Buzzclips

Great Article on MEMS Oscillators

2011-03-28T15:33:00Z

Here's a pretty good description of MEMS Oscillators in an interview of a former MEMSCAP employee.

MEMS has been identified as a strong candidate to replace traditional quartz oscillators. Companies like SiTime have been gaining market share over the past 5-10 years. This article tells us why MEMS are ideal to replace the antiquated quartz version.

A few years ago at a workshop at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, I met a dude who owned a quartz oscillator company and he bought me a beer to pick my brain about what it would take to realize a MEMS-based device. After my explanation of MEMS development, he ran out of there as fast as possible! Obviously, MEMS has picked up quite a bit of steam since then.

As is typical with high volume MEMS, you need a good ASIC to go along with this device. It's preferable to have an off-the-shelf ASIC however that's not usually the case with MEMS which requires a custom solution.

Enjoy the article and let me know your comments and feedback.

If Only This Were Facebook...

2011-02-09T17:54:00Z

I'd have a lot more postings to share with you but I'm guessing the 3 readers on this blog are not interested in seeing photos of my kids and wife, or of me from college 25 yrs ago?

Well, there is something to talk about: COMS 2011, Greensboro, NC, August 28-31

COMS is one of the most popular conferences for the Micro/Nano industry, one that I've been to several times over the past decade. Having the show in our area is a real feather in our cap. This is a great opportunity to be seen and heard by folks across the industry. If you have an idea for a paper, I highly recommend submitting an abstract.

The nice thing about COMS is that it's not overrun with the typical industry "I'm Great"-ers like many other Micro/Nano shows. The organization that leads COMS, MANCEF, is made up mostly of volunteers in the industry, many of them "gurus" in their fields. Attendance is typically in the hundreds so there's a real chance to shake hands, network, look for a job, and align your business with others.

MEMSCAP will definitely be there. Be sure to track me down if you attend.

Bringing ACC Rivals Together Through MEMS!

2008-10-03T20:43:00Z

Recently, I received a call from a researcher at UNC asking if we could process some wafers with a particular Low Stress Nitride film. She only needed a few wafers done, which makes it really expensive on a per-wafer cost basis due to the large 50 wafer batch size for this type of deposition. In other words, it costs the same to process 2 wafers as it does for 50.

Anyway, as I was telling her this I recalled doing something similar for Jungsang Kim at Duke about a month earlier. He also only needed maybe a dozen wafers but ended up doing 25 since the cost was essentially the same for processing. The lightbulb went off and I told the UNC gal that she could probably finagle a few off Duke for a fraction of our cost and put her in touch with Jungsang, who presumably hooked her up.

This is the kind of result we strive for, bringing bitter rivals together to work for the greater good! OK, of course I'm overstating it with tongue in cheek, but if creating this little local network results in lower expenses for your program, then I think we've done our job?

What other collaborations can you envision?

Still Alive!

2008-08-21T18:46:00Z

Just when you thought the Trimems blog was dead...

OK, I've been pretty remiss about entries on this thing but am hoping to change that over the rest of this year. While the participation has not been very high, we do see local interest growing for MEMS. Here's my take(100% my OPINION based on what I know and who I deal with) on the layout of the Triangle Academic scene:

Duke is the most active participant with the MUMPs program so I put them at the top of the local academic MEMS ladder. Dr. Jungsang Kim's program in the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics is a regular user of the PolyMUMPs and SOIMUMPs technologies and, occasionally, our foundry services (when we're cheap enough!) Dr. Bruce Randall Donald seems to have established himself at Duke since moving over from Dartmouth and building the Donald Laboratory, where he works on microscopic robots. These robots, which got some good local notoriety from an article in The News and Observer (though they missed the local fabrication angle!), use PolyMUMPs to build the basic structure. There are certainly others at Duke doing MEMS research, I just don't know them, so it's becoming a nice program that should attract top students nationwide to pursue their MEMS research.

NC State has always been kind of a conundrum to me. The university ranks highly in annual surveys for MEMS facilities and education, yet we never seem to get any headway when trying to collaborate. It sounds like things are changing. Dr. Yong Zhu in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is offering an Introduction to MEMS class this Fall and the response has been overwhelming. My opinion is that good programs are built from the ground-up, at the undergraduate level, so this news is very good. Additionally, MEMSCAP and the Triangle National Lithography Center at State(which technically is a NCSU-UNC collaboration) are working with a government customer to integrate PolyMUMPs and the sub-micron capability of the TNLC to create a sub-micron PolyMUMPs offering. Designs are being reviewed at this time with the hopes to have some results by the end of the calendar year. Professors Mark Johnson on the Materials side and Jackie Krim on the Physics side are others doing MEMS-ish research.

UNC does some MEMS though I'm not regularly in-touch with the faculty there (tried a search for "MEMS" on their website and the top links are for the Medieval & Early Modern Studies!) but is more known for the Nanotechnology work of Dr. Zhou's group. Also, Dr. Carrie Donley is the director of the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL) which offers a pretty nifty suite of analytical tools for micro and nano structures which area researchers can access.

I realize this isn't a complete list. I'd like it to be. One goal of this blog/website is to provide a source for students to easily find out what folks are doing locally. In the coming months, I'm going to post more detailed information on the programs listed above, possibly in the words of the people above.

Bottom line to me is if we want to generate some excitement, momentum, and interest in this technology locally, it's up to us collectively to make it happen. What interests you?

Next blog entry: I'll share some good stories and observations from my travels across Europe this year in support of the EU STIMESI project. It's very interesting to compare the efforts of the EU vs. US to foster academic MEMS research.

MEMS in Europe vs. MEMS in U.S.A.: Making the Case for Fundamentals

2007-06-25T18:40:00Z

One of the perks of this job is that I get to work on EU-backed government projects. In addition to the great meals, fabulous cities, and interesting new people I'm privileged to encounter, I get to talk to folks from all over the EU about their MEMS programs and how they are deploying the technology in education.

While I won't get into comparisons regarding education quality or student mindsets, there is a clear difference in level of infrastructure available to students. Quite frankly, the U.S. falls short in any comparison.

The particular project in which we are currently involved, STIMESI, is a perfect example(http://www.stimesi.org). The STIMESI project has one goal: stimulate growth of MEMS in the EU by offering fundamentals courses for free. The tactics are to reach out to students all over the EU and provide FREE training on the 5-6 Multi Project Wafer(MPW) services that exist for MEMS today. This training is not the rushed, do-it-all-in-one-day type either. The courses are 3-4 days, with at least half of that time dedicated to hands-on design exercises and practice of actually designing a multi-layered MEMS device. The students received detailed instruction on MEMS design and fabrication, both from the custom and standard process perspectives. We even show them how to smartly leverage the standard process in a custom approach, how to intelligently approach MEMS development with a standard process pathway, and how to effectively work with foundries. We show them real examples from students just like themselves.

I remember similar short courses[that were not free!] 5-6 years ago offered by the old Cronos/JDSU outfit where we'd regularly sell out but attendance waned so much that we discontinued the offerings by 2002.

The result is that every student is qualified and prepared to create and submit a design for prototyping within 3-6 months after taking the course. Many of the students had never designed a MEMS device before taking the course but after three days of instructions and a few months of homework and study, they are ready to pump out a design.

Why doesn't this happen in the U.S.? Are we too focused on the one killer device that will make a good IPO or a strong case for a military contract, rather than instilling the basic fundamentals? Do we rely too much on professors to provide this level of instruction? Has the government blurred its vision as to what's important from an engineering fundamental standpoint?

Based on the experience we're having in the EU, it's clear to me that something as basic as this has a lot of value to students.

Suppose you could go to a local 3-day MUMPs training course for free[where even lunch and coffee were included!], is that something you might be interested in? [Sorry, shameless exploitation of an Entourage quote].

I'm interested to know your opinion so please leave a comment.

By the way, last week's course took place in Barcelona[an amazing city!] where every seat was taken by students from all over including Belgium, U.K., Saudi Arabia, France, and Spain! Next up: Ankara, Turkey and Glasgow, Scotland.

Anyone want to volunteer as a teaching assistant?

MEMS Development No Longer a Curse Word

2007-06-25T18:24:00Z

"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!

PolyMUMPs Run 78 Partner Needed!

2007-04-10T16:41:00Z

Ram Ramasubramanian, Associate Professor at NC State's Dept of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is looking to share a die space on the PolyMUMPs run #78 (June 26 design deadline). If you are planning a submission to this run and can spare 1/4 of your design space, please comment and we will put you in touch with Ram so you can share the costs and space!

Professor Ramasubramanian is hoping to spur activity in MEMS by using the MUMPs program as the lab in an Intro to MEMS course. The timing of his call was impeccable because I had just been talking with a professor at a University of California school who was seeking my input on a proposal that uses a similar approach to creating a standard MEMS teaching curriculum. If the proposal is successful, there could be opportunities for local schools to get in on the 2nd phase. Part of the proposal includes discounted MUMPs die sites. We are also collaborating on a text book for an Intro to MEMS class, which is slated to be published in late 2008, whereby the MUMPs process is defined as the de-facto teaching process. There's lots of work still to be done, but this certainly proves out the viability of this structure as a good way to teach MEMS.

SIDE NOTES: (I LOVE this section!) This entry brings up a great use of this blog and website, namely identifying "teaming opportunities"(as DARPA likes to call them) so that we can work together with people in our own backyard. Identifying and promoting such opportunities is one of the main goals of TRIMEMS so keep the opportunities coming so we can help you find partners. This does not mean that you have to play nice during ACC games.

-BH

Blog Works!

2007-04-10T15:49:00Z

(By reading you obviously know this already but) I am very happy to see the blog finally in lights! It took some doing, a few blind emails to the godaddy customer support, lots of clicking and menu surfing, but finally as of this AM, we have a TRIMEMS blog.

Unfortunately, there isn't much to say. This week has been choppy due to the start of Spring Break and the Easter holiday. MEMSCAP was closed on Good Friday, a concept completely foreign to my friends in California who nevertheless celebrated Cesar Chavez Day with school being out one week before. I spent a few days in the Bay Area last week visiting family with our daughter and attending a wedding so I didn't talk much MEMS though I did get the kinds of questions that reinforce my belief that we need to do a better job of promoting MEMS such as "Is the new, really small Intel (processor) a MEMS?".

Usually, I only get those kinds of questions from my mother but this time there were several others asking similar questions. I hate saying "You've heard of Nanotechnology, MEMS is a little bigger!" but that's the best way to communicate it in a cocktail party type of setting. Unfortunately, once you get past the "sexy" applications(DLP, Inkjet, Airbags, implantable sensors) and start talking more about the mechanical nature or how it works, eyes start rolling (or wives start looking for their husbands, as in the case of the wedding reception/cocktail party).

So what is the best way to communicate the definition of MEMS to a lay audience? It's something I struggle with regularly since I'm not an engineer by-trade, yet I kind of play one in front of people who expect me to talk technical. It's usually no problem in that setting but trying to explain it to others can be a challenge. I welcome your feedback on that.

SIDE NOTE: As you've probably figured out by now(all two of you who read this!), this blog is going to be more than just a discussion of technical MEMS yadayadayada. I think it's important to link the technology to our personal lives, beyond a job, thesis, or research project. There is great value in sharing the underbelly of the industry from everyone's perspective. And I consider myself a humorist too so my entries will look for opportunities to entertain as well. I will do my best to contain these comments to the Side Note section.

Being in the Bay Area for a long weekend also reinforced my belief that our blind move to Raleigh in 1996 was the best move we ever made. Visions of concrete, trashy roads, rude people, and stories of people "scraping by" on a six-figure Silicon Valley salary were enough to convince me once again that there's way more to life than good weather. Incidentally, it was the same temperature as we were having here so...

By the way, when I use the word "our" when referring to family, I'm talking about my wife of 12 years, Gillian; our 7-year old daughter, Eliza; and our 1+ year old son, Kacher.

Out for now.
-BH

Welcome to TRIMEMS.ORG!

2007-03-27T20:34:00Z

In case you missed it, the first meeting of this new MEMS networking group occurred last Friday at Duke University. Most agreed it was a rousing success(and would have been without the free pizza!). About 20-25 of us sat, talked, listened, and questioned the list of speakers at this inaugural event. The group was made up of professors from NC State and Duke, along with some of their brightest students who were probably "guilted" into coming or were there for the pizza(note, the marketing lesson to the engineers was clear - free food=successful seminar!). We also had attendees from RF Micro Devices, Coventor, and MEMSCAP. Each of the five organizations gave quick overviews of their interests in MEMS and how their respective organizations are executing on those interests. Particularly interesting was the guest speaker, Vijay Dhuler, CEO of H-Cubed, who gave a great talk on his experiences "Riding the MEMS Wave" from grunt, graduate student to inventor to entrepreneur. We even had a bit of raciness to the MEMS talk(first time "racy" and "MEMS" have ever been used in the same sentence, I think!) as Mr. Dhuler spun great anecdotes about the "scandals" and lawsuits that accompanied the near-billion-dollar acquisition of Cronos by JDS Uniphase. All in all, it was a very good kickoff to this organization as we strive toward accomplishing the goals to raise awareness of the great work in MEMS that is going on here in "Nano" country(cheap shot, sorry!), and to give students a forum to showcase their work and talents in front of a local audience(aka potential employers).

So where do we go from here? There are a couple of ways to answer that with short- and long-term objectives.

Short term goals
1. Get a website(done, obviously)
2. Have a meeting (ditto)
3. Create a logo
4. Make a t-shirt
5. Plan the next meeting

Long term goals
1. Further define the goals and objectives of TRIMEMS
2. Create electronic marketing materials to support #1

The beauty in this is that it's really up to you! I have defined the first version in the main web page but am really hoping that we'll get some good feedback from y'all(being from California, I never thought I'd say or write that word but I have come to really like it!). What do you need from an organization like this? What would help you do your job better? What can this collection of local MEMS resources do for your project?

I'm also hopeful that students will get involved with the logo and/or t-shirt design. Should we hold a contest?

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments.