Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) is the acronym for a burgeoning new technology that holds great promise for the development of new devices for the communications and sensor industries. With this technology, moving structures are fabricated onto silicon chips along with, in many cases, supporting electronics. These moving structures might include 1 mm motors, optical elements, gyroscopes, accelerometers, etc. One of the first devices commerically produced was the vehicle impact sensor produced by Analog Devices and is used in most automobiles in the air bag system now. It has a built in moving accelerometer on the chip along with the signal processing electronics.
Parallels between the current state of the art in this technology and where the semiconductor industry was in the 1960's and 1970's lead me to believe that we may be in the beginning stages of a new revolution that holds great potential for profitability.
The question I would like this thread to discuss are:
What startup companies focusing on MEMS are currently being planned or have recently been launched and what are their products? |
