MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress 2017

Thank you for attending the MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress. Here is a summary of the event.

Industry Collaboration Recognized as Key Driver to Next Generation MEMS and Sensors Devices

The MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress (MSTC), organized by MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, a SEMI Association Partner (SEMI | MSIG), wrapped up with multiple calls for collaboration on technology development between academia and industry, new and updated standards, funding sources, and a sense that a new wave of MEMS sensor products coming to market.  The event, hosted by Stanford SystemX Alliance and sponsored by NXP, along with Analog Devices, Ulvac and X, ab, featured keynotes, panel discussions, a poster session and breakout sessions and networking opportunities.

The MSTC was focused on addressing the market and technology challenges, moving up the value chain, and identifying market-pull, all in a convivial atmosphere conducive to collaboration.  

MSTC photos:

More MSTC post-event review:

During the panel discussion featuring representatives from mCube, Bosch and Stanford, all with excellent backgrounds to explore Academic and Commercial Perspectives on the development of MEMS and sensors technology.  The panel covered good models of collaboration and the roadblocks to efficient technology transfer from Universities and the private sector.  Success in mentoring, industry return to labs and the timing of transfers were explored and discussion was lively.  The participants will explore modeling a program after SRC – but for the MEMS industry.  Particularly intriguing was the premise that venture capital is available, but not clearly being sold on the applications of the business plans for the new concepts being brought to them for commercialization.  The “Next Big Thing” will enable society and generate revenue too, but needs to create differentiation for unique end products, and will be built on some level of industry collaboration since MEMS is just an ingredient, not the full solution.  Patience and a commitment from the customer side is also needed if they want a unique product/solution.  Academia can help with continued support for infrastructure creation, which is only optimized for certain products.

DAY TWO

The first speaker of the day, Keynote, Scott Borg with the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, shared a unique perspective on the impact of all of the new sensor networks being deployed.  He encouraged the attendees to approach the design of the product with hackers, and other classes of cunning adversaries in mind.  Hackers are conservative by nature, but looking for easy access to the most mundane parts of the systems we are creating, including hardware vulnerabilities.  The biggest impact currently is in manipulating financial markets and stealing competitive business information and that could affect our supply chains.  Making it difficult and costly for hackers to attack your system is the best method of protecting yourself at this time.

With so many action items coming from the conference and breakout groups, the SEMI | MSIG members, leaders and staff were given a clear roadmap for future work, goals and activities. 

The next opportunity to engage and connect with the MEMS and sensors community is the MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress, November 1-2, Napa, California-- We hope to see you there!

POSTER SESSION & FAB TOUR

BREAKOUT DISCUSSIONS

1. Technology Transfer for Dummies: How to get to a Stable High-yielding Process
   Lead:  Mary Ann Maher, Ph.D., President, Founder, softMEMS
    
2. Back-end Challenges of MEMS and Sensors (Packaging, Testing, & Reliability)
   Leads:  Mike Mignardi, Manager, Technology Development, Texas Instruments, Rob O'Reilly, Senior Member Technical Staff, Analog Devices
    
3. Integration Opportunities (Technological & Business Considerations)
   Lead: Peter Himes:  General Manager, SITRI Innovations and SITRI Ventures
    
4. Emerging MEMS, Sensors, and Systems Incorporating Them
   Lead:  Nicole Kerness, Vice President, Sensor Design & Technology, Kionix
    
5. Piezoelectric and other Emerging Materials for MEMS and Sensor Applications
   Lead:  Dave Horsley, PhD., Chirp Microsystems