"Time Flies..." it is said, and very well when describing the delay between entries on this blog.

Since our first meeting at Duke, I know that I've been very busy which is a good thing since it means the MEMS business is brewing strongly. In addition to a number of accounts that I've picked up under my program management responsibilities, several new programs are beginning to rise out of the funnel. That fact is not so interesting on the surface but it is quite so when I look at the varied applications these new programs are trying to address.

To me, it means that MEMS is becoming affordable again for companies who know little to nothing about the technology. Rather, they only know that it can help them achieve a specification or cost target currently unattainable with conventional technology. This is very, very good because it means that company bean-counters rate a MEMS development program as lower-risk than a few years ago.

The greatest impact from this phenomenon will be felt by today's students in MEMS because more interest equals more jobs and opportunity, both in companies who make MEMS and need engineers to develop and run processes and companies who want to integrate MEMS and need engineers who can work with the foundries.

The beauty is that this is not specific to U.S. companies. I've just returned from two weeks in the EU and had several meetings which validated this movement beyond the U.S. The Transducers conference in Lyon had a nice cross-section of MEMS people from industry to academia to government. From the booth attendance, clearly the MUMPs program is generating a lot of attention again as companies look to deploy the technology at the prototyping level on the pathway to full production.

People are excited about MEMS again, but this time it's because of what it really brings as a mature technology rather than because of the hype. It may not lead to billion-dollar acquisitions anytime soon, though it also won't result in billion-dollar expectations either so we'll have a fighting chance!