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(September 22, 2010) — Researchers at Oregon State University have the successful loading of biological molecules onto “nanosprings” — a type of nanostructure that has gained significant interest in recent years for its ability to maximize surface area in microreactors.

The findings, announced in the journal Biotechnology Progress, may open the door to important new nanotech applications in production of pharmaceuticals, biological sensors, biomedicine or other areas. Read more about nanotechnology for medical and life sciences applications here.

“Nanosprings are a fairly new concept in nanotechnology because they create a lot of surface area at the same time they allow easy movement of fluids,” said Christine Kelly, an associate professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at OSU. “They’re a little like a miniature version of an old-fashioned, curled-up phone cord,” Kelly said. “They make a great support on which to place reactive catalysts, and there are a variety of potential applications.”

“An increasingly important aspect of microreactor and biosensor technology is the development of supports that can be easily coated with enzymes, antibodies, or other biomolecules,” the researchers wrote in their report. “These requirements are neatly met by nanosprings, structures that can be grown by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process on a wide variety of surfaces,” they said. “This study represents the first published application of nanosprings as a novel and highly efficient carrier for immobilized enzymes in microreactors.”

The OSU researchers found a way to attach enzymes to silicon dioxide nanosprings in a way that they will function as a biological catalyst to facilitate other chemical reactions. They might be used, for instance, to create a biochemical sensor that can react to a toxin far more quickly than other approaches.

“The ability to attach biomolecules on these nanosprings, in an efficient and environmentally friendly way, could be important for a variety of sensors, microreactors and other manufacturing applications,” said Karl Schilke, an OSU graduate student in chemical engineering and principal investigator on the study.

The work was done in collaboration with the University of Idaho Department of Physics and GoNano Technologies of Moscow, ID, a commercial producer of nanosprings. Nanosprings are being explored for such uses as hydrogen storage, carbon cycling and lab-on-chip electronic devices. The research was also facilitated by the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, a collaboration of OSU and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs. In the past six years, the College has more than doubled its research expenditures to $27.5 million by emphasizing highly collaborative research that solves global problems, spins out new companies, and produces opportunity for students through hands-on learning. Learn more at http://oregonstate.edu/

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Check out more university research here.

(September 22, 2010) — An antenna captures the aerial signals that make electronic devices like television and radio practical. A lab at Rice University has built an antenna that captures light in the same way, at a small scale that has big potential.

Condensed matter physicist Doug Natelson and graduate student Dan Ward have found a way to make an optical antenna from two gold tips separated by a nanoscale gap that gathers light from a laser. The tips "grab the light and concentrate it down into a tiny space," Natelson said, leading to a thousand-fold increase in light intensity in the gap.

Getting an accurate measurement of the effect is a first, said Natelson, who reported the results in an online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology. He expects the discovery will be useful in the development of tools for optics and for chemical and biological sensing, even at the single-molecule scale, with implications for industrial safety, defense and homeland security.

The paper by Natelson, Ward and their colleagues in Germany and Spain details the team’s technique, which involves shining laser light into the gap between a pair of gold tips less than a nanometer apart — about a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair.

"You can ignore the fact that your car antenna is built out of atoms; it just works," said Natelson, a Rice professor of physics and astronomy, and also electrical and computer engineering. "But when you have tiny pieces of metal very close to each other, you have to worry about all the details. The fields are going to be big, the situation’s going to be complicated and you’re really constrained. We’ve been able to use some physics that only come into play when things are very close together to help figure out what’s going on."

The key to measuring light amplification turned out to be measuring the electrical current flowing between the gold tips.

Putting the nanotips so close together allows charge to flow via quantum tunneling as the electrons are pushed from one side to the other. The researchers could get electrons moving by pushing them at low frequencies with a voltage, in a highly controllable, measurable way. They could also get them flowing by shining the laser, which pushes the charge at the very high frequency of the light. Being able to compare the two processes set a standard by which the light amplification could be determined, Natelson said. Their German and Spanish coauthors helped supply the necessary theoretical justification for the analysis.

The amplification is a plasmonic effect, Natelson said. Plasmons, which may be excited by light, are oscillating electrons in metallic structures that act like ripples in a pool. "You’ve got a metal structure, you shine light on it, the light makes the electrons in this metal structure slosh around," he said. "You can think of the electrons in the metal as an incompressible fluid, like water in a bathtub. And when you get them sloshing back and forth, you get electric fields.

"At the surfaces of the metal, these fields can be very big — much bigger than those from the original radiation," he said. "What was hard to measure was just how big. We didn’t know how much the two sides were sloshing up and down — and that’s exactly the thing we care about."

By simultaneously measuring the low-frequency electrically driven and the high-frequency optically driven currents between the tips, "we can figure out the voltage zinging back and forth at the really high frequencies that are characteristic of light," he said.

Natelson said his lab’s homebuilt apparatus, which combines nanoscale electronics and optics, is fairly unusual. "There are a lot of people who do optics. There are a lot who do nanoscale electrical measurements," he said. "There are still not too many people who combine the two."

The custom rig gave the Rice researchers a measure of control over thermal and electrical properties that have stymied other investigators. The tips are cooled to 80 Kelvin, about -315°F, and are electrically insulated from their silicon bases, keeping at bay stray voltages that could skew the results.

"The reason we’re studying these enhanced fields is not just because they’re there," Natelson said. "If you can enhance the local field by a factor of 1,000, there are lots of things you can do in terms of sensors and non-linear optics. Anything that gives you a handle on what’s happening at these tiny scales is very useful.

The paper’s co-authors are Falco Hüser and Fabian Pauly of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany; and Juan Carlos Cuevas at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.

Support for the project came from the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Lockheed Martin Advanced Nanotechnology Center of Excellence at Rice (LANCER), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Baden-Württemberg Siftung, the European Union through the Bio-Inspired Approaches for Molecular Electronics (BIMORE) network, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Read the abstract at http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2010.176.html

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(September 21, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — The LIBRA series of transmission electron microscopes (TEM) from Carl Zeiss will now offer the new ZEMAS framework technology (ZEISS Electron Microscopy Applications Software).

ZEMAS Framework Technology integrates innovative data acquisition, viewing and analysis capabilities into the LIBRA series TEMs. ZEMAS enables scientists to conduct routine and advanced TEM/STEM nano-characterization experiments with an unprecedented ease of use. The pioneering ZEMAS framework technology also enables the fast implementation of future new techniques and applications that result from collaboration between TEM pioneers and Carl Zeiss NTS.

As an early adopter of ZEMAS framework technology from the Central Facility for Electron Microscopy at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Prof. Joachim Mayer explains: “ZEMAS is a major step forward towards an intuitive user interface, which assists the operator in a broad range of tasks, ranging from fast routine applications to the structured development of new methods for TEM. Combined with the powerful hardware configuration and the optimized electron-optical design of the LIBRA 200, ZEMAS lowers the threshold to acquiring high quality data, and gives us the chance to design and implement experiments that were previously too cumbersome to attempt. We are anxiously looking forward to working with our ZEMAS-equipped LIBRA 200, and instantly recognized its potential in a multi-user environment.”

"In the last decade, R&D in the field of TEM has been largely focused on hardware and instrumentation innovations such as aberration correctors, monochromators, energy filters, detectors, sample holders, and cryo-protection. The aberration corrected LIBRA 200 TEM, the LIBRA 120 PLUS TEM and highly specialized systems like the CRISP, PACEM or SESAM systems from Carl Zeiss are a direct result of these development efforts. For the future of TEM, we see a growing need for development of software applications and workflow innovations. ZEMAS has been developed with a constant vision of ultimate ease of use and rapid implementation of advanced TEM/STEM techniques," said Alexander Lazar, product line manager for TEM at Carl Zeiss.

The Carl Zeiss Group companies operate in the optical and opto-electronic industries. Carl Zeiss SMT AG comprises the Semiconductor Technology Group of the Carl Zeiss Group. Carl Zeiss SMT AG is fully owned by Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen. Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen, is fully owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation). Further information is available at www.smt.zeiss.com

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(September 20, 2010 – Marketwire) — Marlow Industries was awarded a $3.9 million contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the development of new thermoelectric materials and active cooling modules. Unique Colloidal Nanocrystal (ICN) synthesis will enhance the materials’ properties.

The advancements in thermoelectric materials and devices will enable Department of Defense (DOD) thermal management systems to operate at lower temperatures with higher performance and longer lifetime.

The materials in development by Marlow Industries will extend the present state of the art by utilizing a unique Colloidal Nanocrystal (ICN) synthesis to produce high performance nanocomposite thermoelectric materials. When combined with Marlow Industries’ leading thermoelectric modeling and device assembly capabilities, the advancement will enhance thermoelectric cooling and impact commercial and military applications.

The Active Cooling Module program will extend over 24 months culminating in a design to meet or exceed the DARPA program goals. Follow-on contracts are anticipated to apply this technology to specific military applications. Marlow Industries will lead an accomplished team of academic and commercial partners to fulfill the program goals, including: Evident Technologies (Troy NY), the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"The program will result in significant advances for thermoelectric material design and device construction that will disrupt the current industry standard and enable improvements across the board," said Barry Nickerson, Marlow Industries general manager.

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(September 17, 2010) — The Asian growth story is not new. Already commanding almost 30% of the world’s GDP in 2009, Asian growth momentum remains strong at about 4% per annum [1]. Asia has achieved this on the back of becoming the manufacturing base of the world — from textiles to electronics to automotives.

As of 2009, global R&D spending is split almost evenly between Americas, Asia (excluding Japan) and the rest of the world (including EU and Japan). However, with a 7.5% growth rate in R&D spending, [2] coupled with the influx of engineering talent from all over the globe, Asia today is well positioned to be the at the forefront of the next technology revolution.

For technology businesses, an Asian strategy is imperative.

Singapore: Gateway to Asia

While Asia presents opportunities, it also presents challenges for businesses needing to navigate through its diverse and complex cultural, social and political environments. Asian customers will also require customized solutions developed with an in-depth understanding of their specific needs.

Many companies that want to succeed in this varied environment have come to realize that, to balance between increasing their topline growth and protecting their financial and intellectual investments, they need a strategic base in Asia with a stable business environment to locate their key activities and key decision makers who can oversee and grow their business network.

This realization has led a large number of multinational companies (MNCs) to set up a base in Singapore, out of which a majority conduct regional operations. As a global city in the heart of Asia, Singapore offers a stable pro-business environment for financial and legal protection, highly skilled work-force for corporate R&D activities, world class infrastructure for supply chain management and a strong manufacturing base (about 20% of GDP in 2009) for fabrication of key products.

Shaping the R&D landscape for nanotechnology

Recognizing R&D as a driver for growth, Singapore has developed an extensive R&D infrastructure and talent pool, which was further augmented by attracting and retaining a world-class talent pool of scientists and engineers, who bring a wealth of skills and experience from around the globe.

The focus on R&D was given a boost in 2005 with the debut of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) headed by the Prime Minister. By 2008, the total number of research scientists and engineers in Singapore per 10,000 workforce was 104, among the highest in the world. Going forward, the government has announced its aspiration to increase Singapore R&D spending to 3.5% of the national GDP by 2015, up from the current level of about 3%.

One of the major initiatives championed by RIEC is the Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE), which will house research collaborations between elite universities like MIT, ETH, and Technion labs, and their Singapore counterparts.

This joins an existing base of 14 public research institutes (RI) under the Agency of Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), of which 7 are dedicated to research in the physical sciences and engineering. A Nanofabrication and Characterization facility, which includes a clean room with the full range of state-of-the-art nanofabrication equipments, was also set up to support researchers of all backgrounds, fostering a culture of interaction and innovation.

Nanotech industry development

Having drawn a strong pool of foreign talent and businesses to conduct research, extend important business units, and grow new businesses, Singapore aims to build nanotechnology as the horizontal technology foundation upon which many of the industry verticals in Singapore can leverage. Singapore also recognize that, to achieve nanotechnology’s full potential, close partnerships between R&D, industry, and consumers are not just desirable but crucial.

RELATED LINKS:

Economic Development Board of Singapore: http://www.edb.gov.sg/edb/sg/en_uk/index.html

Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) of Singapore: http://www.nrf.gov.sg/nrf/default.aspx

Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE): http://www.nrf.gov.sg/nrf/otherProgrammes.aspx?id=188

Agency of Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR): http://www.a-star.edu.sg/

BASF Global Research Centre in Singapore: http://www.basf.com/group/pressrelease/P-10-350 

Bilcare Technologies: http://www.bilcaretech.com/ 

Industrial Consortium on Nanoimprint (ICON): http://www.imre.a-star.edu.sg/nil/flyer.pdf 

NanoStart Asia Pte Ltd: http://www.nanostart.de/index.php/en/company/nanostart-asia-pte-ltd 

NanoFrontier Pte Ltd: http://www.nanofrontier.com.sg/

German chemical and plastics manufacturing company, BASF AG, operates a Global Research Centre in Singapore. The center’s 40 employees investigate nanostructured surfaces for anti-microbial applications such as in coatings, preventing the build up of organism deposits. BASF’s research leverages partnerships with NTU, A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), and local companies such as Nanomaterials Technology Pte Ltd.

The Bilcare group, global provider of clinical trial materials, recently acquired Singular ID (a spin off from A*STAR) to form Bilcare Technologies. Using a blend of micro and nanotechnology, Bilcare Technologies developed a range of products for brand protection and security applications, and high output equipment for producing large quantities of anti-counterfeiting tags. These and specialized readers, as well as sophisticated data management software form Bilcare’s “nonClonable” system, allows brand owners to track, trace and authenticate their products in real time.

To further collaborations between industry and public research institutes, Singapore launched the Industrial Consortium on Nanoimprint (ICON) in August 2010. ICON’s focus is to enhance the commercial readiness and adoption of nanoimprint technologies through collaboration between RIs and industry at the pre-competitive stage. This initiative was well received with six companies participating in the first project in anti-reflection surfaces. Other project being planned includes engineered anti-bacterial surfaces.

Collaborations allow firms to tap capabilities from outside their organization and to stretch their finite R&D funds to achieve greater outcome in less time. ICON highlights Singaporean support for such partnerships. By working closely on such public/private collaborations, we hope to reduce the time to market for new technologies.

Building an infrastructure for nanotech commercialization

As with most industries, R&D requires financial and business support to sustain its growth. Singapore has also grown a pool of supporting companies and private funding sources such as venture capitalists (VCs) and incubators, to bridge the gap between technology and market.

In 2008, Nanostart AG, a Germany-based nanotechnology investment company, incorporated its Asian subsidiary, NanoStart Asia Pte Ltd in Singapore. Shortly after, NanoStart Asia made its first investment deal with a Singapore company, Curiox Biosystems Pte Ltd, a locally grown bioinstrumentation company that enabled the miniaturization and automation of bioassays for research in life sciences, drug discovery, and diagnostics.

An incubator dedicated to nanotech start-ups, NanoFrontier Pte Ltd, was established in 2004 to engage innovative companies around the world in the development of nanotechnology-enabled products and services, provide intellectual property (IP) resources, nanotechnology R&D infrastructure, and technical expertise. A first in the region, NanoFrontier houses over 25 research scientists and engineers, and has access to over US$150 million premium R&D facilities and equipment at the Nanyang Technological University. It also works closely with industry through contract R&D work, joint development projects, and industrial consortiums.

To encourage test-bedding and commercialization, Singapore has also opened up large-scale integrated public infrastructure as ‘living labs’ for companies to test and demonstrate innovative nano-materials and applications such as nano-enhanced cement or coatings on self-cleaning windows. This created a path for companies to use Singapore as a reference site to launch into global markets.

Conclusion

Going forward, an integration model of continual partnership among private sector companies, consumers, research institutions, and the government will be the key in shortening the R&D cycle and bringing products to markets more efficiently while reducing risk for stakeholders. This also makes sense given the high capital expenditure for R&D at the nano scale.

With projected worldwide CAGR of 20% until 2013, and Asia-Pacific region experiencing a 52% growth in the nanotechnology-enabled goods market [3], the future of Nanotechnology is certainly bright. The question just remains, How do you want to position yourself for this technology revolution?

References:
1. World economic outlook database, April 2010. International Monetary Fund.
2. 2010 Global R&D Funding Forecast; R&D Magazine; Dec 2009, pp.3-24; available at http://www.rdmag.com
3. Market intelligence report by RNCOS, published in March 2010

All information in this article is understood as accurate by author at time of writing (August 2010)

Bernard Nee received his MSc in Management from MIT and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Executive Director for New Technologies at the Singapore Economic Development Board; http://www.sedb.com; [email protected].

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(September 17, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Carl Zeiss SMT introduced a new family member of AURIGA CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) workstations, featuring a 6" stage vacuum chamber and a total of 23 free accessory ports. The AURIGA 60 platform expands the ZEISS Crossbeam technology’s application spectrum.

AURIGA CrossBeam workstations were launched in March 2009. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) based on the GEMINI e-beam column from Carl Zeiss enables users to carry out nanoscale imaging of specimen surfaces — giving a deep insight to sample topography and composition. A focused ion beam (FIB) acts like a nano scale scalpel, being able to cut into the substrate or remove extremely thin slices of material. With the combination of both technologies users can simultaneously mill the specimen, as well as image and control the processing. Additionally, by automatically assembling images of the consecutive milling steps the system creates a complete 3D-model of the sample (voxel size: about 10 x 10 x 10 cubic nanometers).

The new AURIGA 60 platform essentially broadens the application spectrum of the ZEISS CrossBeam technology. Its vacuum chamber is large enough to handle wafers of up to 6 inch diameter, at the same time, the huge chamber offers the capability to attach up to 23 analytical or other attachments for diverse chemical or physical experiments. For example, external imaging and analytic detectors like EDX, EBSD and SIMS can be connected. In particular, the novel workstation permits a direct cryogenic transfer and examination of deep-frozen specimen. The extended range of utilization options is exceptionally useful in multi-purpose environments where several experimenters with different research objects share the workstation. Thus, the introduction of the new system remarkably boosts the flexibility of AURIGA CrossBeam technology.

The AURIGA 60 CrossBeam workstation can be simply upgraded, depending on the overall necessities or budgetary requirements of the user. Thanks to a modular assembly of the system one can even start with a stand-alone high-performance FE-SEM platform which can be upgraded later on by stepwise integration of additional components like FIB column, detectors and a gas injection system for etching the sample surface or deposition of thin material layers, to finally have a fully equipped CrossBeam workstation.

The Carl Zeiss Group companies operate in the optical and opto-electronic industries. Carl Zeiss SMT AG comprises the Semiconductor Technology Group of the Carl Zeiss Group. Carl Zeiss SMT AG is fully owned by Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen. Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen, is fully owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation). Further information is available at www.smt.zeiss.com

Look for more nanoscale analytical equipment here.

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(September 16, 2010) — InterTech Development Company’s MicroPulse is a solid state means of producing small, short pulses of various gases for research in nanotechnology fields. The high-accuracy, compact (145 x 52 x 35mm) MicroPulse contains a miniature heat exchanger and precision temperature control that can be fitted into process control circuits without adding volume.

InterTech’s MicroPulse delivers gases up to 1.75scc/m at STP.  The required flow during the pulse period is automatically controlled via an 8-bit digital interface by a PLC or other external controller.  The user can pre-set flow direction (inward or outward), volume-flow (cc/minute) or mass-flow (standard cc/minute) pulses over a wide pressure range.  Overall accuracy and repeatability of 0.1% can be achieved over extended periods of fully-automatic operation.  

With MicroPulse, there are no moving parts or pneumatic valves to stick or wear. There are no small gaps or orifices to get clogged. No compressed-air source is required. Application can initiate a flow pulse automatically, at any interval. Multiple different flow values can be produced in quick succession, as required by application.

Engineering analyses of testing application requirements and expected savings at specified gage R&R using InterTech patented test technology and customized software are available gratis from the company.

InterTech Development Company provides automated testing products. Learn more at www.intertechdevelopment.com

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(September 16, 2010) — Professor Jeff Kelber of the University of North Texas, along with student Mi Zhou, presented a paper at SRC TECHCON 2010: “Graphene/boron nitride heterojunctions grown directly on ruthenium 001 by CVD and ALD: extrinsically doped graphene.” In the accompanying podcast interview, Dr. Kelber gives a comprehensive summary of the research and how it can be used by the industry.

Podcast, "Graphene-based devices: U of North Texas researchers take first step in practical production" Download or Play Now

Accordingly to Kelber, this is the first demonstration of direct graphene CVD on a dielectric substrate, “which is an essential step in the practical production of graphene-based devices,” said Kelber. Looking ahead, he believes the industry will be able to take a direct path to making logic-based graphene devices on various dielectric substrates. “The trick will be to try and understand how we can integrate those dielectric substrates with silicon or with copper lines for back-end [packaging] or front-end [semiconductor] applications.”

TECHCON, the research conference sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation, also hosted projects on 

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(September 15, 2010) — Growth is back, but the MEMS industry infrastructure has changed: a limited number of companies (STM, Bosch, etc) are taking full benefit of the growth of the market, and foundries are attractive for a new set (think TSMC). Industry restructuration is now about to happen, said Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO and GM, Yole Développement. Eloy predicted rapid growth for the MEMS industry during SEMICON West in July 2010.

Yole Développement updated its market and technologies study dedicated to the MEMS industry: Status of the MEMS Industry 2010, covering the evolution of MEMS applications and markets, with updated data on MEMS markets, analysis of the industry from manufacturing and innovation points of views, analysis of the strategies of the main players, etc.

MEMS business

MEMS business was almost flat since 2007: this is good news compared to the semiconductor industry that has collapsed during that time, but as many companies have made production infrastructure investments from 2006 to 2008, 2009 has been really difficult for several MEMS manufacturers.

Growth is back, but the growth has changed: only a few companies have 8" production infrastructure in place and it provides them a very strong cost benefit, helping them to target lower-price consumer electronics applications. STM, Bosch, and InvenSense (as a fabless) are taking full advantage of these changes. Now the question is: what will be the reaction of their competitors?

Business model, innovative devices, new applications are success factors

In parallel to this industrial situation, MEMS foundries are exiting stronger from the crisis: more system manufacturers have decided to stop internal MEMS manufacturing, so in addition to the organic growth of the MEMS fabless companies, these system companies are now working with MEMS foundries. As such, MEMS foundries are extremely active at the moment with new customers looking to outsource MEMS manufacturing. This growth is attracting new players in MEMS foundry business, like TSMC and UMC. In addition, the Si interposer business opportunities, wafer level packaging and the 3D chip stacking using through silicon vias (TSV) are also growth drivers for the MEMS foundries. MEMS foundries are facing a vigorous growth and more than 25% CAGR expected in the next 5 years.

Innovation in MEMS is changing: brand new devices are now launched on the market and a complete family of totally new MEMS devices are under development. The digital compass, the IR and thermography cameras, the oscillator, among others, are driving these new-generation MEMS products.

In addition, most new applications are linked to new usage of existing devices (human machine interface, replacement of existing technologies). Strong efforts are put into the packaging adaptation to have a cost-adapted structure (packaging is more than 40% of the cost of a MEMS device on average) and enter new applications (like mobile applications). New ways to package and integrate MEMS devices in a system are fueling the growth of MEMS industries.

MEMS market numbers

According to Yole Développement, the MEMS market reached $6.9 billion in 2009 and will be around $8 billion in 2010. So 2010 is the start of the re-growth of the MEMS business.

Companies cited in the report

ADI, AKM, AMS, Avago Technologies, Bosch Sensortec, Canon, Colibrys, Continental, Dalsa Semiconductor, Delphi, Denso, Discera, Flir, Freescale, GE, Honeywell, HP, IMT, Infineon, Kionix, Knowles Acoustics, Lexmark, Melexis, Memsic, Micralyne, Murata, Olivetti, Omron, Panasonic, Qualtré ,Rhom, Seiko Epson, Schneider Electric, Silex, Silicon Sensing Systems, Silverbrook, SiTime, STMicro, Systron Donner, TI, Ulis, VTI Technologies.

New growth is expected after 2010, with a CAGR of 13% in the next 5 years. At the same time, the production equipment market remained low in 2009 at $140 million and will restart in 2011: 2010 will be a better year, mostly in the second half.

Moreover the production infrastructure in place is sufficient to absorb the growth for the next 2 years. “We will have to wait until 2011 for a significant restart of the MEMS production equipment market”, explained Jean-Christophe Eloy.

Yole Développement is a market research and strategy consulting firm analyzing emerging applications using silicon and/or micro manufacturing. Visit the website at www.yole.fr

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(September 14, 2010) — Freescale Semiconductor today unveiled an advanced 3-axis accelerometer family designed to deliver enhanced battery life for smart mobile devices without compromising performance. Utilizing the MMA845xQ family, system designers can integrate standard functions like orientation detection as well as more advanced real time applications like pedometers and games. In addition, the new Freescale accelerometers dramatically extend the battery life of smart mobile devices such as smartphones, personal navigation devices, MP3 players, eReaders and netbooks.

The global MEMS market is expected to expand by 11% in 2010, propelled by strong sales in mobile handsets, gaming controllers and digital cameras, according to iSuppli Corp. The majority of these devices use motion sensing technology for features such as image stability, tap to control, anti-theft and orientation detection. As market demand continues to grow, advances in accuracy and battery life are necessary to further development of next generation devices.

In a podcast interview, Freescale’s Systems and Applications Engineer, Bryce Osoinach, describes how the company optimized the overall system power consumption for extended battery life in consumer electronics (CE). Podcast: Download or Play Now

As part of Freescale’s Xtrinsic sensing solutions line, the MMA845xQ accelerometer family offers a new level of sensor intelligence through embedded algorithms and computation in three advanced accelerometers. Together with the host processor, the embedded accelerometers help make decisions on contextual environmental sensing and enable the ability to record highly precise movement for a wide-range of consumer devices from smartphones to tablets to eReaders to remote controls.

Battery applications benefit from the accelerometer’s low current consumption at 1.7 microamps in standby mode and as low as 6 microamps in active mode and contain four power modes from high resolution to low power, offering best in class savings in supply current and extremely high resolution for very small motion detection.

The MMA845xQ accelerometers include a wide range of real-time motion detection features such as orientation, directional shake and tap and jolt and freefall. The devices are highly versatile to support low-end applications for basic gestures such as lasso and flick (10-bit), mid-range applications for more complex gestures such as position and 3-D gesture detection (10-or 12-bit), and high-end applications such as dead reckoning (14-bit).

In addition to the already released MMA8450Q, Freescale today introduced the 14-bit MMA8451Q, the 12-bit MMA8452Q and the 10-bit MMA8453Q. All of the devices within the MMA845xQ family are pin-for-pin compatible with register map alignment between the accelerometers to maximize hardware and software re-use between 10-, 12- and 14-bit designs requiring zero development cost to migrate thereby reducing time to market. To help support various applications, the MMA845xQ accelerometers offer increased bandwidth with user configurable sample rates ranging from 1.5 to 800 Hz and operate across a supply voltage of 1.7V to 3.6V.

The MMA8451Q accelerometer incorporates an on-chip FIFO (first-in/first-out) memory buffer that stores up to 32 sample sets of X, Y, and Z data. This improves overall system power savings and response time by offloading functions from the host processor. Utilizing the FIFO buffer along with the other embedded functions allows the host processor to analyze only the required data while at the same time, protecting from the possibility of data loss when multiplexing other sensors on the same IIC bus. The FIFO combined with the host processor contributes to a current consumption savings that can range from 78 percent up to 96 percent or higher depending on conditions of the microcontroller and output data rates chosen.

Accelerometer features:

  • 14-, 12- and 10-bit digital output
  • Low noise: less than 1 LSB RMS
  • Low power mode: 6 micro amps
  • Low voltage supply: 1.7 to 3.6 V
  • Output data rate: 1.5 to 800 Hz
  • Programmable 2 interrupt pins for 7 interrupt sources
  • Embedded motion detection features:
    Freefall or motion detection: 1 channel
    Pulse detection: 1 channel
    Jolt detection: 1 channel
  • Orientation (portrait/landscape) detection with hysteresis compensation
  • Automatic output data rate change for auto-wake/sleep
  • Self test
  • Embedded FIFO buffer on the MMA8451Q 14-bit accelerometer :
    32 sample FIFO for 14-bit or 8-bit data
    High pass filtered data available per sample and through the FIFO
  • Robust design, ability to survive shocks up to 10,000 g
  • Low-profile 3 x 3 x 1.0 mm QFN package

Freescale provides pressure, inertial and touch sensors. The company also recently announced a partnership with Nepes for RCP. For more information, visit www.freescale.com/xyz.

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