MEMS Journal -- The Largest MEMS Publication in the World

Gyroscopes adding up to next commodity MEMS

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Three months ago you heard my prediction here that the iPhone would be getting a gyroscope soon, and last month the prophesy was fulfilled.  Since then, even deeper reasons have emerged to be bullish on gyros.  And mark your calendars with my new prediction: a new iPad model with a gyroscope will debut by 2011, propelling gyros into the next MEMS mass-market commodity.

Microfluidics for crime scene investigation

by Paul Pyzowski, Guest Contributor

The television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation became one of the most watched shows of the past decade by updating the police procedural genre with cutting edge forensic science.  Although it has tried to keep its forensic science technically accurate, the demands of sixty minute TV often led to displays of scientific analysis and acumen well beyond what even the best crime labs could do.  Practicing forensic scientists refer to the “CSI effect” when juries expect far more from forensic evidence than what is possible or practical.

Optical MEMS finally arriving

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Optical MEMS have long been a goal of forward-thinking electronics innovators, but these technologies have had a rocky development road.  Lately, however, the big money in semiconductor research – IBM and Intel – have reported significant successes in using the traditional CMOS toolkits to micromachine optical structures.  Related work is also being done at Hewlett-Packard, Alcatel-Lucent and other research labs worldwide.  Waveguides, gratings, resonators, modulators, and other tiny mechanical structures can effectively sculpt light for communication purposes when shrunk to sizes that correspond to the wavelength of light being manipulated.  And with the semiconductor powerhouses behind these efforts, optical MEMS may finally be on the threshold of mass commercialization.

MEMS enabled micro mirrors provide platform for single chip cameras

by John Williamson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Belgium-based research center imec’s NVision machine-vision program provides a new platform that replaces separate camera lenses with MEMS enabled micro mirrors on a single chip.  “We set out to make a zoom lens system for digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras based on micro mirrors, providing full electronic control without mechanical movements.  Our goal is a camera half the size but with twice the zoom range of conventional DSLR cameras, and with no sacrifice in quality,” according to Dr. Francesco Pessolano, the NVision program manager at imec.