to the problem of directly delivering high-quality and high-speed video, voice and data. But the rollout still moves at a glacial pace because of the high costs of deploying fiber-optic networks to individual homes and businesses. Two Danish firms hope to offer some price-busting help in a small package.

02/23/2004  Micralyne Inc., an Edmonton, Alberta, based MEMS manufacturer, has signed a contract worth more than $2 million to make components for chemical analysis instrumentation, according to a news release.

02/23/2004  Olympus Partnership Development Group (Profile, Web) has added an optical foundry to its MEMS design and manufacturing facility, according to a news release.

02/20/2004  Applied Microengineering Ltd., a U.K.-based MEMS equipment supplier, is giving up on its design house and foundry services and reverting to more traditional fabrication of MEMS chips, according to a news release.

02/10/2004  Rival developers of drug-releasing stents have been battling for supremacy on the patent front. Now, there are issues of safety on the patient front as the two-way tussle moves to the marketplace. Boston Scientific Corp. is preparing early this year to follow Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis Corp. into the U.S. market with its own tiny, pop-up scaffolding implanted in arteries to keep them open and free of clogs.

01/23/2004  Microbridge Technologies Inc., a Montreal-based microsystems developer, has chosen X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG to make its microresistor device that adjusts the electrical current flow of components in a circuit.

12/19/2003  This summer, while discussing the push for MEMS standardization with a venture capitalist, a very interesting question was posed in regard to current business models: What about best practices? This question is very well-timed because the MEMS industry's focus seems to be shifting toward sustaining a successful business.

12/18/2003  Cepheid Inc. has been issued a U.S. patent that covers the design of a sample preparation cartridge containing a microfluidic chip for extracting and purifying multiple DNA targets simultaneously, according to a news release.

11/24/2003  MicroFAB Bremen GmbH, a German MEMS foundry and microsystems supplier, has ordered a complete MEMS process line from SUSS MicroTec, according to a news release.

11/24/2003  Detecting biological compounds, friendly or otherwise, can be tricky. So Brian Cunningham decided to shed some light on the problem. He asked himself why he couldn't create a new type of device that bridges the gap between optical sensors and high-throughput screening. Cunningham couldn’t really think of a reason why not – and so SRU Biosystems Inc. was born.

11/20/2003  An advanced technology development program in India has selected Coventor Inc.'s software for a MEMS Initiative Program, according to a news release.

11/19/2003  McGill University in Montreal has opened a $9 million nanoscience research center that offers the latest tools for micromachining, modeling and manipulation, according to a news release.

11/13/2003  Scalpel and needle will always remain ideal instruments for most medical work, and biological compounds will still be crucial to prod cells to certain actions. What has been missing so far, however, is something to manipulate cellular structures at the micrometer and nanometer scale. Enter Harvard physicist Eric Mazur's femtosecond laser. “Now I think we have the tool to close that gap,” he said.

11/11/2003  With the recent launch of a MEMS fab in Crolles, near Grenoble, the southeast of France is beginning to look more like the French version of Silicon Valley. Tronic's Microsystems' new facility will start producing custom-made MEMS later this year and will allow the company to quadruple its production capacity.

11/10/2003 

11/03/2003  FLX Micro has closed on an additional, but undisclosed, amount of venture financing.

10/14/2003