rehabilitationstechnik - fortec · 2005. 10. 13. · dec. 06 remote training and engineering in mst...

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Contents

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Ambient Assisted Living Initiative for the Ageing Population:Rationale, Opportunities, Challenges and Impact: the MST Case

Ambient Assisted Living – Preparing an Article 169 Measure

Demographic Change in Europe and Industrialised CountriesRequires AAL Innovations

Ambient Intelligence in Smart Homes: From Component Design to Service Design

Technologies for Smart Toilets

Sensoric Textile Bed Cover

MEMS-based Technologies and Smart Detection Systems forAmbient Assisted Living

Laser Technique Improves Safety for the Blind

Elderly Remote Video Monitoring: Latest Technological Devel-opments for a Greater Autonomy and Intimacy Preservation

Innovative Mobile-Health Solutions Promise to Improve ElderlyCare and Save Costs

Events / Short News

EU Programme News

News from NEXUS Association and NEXUSPLUS

News from Europractice - Microsystems Service for Europe

News from NoE Patent-DfMM -Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture

News from Eurimus -Eureka Industrial Initiative for Microsystem Users

News from the German Programme Microsystems 2004 - 2009

News from MINAEAST-NET - Micro and Nanotechnologies going to Eastern Europe through Networking

Panorama - Microsystems Clusters in Germany and EconomicPerformance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Panorama - An Updated Report Card on the Barriers to theCommercialization of MEMS and Nanotechnology: Lessons to be Learned from the Semiconductor Industry

Panorama - NEXUS Market Analysis for MEMS and Microsystems III 2005 - 2009

Ambient AssistedLiving

T. J. Sommer (B)

M. Huch, H. Strese (D)

H. Steg (D) et al

V. Grinewitschus (D) et al

G. Edelmayer (A) et al

K. Richter, M. Möbius (D)

L. Lorenzelli (IT) et al

M. Ritz, L. König (D)

V. Carniel (CH)

O. Atzmon (ISR)

B. Wybranski (D)

M. Kreibich (D)

P. Salomon (D)

P. Salomon (D)

P. Salomon (D)

B. Guehl (F)

W. Ehret (D)

D. Dascalu (RO)

U. Kleinkes (D)

R. Grace (US)

H. Wicht (D)

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mstnews 6/05 on „Technology Programmes and Initia-tives“ in December 2005Presentation of the efforts to promote and accelerateMST, in particular micro-nano-integration, in Europe onnational level and international level.

Deadline for press releases, short news, event announce-ments and advertisement orders: Nov. 10, 2005

Date of distribution: Dec. 01, 2005

mstnews 1/06 on „Integrated Microsystems forBiomedicine“ in February 2006Report on new applications for nano- and microsystemtechnologies and new exemplary system solutions in theapplication field of medical equipment that works closeto living organisms.

Deadline for abstracts: October 15, 2005

Date of distribution: February 07, 2006

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Look ahead to the next issues:

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Editorial

Publisher:VDI/VDE - Innovation + Technik GmbH(VDI/VDE-IT)Rheinstraße 10 B, 14513 Teltow, Germany

mstnews is published 6 times a year in February, April, June, August, October andDecember.

mstnews comprises newsletter pages fromseveral European Networks (Nexus, Euro-practice, Eurimus, Patent-DfMM) and theGerman Microsystems Frame Programme.

Managing Editor / mstnews Office:Bernhard Wybranski, VDI/VDE-ITRheinstraße 10 B, 14513 Teltow, GermanyPhone: +49 3328 435-167Fax: +49 3328 435-105E-mail: [email protected]

Editors:Alfons BotthofPatric Salomon Dr. Matthias WernerWiebke Ehret (German MST Programme News)Dr. Hartmut Strese(Ambient Assited Living)

Assistant Editors: Annette Wittmann

Cover design:Isabelle Brämer

Setting:klahr.de

Advertising:We welcome sponsors and advertisers.Please visit www.mstnews.de to downloadour media data and advertising rates.

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Submission of Articles:Your submissions are appreciated. The maintopics of the future issues are listed on theleft, but other interesting articles that donot fit into this scheme are also welcome.Please send your abstract to the mstnewsoffice. Guidelines for authors are availableon www.mstnews.de

Announcements, New Products, Books,Studies, Company Information:mstnews publishes selected announce-ments, product and company news free ofcharge. Please send your news (100 to 200words preferred) to [email protected].

Opinions expressed by the authors are notnecessarily those of mstnews.

Dear Readers,

If you have already leafed throughthis new issue of mstnews you mayhave got the impression that you’reholding the wrong magazine in yourhands: A lot of social topics instead ofreports about new achievements inmicro- and nanotechnologies… In-deed, this issue is a little bit differentfrom the usual kind of mstnews. The phenomenon of an ageing popu-lation in Europe is a huge challenge,not only for social politics but also forthe high-tech industry and for serviceproviders. You may know from yourown experience that up to now prod-uct design, fashion, services marketetc. are usually focused on and de-signed for young, active, communica-tive, flexible, sporty and highly capa-ble people. It seems that the rapidlyincreasing share of people at the ageof 65++ is simply ignored, and there-fore it is high time to call to mind thatthis part of the European populationwill account for 50% of the popula-tion of working age in 40-50 years al-ready (see article on pages 10-12). Why should this situation affect thedevelopment of micro- and nanotech-nologies and related products of alltechnologies? The very general rea-son for that is the essential roleplayed by micro-nano integration inthe development of comprehensivesmart systems, including communica-tion, information processing, automa-tion (incl. robotics) and bio- and medi-cal functions. This issue of mstnews isdealing in detail with the challenges

of an “ageing society” and pointingout first technical approaches and so-lutions for creating a comfortable en-vironment for the daily life of elderlyand/or disabled people. Some of thesolutions are admittedly not so “high-tech” yet and lack real micro technol-ogy, but at least they show develop-ment trends in an exemplary way. Wehope that they will give you someideas of what micro- and nanotech-nologies can be used for in future.I’d also like to remind you of the com-ing mstnews issue on “Integrated Mi-crosystems for Biomedicine” to bepublished in February 2006 (the dead-line for abstracts is October 15, 2005).That issue is intended to provide adeeper insight into the medical appli-cation fields of MST that are surelyrelevant to “ambient assisted living”too.

Bernhard WybranskiChief editor of mstnews

Main Topics of mstnews until 6/05 Deadline forIssue Main Topics abstracts

Dec. 05 Technology Programmes and Initiatives passedFeb. 06 Integrated Microsystems for Biomedicine Oct. 15, 2005Apr. 06 Improving Industrial Maturity of MST Dec. 15, 2005Jun. 06 Fun and Recreation with MST Feb. 15, 2006Aug. 06 Micro-Nano-Integration Apr. 15, 2006Oct. 06 Sustainable Developments with MST Jun. 15, 2006Dec. 06 Remote Training and Engineering in MST Aug. 15, 2006

Embedded graphical object “SKeeper”:See article on pages 42 -44; Source: Tadi-ran Spectralink Ltd., Kiryat Shmona, IsraelEmbedded graphical objects Pills and“iPAQ” from Compaq: See article on page12 – 14; Source: Fraunhofer IMS, Duisburg,Germany

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A M B I E N T A S S I S T E D L I V I N G

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RationaleThe ageing of societies is a phe-nomenon in all developed countries.In Germany for example, the averageage that men can expect to reach isabout 76 years and that of womenaround 81 years. The percentage ofthe population older than 65 yearswill probably double by 2050 as com-pared to 2005. Already today, ap-proximately 20% of the Europeanpopulation is considered either aged(above 65 years old) or having dis-abilities.

This implies the need for morehealth care for older persons andthis, in turn, has the consequence ofever-rising costs for the social securi-ty system. From this point of view,the goal is to limit or stop the in-crease in health care expenditure,which on average represents 8.5% ofthe European GDP with an upwardtrend. If no measures are taken, theincrease in the health care related

share in GDP is expected to morethan double in a number of coun-tries in the decades to come.

In terms of the global economy, it isnecessary to find a solution that canlimit or even reduce costs in relationto care for elderly persons, while atthe same time maintaining and evenincreasing their quality of life.

The role of ICT and MNTCan Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) help to face thechallenges? What would be the ap-propriate approach? Can smart sen-sors and Micro-Nanotechnology(MNT) in general provide efficientsolutions? – Those are the questionsto be asked. The high-tech communi-ty strongly believes that MNT tech-nology is the key driver and enablerin such an endeavour, without whichthe objective to enable elderly per-sons to stay in their home environ-ment as long as possible while beingautonomous and independent wouldnot be possible.

In general, in order to detect anykind of anomalies, e.g. the fall of aperson, strong deviations from stan-dards in the monitoring of health pa-rameters, detection of upcomingfire, smoke, dangerous gas concen-tration, water leakage, refrigeratorbecoming empty, any kind of intru-sion etc., sensors are absolutely vitaland crucial. But sensing alone is notenough. What is needed are subse-quent data processing, evaluation,and wireless communication.

Pre-processing of data and their 1storder evaluation at the premises ofolder persons could be an interestingoption in order not to overload themedical personnel with irrelevant da-ta. Only if an evaluation yields in re-vealing a sort of danger, a signalshould be automatically generatedto alert the doctor or the paramedi-cal personnel, or the police or firebrigade, respectively.

Today elderly persons, often living

alone and especially when sufferingfrom one or more of diseases thatare more widespread in that popula-tion, are asked to move to homes forelderly people, or homes with moreor less regular medical care, etc. Thisis on the one hand connected withhigh cost, which is only to a small ex-tent covered by the elderly personsthemselves. Therefore, a major partof the costs has to be provided bythe health care system, which is partof the social security system.

One should remember that the Euro-pean R&D for elderly & disabled per-sons is not new. The importance ofthe subject was recognized a longtime ago and a long series of EC-funded R&D projects addressingamong other things independent liv-ing, home systems through assistivetechnologies and design for all solu-tions, with approximately 200 M€funding over 15 years, has been suc-cessfully implemented. However, atake-up by industry on a large scalewas not visible enough and has nothad yet the expected impact. Onereason might have been fragmenta-tion, lack of critical mass, but alsothe lack of vision of the relevant in-dustry. Another reason was probablythe missing political signal offavourable conditions for an imple-mentation on a large scale. This iswhy a R&D scheme alone, whether atnational or at European level, wouldnot be sufficient.

A concerted effort of politics, (pro-viding the right overall conditions) ofan appropriate European fundingscenario, fostering the coordinationof national efforts in the MemberStates (MS), and mobilising the in-dustry is needed to achieve a realbreakthrough.

That’s why it is widely understoodthat the Ambient Assisted Living ini-tiative would be best suited to be im-plemented in adopting the so-calledArticle 169 of the Treaty. The basicidea here is the coordination of theRTD programmes of at least some MS

Ambient Assisted Living Initiative for the AgeingPopulation: Rationale, Opportunities, Challengesand Impact: the MST CaseThomas J. Sommer

In the years and decades to come,European societies will be facedwith serious demographic changes.The population in the developedcountries of the world is gettingolder. An ageing society generallyneeds more health care with specif-ic needs. The cost of health caresystems is continuously rising, withserious implications for the socialsystem of our societies. In order toaddress the legitimate needs of theageing population and to slowdown, in the ideal case to achieveeven a significant reduction of ex-penditures for the care of elderlypersons, it is planned to implementduring the 7th EU Framework Pro-gramme for R&D a new Europeaninitiative, called Ambient AssistedLiving for the Ageing Population(AAL). The objective is to enable el-derly persons to stay in their homeas long as possible, enabling themto live independently with moreautonomy and, hence, enjoy a bet-ter quality of life than is possible inan old people’s home or a nursinghome.

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in a specific research area. The ECwould support such an initiative ofthe MS with a complementary finan-cial contribution. MS and EC will pro-vide an efficient public frameworkthrough the use of Article 169, whichin turn will leverage private invest-ments.

Although the use of Article 169 forthe implementation of the AAL ini-tiative is important, AAL containsmuch more than RTD. Product inno-vation, deployment, mechanisms forachieving critical mass, developmentof open standards, regulatory as-pects, reimbursement schemes, flexi-bility to consider national particulari-ties of the respective socio-economicsystem etc. are important comple-mentary aspects.

In order to achieve a critical mass ofresources, we are talking about asum which will end up with severalhundreds of million €,composed ofcontributions by MS, the EC andtopped up by industry. The lattercontribution is expected to be com-posed to a considerable part of ap-plied research in the form of collabo-rative projects, out of which around80-90% should be close to applica-tions.

Possible technological approachThe vision is to work on ideas whichat a glance might possibly look futur-istic;– at the time of their implemen-tation theywill set the pace of fur-ther improvements and contribute toand speed up the state of the art.

After fast implementing of “stand-alone” type of home appliances, anext step could be the networking ofdifferent sensor types, where in thecontext of a given situation othersensor types – receiving the relevantinformation – would react according-ly (context-aware services). The DGInformation Society and Media ofthe EC is already funding an Inte-grated Project ‘MIMOSA’, dealingwith such context-aware services.This could, as an example, have aRFID reader included in a mobilephone and, pointing the latter toother smart objects, additional infor-mation could be read out or, even,other actions triggered. The vision isto put sensors in as many objects aspossible, to network them, i.e. en-

abling their wireless communicationand actions, even to the outsideworld. All this will happen in thebackground, quasi ‘invisible’ for theelderly person. This is a user-centredapproach offering high comfort andcare without unnecessarily botheringthe elderly person and, at the sametime, offering a maximum of care,safety and security.

Another visionary example could beto spread sensors in large area net-works, e.g. painting them on walls,

placing them in intelligent carpets orfloors. Such intelligent floors wouldbe in the position to detect a deviat-ing pattern of walking with the pos-sibility of calling for help. In less criti-cal situations together with wear-ables, e.g. a necklace with sensors,unobtrusive monitoring of vital phys-iological parameters, communicationamong the smart objects would bebased on the physiological state andmood of the person modulating e.g.the light and/or music etc.Sensors could play an important role

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Addressing the Europe-wide phe-nomenon of an ageing population –with statistical figures and implica-tions outlined in other articles of this“mstnews” issue – a European con-sortium is currently preparing a newEuropean technology funding pro-gramme "bridging" national tech-nology programmes and markets inthe field of information technologiesas enabling technologies, targeted tosupport the development of newproducts and solutions in an areacalled Ambient Assisted Living (AAL).

Ambient Assisted Living aims at pro-longing the time people can live in adecent way in their own home by in-creasing their autonomy and self-confidence, the discharge ofmonotonous everyday activities,monitoring, and caring for, elderly orill persons, enhancing security andsaving resources.

www.aal169.org

Started in September 2004, a consor-tium that consists of national re-search ministries, programme man-aging agencies and research organi-sations explores the details of a newcommon technology funding pro-gramme made possible by the EC-funded project Ambient Assisted Liv-ing.

The ultimate objective of this projectis the preparation of an article 169instrument “Ambient Assisted Liv-ing” (AAL169), to be implementedwithin the forthcoming 7th Euro-pean Framework Programme for Re-search and Technological Develop-ment (FP7) that is expected to startin early 2007.

Article 169 of the European Treatyprovides a strong case for the Euro-pean Commission to foster transna-tional cooperation in research fund-ing. In short, on the basis of this arti-cle, the European Commission maycontribute substantially to this newfunding programme in terms of bud-get and political support. Currently,there is only one measure of thistype being undertaken, the Euro-pean & Developing Countries ClinicalTrials Partnership (EDTCP), but sever-al are being prepared for FP7.

Article 169 also specifies the pre-con-dition for the EC to get involved, i.e.the bottom-up initiative is to be tak-en by a group of European memberstates. Thus, the current group haselaborated a detailed analysis of thespecific situation regarding the con-cept of Ambient Assisted Living in all7 participating countries. Althoughall European countries share the situ-ation of ever-increasing pressure on

Ambient Assisted Living – Preparing an Article 169MeasureMichael Huch and Hartmut Strese

also in an appropriate monitoring ofthe quality of food.

Challenges, opportunities and impactIn order to be successful on the po-tentially growing market, several so-cio-economic factors have to be tak-en into account like user friendliness,acceptance by the targeted popula-tion, modularity, cost, i.e. affordabili-ty for both, the end-user and the so-cial security system, reliability, andquick help in case of need. And, alsothe most appropriate marketing ap-proach must not be forgotten. It isimportant that AAL products go for“mainstream” solution, i.e. theyshould be sold e.g. in supermarketsinstead of purchasing them via themedical doctors.

Bearing in mind that in 2050 proba-bly more than 100 million people inthe EU will be older than 65, it is areal opportunity for a breakthroughand a widespread use of MNT tech-nology especially in the home envi-ronment; therefore the potential im-

pact is huge. It will benefit both theMNT industry and the system indus-try, providing smart products andcomplete solutions. And because ofthat, it is a great business opportuni-ty for the European MNT industry.Such a major action may serve as aparadigm for a number of similarproblems of our societies.

ConclusionIt is strongly believed that the solu-tions offered by AAL for the ageingpopulation will extend the time peo-ple can live independently in theirhome environment. It will increasetheir autonomy, assist them in carry-ing out everyday activities, provideaccess to social, medical and emer-gency systems and enhance theirsafety and security. In this importantendeavour MST technology with itspotential in the systems integrationof nano and bio components is thekey driver and enabler of future AALproducts and services. MST technolo-gy is in fact indispensable for thevast majority of future AAL based solutions.

The AAL initiative is also an impor-tant example of how innovation – al-so in the context of the EC flagshipinitiative “i2010:European Informa-tion Society 2010”http://europa.eu.int/i2010 adoptedon June 1, 2005 (addressing amongothers also problems of the ageingpopulation) - can contribute to solv-ing burning problems of society andat the same time help create newjobs and economic growth.

DisclaimerThe views expressed in this paper arethose of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official Eu-ropean Commission’s view on the subject.

Contact:Thomas J. SommerEuropean Commission, Directorate-General Information Society and Media, 1049 Brussels, BelgiumPhone: +32 2 2964871 Fax: +32 2 2998249E-Mail: [email protected]

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social security and health care sys-tems, it is of utmost importance toreflect the specific national situation,as there are differences on the na-tional level, differences concerningdemographic trends, societal struc-tures and cultures. In addition, resources and competencies in R&Dthat are scattered throughout Europe within the AAL area are tobe pooled for the benefit of the end user.

This rationale to overcome nationalboundaries in this area and to jointlyset up a new funding programmehas convinced a number of other Eu-ropean member states to join thisinitiative. Once up and running,AAL169 intends to regularlylaunch calls for proposals con-cerning certain, pre-specifiedtopics.

The growing percentage of el-derly people requires totallynew solutions for their careand supply with goods. Facingalready today´s existing short-comings in an adequate num-ber of skilled nursing, it is ur-gently necessary to developtechnical devices for a solutionto those problems. To considerneeds and specific require-ments, users (and their associa-tions) have to be integrated in-to the innovation process andproduct development rightfrom the beginning, i.e., in theconceptual phase. The declineof sensoric, physical and mentalcapabilities has to be taken in-to account – these changes areindependent of any change ofneeds and requirements due tothe cultural rejuvenation of el-derly people.

Thus major problems of elderlypeople have to be tackled. Pos-sible themes could be• Creation of a smart, context-

aware and barrier-free intel-ligent home

• Monitoring of risk patientsat home

• Preventive health care anddisease management

• Development of tools tocope with dementia

• Communication solutions forelderly people

• Development of textiles and wear-ables with built-in ambient intelli-gence

• Solutions to support and maintainthe wellness and an active life ofelderly people

Relevant sectors for AAL solutions,applications and products are:• Health care and medical devices,• Geronto-technologies,• Wellness,• Services,• Smart home,• Smart textiles,• Robotics and• Consumer electronics.

All technological fields and optionsthat help solve AAL challenges andmeet user demand are relevant forAAL. Nevertheless, fields of higherpriority can be identified. These areparticularly:• Micro- and nanoelectronics

(nanocoatings, polymer actuators)• Embedded Systems (e.g. as in

smart textiles)• Micro System Technology, includ-

ing biomicrotechnology (biochips,sensors to measure values likeblood pressure, temperature,weight, respiration, urine outputand to observe activity patterns,nutrition, gait, sleep)

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Major trends of demographic changeAt the turn of the 19th century, lifeexpectancy for males and females inEurope was 45.7 and 49.6 years, re-spectively; by the year 2000, this hasincreased to 75 and 79.9 years. How-ever, the rising life expectancy is ac-companied by a growing concernabout the low fertility rate in Europe.Although fertility increased slightlyfrom 1.45 children per woman in1999 to 1.47 in 2001, it is still belowthe replacement level of 2.1. The con-sequence of both developments is aEU population that is becoming in-creasingly older (European Commis-sion 2002; Oeppen, Vaupel 2002;Wedell 2003).

A clear shift has been wit-nessed from 1960 up tonow regarding the pro-portion of older people(65 years and over) – andis expected to continue(European Commission2003b; Office for OfficialPublications of the Euro-pean Communities 2004).As figure 1 shows, in 2020the fraction of older peo-ple in Europe (EU 15) willalmost double compared to 1960. Theproportion of older people will beabout 21% of the total populationwhile in 1960 it was about 11%. Fur-thermore there will be a significantincrease in the number of very oldpeople (80 years and over). Here thefraction will more than double com-pared to 1960.

Looking at long-term projections (upto the year 2050), the process of age-ing is set to increase within industri-alised countries at an even fasterpace. In 2050 life expectancy will be79.7 and 85.1 years for men andwomen, respectively. The share of thetotal European population older than65 is set to increase to 22% by 2025and 27.5% by 2050. The share of the

population aged over 80 years is ex-pected to reach 6% by 2025 and 10%by 2050 (European Commission 2003;Eurostat 2005).This challenge of age-ing societies does not only exist in Eu-rope, but is becoming a worldwideconcern affecting other industrialisedcountries as well. That is illustratedby figure 2.

Irrespective of a demographic changein all industrialised countries, cleardifferences can be observed whencomparing the rising shift of Japanwith that of the EU 15 or the UnitedStates. In Japan, the population aged65 and over has already reached aproportion of 20% - and is expectedto be almost 28% by 2020. The EU 15– as has been shown above - will be

Demographic Change in Europe and IndustrialisedCountries Requires AAL InnovationsHorst Steg, Jerome Hull and Sophie Schmidt

Europe and industrialised countriesworldwide are confronted with ademographic change. Improvingthe quality of life of elderly peoplethrough AAL innovations is becom-ing an ever more essential task fortoday’s European societies. The fol-lowing article describes some majortrends and consequences. In thiscontext, microsystems – integratedin innovative products and com-bined with new services - will playa key role.

Figure 1: Ageing population, EU 15, 1960-2020 (European Com-mission 2003b)

• New Materials (e. g. polymer tech-nologies)

• Energy generation and controltechnologies (energy harvesting)

• Human Machine Interfaces (dis-play technologies, natural lan-guage communication)

• Communication (body area net-work)

• Software, web & network tech-nologies (tele-services)

The AAL innovation model comprisesthis graphically (see Fig. 1).

The aim is to deliver new productsand services based on innovativetechnical solutions for the emergingAAL market. Some initial results aredescribed in this issue, as e.g. a newblind man’s stick or monitoring solu-tions for elderly people.

Contact: Michael Huch, VDI/VDE-IT, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]

Figure 1: AAL169 – Innovation model

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clearly below that level but still high-er than the average of OECD coun-tries. Among European countries es-pecially Italy, Germany, Finland, Swe-den or the Czech Republic will have ashare of elderly population above theOECD average rate. In contrast tothat, the United States will face amore gradual shift (13% in 2005 –16,5% in 2020, respectively) (OECDFactbook 2005).

ConsequencesThe steady increase of older agegroups in national populations, both

in absolute numbers andin relation to the working-age population, will haveenormous economic andsocial implications in anumber of areas. As for labour markets andpension systems, we haveto consider that demo-graphic ageing means thatthe number of older peo-ple is growing while theshare of those of workingage (15-64 years) is de-

creasing: In 2002, the EU 15 popula-tion aged 65 and older correspondedto about 25 % of what is consideredto be the working-age population. Incontrast, in 2050 the EU 15 popula-tion aged 65 and over will corre-spond to 50% of the working-agepopulation (under the assumptionthat there will be no regulatory re-forms). This will result in an increas-ing pressure on our social security sys-tems (Economic Policy Committee,2001). This will be even more so as not onlythe income side of social security sys-

tems will be affected by demographicchange but expenditures as well.Health care systems for instance, willbe concerned as population ageingwill lead to an increase in the propor-tion of the population with disabili-ties or chronic illnesses. Thus, healthcare systems and social care in gener-al will be faced with increasing costs(European Commission, 2005). This in-creasing and relative high proportionof impaired population in the futureis illustrated in figure 3. It shows thepopulation of the EU 15 in 2030 byage, sex and disability status. The red(dark) area covers the populationthat is severely or moderately im-paired. The scenario assumes a twoyears gain in total life expectancy perdecade and constant age-specific pro-portions of impaired people overtime. In this context, microsystems –integrated in innovative products andcombined with new services - will be-come increasingly important. They of-fer new or better functions with re-gard to needs and requirements ofelderly people. Furthermore, they cankeep up a high quality of life and im-

Figure 2: Population aged 65 and over in OECD countries; ratioof total population in % (OECD 2005)

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prove the efficiency of care. But to inorder to make use of these chanceswe have to consider that a changingage structure in our societies mightalso result in a shift of consumers’ be-haviour. When it comes to design anddevelop new devices, products andservices for elderly people, their spe-cific requirements have to be takeninto account, to ensure accessibility,acceptance and usability. For exam-ple, as for ICT usage by elderly peo-ple, we have particular user require-ments due to their restricted abilityto hear, to see or to control ICT

equipment or alimited willing-ness to perma-nently get usedto new products.Therefore, in theface of futuredemographicchange it is nec-essary that thespecific needs ofelderly people asend users are ad-equately takeninto account inthe innovationprocess of “Am-bient AssistedLiving”.

References: [1]Economic Policy Committee (2001),

Budgetary challenges posed byageing populations: ExecutiveSummary; Brussels.

[2]European Commission (2002), Thesocial situation in the EuropeanUnion 2003, Brussels.

[3]European Commission (2003), Pro-posal by the Commission for aJoint Commission-Council reporton health care and care for the el-derly, Brussels.

[4]European Commission (2003b), Liv-ing conditions in Europe, Statisticalbooklet, 2003 edition.

[5]European Commission (2005), Thesocial situation in the EuropeanUnion 2004, Brussels.

[6]Eurostat (2005)europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat.

[7]Oeppen, J; Vaupel J.W. (2002) De-mography. “Broken limits to lifeexpectancy”. Science 296 (5570):p.1029-31.

[8]OECD (2005) Factbook 2005; www.oecd.org.

[9]Office for Official Publications ofthe European Communities (2001),The social dimension on health2001, section 2, Brussels.

[10] Office for Official Publications ofthe European Communities (2004),Living conditions in Europe. Statis-tical pocketbook. Data 1998-2002.Luxembourg.

[11] Weddell, L. (2003) “Examiningthe elderly population, Strategiesfor the optometrist”, www.optometry.co.uk.

Contact:Dr. Horst StegVDI/VDE-ITTeltow, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]

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Figure 3: Projection of impaired population to 2030 (Office for Official Publi-cations of the European Communities 2001, 50)

IntroductionDuring their work at the inHaus-Inno-vation Center engineers have noticedthat different trends in society changerequirements concerning technicalequipment and infrastructure in pri-vate homes [Grinewitschus 04]. Thesetrends are:

• Ageing of society• Requirement for lifelong,

computer-aided learning • Increase in telework• Increase in health care costs• Increase in energy costs

As a consequence, information tech-nology in private homes is becomingmore and more important and willform the basis for new applicationsand services. Various research teamsthroughout the world are working in

the smart home field today. They aredeveloping technology systems fornew services and applications. The fo-cus is increasingly changing from the“development of components” to the“development of services”. The situa-tion is not characterized by a lack ofbasic technologies, but by a lack ofcomplete system solutions that areeasy to handle and easy to instal.

Regarding applications, in the pastthe focus of system solutions in smarthomes has often been on setting upan environment that was highlyadapted to the user, thus increasingcomfort and safety in luxury homes.Examples for applications are situa-tions based on controlling lightingand blinds, single-room temperaturecontrol to reduce energy consump-tion and opening the door by finger-

print. These kinds of solutions consistof components with a high input oflocal intelligence, often using mi-crosystem technologies to reducecosts, power consumption and eventhe size of components. At the in-Haus-Innovation Center many newsystems have been set up and tested[vBoegel 02]. Furthermore people

Ambient Intelligence in Smart Homes: From Component Design to Service DesignV. Grinewitschus, G. vom Bögel and K. Scherer

Figure 1: Smart labels attached to drug pack-ages

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have been supported who installedthese solutions in real homes. Sinceno common standards for configura-tion, communication, diagnosis anduser interfaces are available on thesystem level, the set-up of these solu-tions requires a lot of engineeringpower. This is affordable for ownersof luxury homes, but not for the massmarket.

In the last few years there has beenan accelerated growth of connectedmultimedia applications in privatehomes. Today one can find morehomes equipped with an Ethernetthan with a home automation net-work. More than ten years ago thesetting up of an Ethernet networkwas reserved to experts only. Todaythis is supported by plug&play mecha-nisms, diagnosis tools, etc. so thatpeople with no technical backgroundare able to set up a home network.This effect is an excellent exampleshowing how a technology enters themass market if it was designed on thesystem level, supported by functionsenabling the customer to set up andmodify the system on his/her own.How can the smart home technologybenefit from this?

The growing demand for system andservice solutions for health care, as-sisted living or reducing energy con-sumption makes possible a high po-tential for products based on mi-crosystem technology. Different com-ponents with a high information pro-cessing capability are available. Nowit is necessary to combine them toform complete solutions and collectexperience on how to improve thecharacteristics of components and sys-tem configurations so that they will

be more easy to use.

Service Example: Medicine ManagementThe topic “smart fridge” as a newcomponent of the internet has beenin public discussion for some time.This discussion is focused only on asmall subset of possible functions anddoes not emphasize the vast benefitsof this technology. Stock containinggoods marked with smart labels canbe registered and maintained auto-matically.

For health care and assisted living, it isimportant to localize and recognizepersons and devices. RFID technology,which is a result of microsystem tech-nology, could be used as basis for thisapplication. In order to control peo-ple’s intake of medicine according totheir prescription an intelligentmedicine cabinet was developed anddemonstrated within the inHaus-Cen-ter in Duisburg. Each medicine pack-age was equipped with an RFID label(Figure 1). Using an RFID reader inthe medicine box one can see if some-body took a package from the box

and when it was put back. Fraun-hofer-IMS has filed a patent for a pro-cedure that can recognize if the con-tent of a package has changed. To im-prove this function of the medicinebox it has to be combined with recog-nizing persons or detecting themedicine at other locations in thehome. It is thus necessary to reach ahigh level of integration betweenRFID tags, readers and user interfaces.If a service provider has access to thislocal information a complete valuechain for medical supply and therapycontrol can be realized (Figure 2).

The data are collected in a local database. With suitable web-based userinterfaces, services can now be imple-mented and offered to the user (Fig-ure 3). This can be ordering (even au-tomated supplementary ordering) ofmedical prescriptions, notification ofthe delivery of goods, and remindingmessages. To complete this service,delivery and disposal are included inaddition to the internet-based ser-vices. For flexibility and increase in se-curity, a special home delivery box(here HomeBox) is planned. The

Figure 2: Process chain in medicine management

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HomeBox is intended for delivery andtemporary storage. The HomeBox isan access-secured pick-up box withvarious units for food, drugs and oth-er goods. The supplier receives an ac-cess code for a unique delivery andplaces the goods into the HomeBox.The stock receipt is acknowledgedand notified to the user.

System DesignThe combination of smart home tech-nology and services is an importantreason for customers to instal infras-tructures and smart devices in theirhomes. Today, while developingsmart components less attention isnormally devoted to easy integrationinto complete applications. This is notonly a question of standardized com-

munication protocols. Our approach isa co-development of smart devicesand proxies that can be integratedand manage the basic communicationbetween the device and other services(Figure 4). This approach offers thechance for easy integration of differ-ent user interfaces [Ressel 04]. Oursystem will be installed in a pilot pro-ject in Germany, called “SmarterWohnen NRW”. During this projectmore than 200 dwellings will beequipped with infrastructures, intelli-gent devices and new services for thecustomer. This approach is being de-veloped further under a EU projectcalled AMIGO (www.amigo-project.org).

References[1] vBoegel 02

Dr. Gerd vom Boegel, OPERATIONOF APPLIANCES CONTROLLED BYSMART LABELS, IEEE International

Symposium on Consumer Electron-ics 2002, September 2002 Erfurt /Germany

[2] Ressel 04Christian Ressel, Integrated Opera-tion of Intelligent Environments,Convention Documentation ofehome 2004, Berlin, 9/2004

[3] Grinewitschus 04Dr. Viktor Grinewitschus, Das ver-netzte Haus – Anwendungslösun-gen durch Systemintegration, Con-vention Documentation of ehome2004, Berlin, 9/2004

Contact:Dr. Gerd vom BoegelFhG-IMSDuisburg, GermanyPhone: +49 203 3783 228Fax.: +49 203 3783 277E-Mail: [email protected]

Figure 3: Example of a user interface: reminderfor an expiry date

Figure 4: IT infrastructure in smart homes

IntroductionToileting is a sensitive topic not oftentalked about. However, Assisted Liv-ing research activities are also beingdone in this area. In order to outlinethe high needs of users a question-naire was developed and used in theframework of the Friendly Rest Room(FRR) project. The results show that36.1% out of more than 323 old anddisabled persons who answered thequestionnaire [6] in several Europeancountries face moderate (23.4%) orsevere limitations (12.7%) in their

quality of life due to missing ade-quate toilet facilities, forcing them tostay at home instead of participatingin societal life. To overcome this, theFRR project aimed at developing anew type of intelligent toilet for semipublic environments (airports, the-atres, museums, care institutions) us-able by "all citizens" and also sup-porting the carers of old and disabledusers [3].

MethodsThe needs and wishes of users were

Technologies for Smart ToiletsGeorg Edelmayer, Paul Panek, Peter Mayer and Wolfgang L. Zagler

In the framework of the EU-fundedFriendly Rest Room (FRR) project(QLRT-2001-00458) several proto-types of adaptable toilet facilitieshave been developed and evaluat-ed. By applying integrated sensortechnologies, these prototypes ofsmart and user-friendly toilets arecapable of adjusting automaticallyto the individual needs of the user;in particular, attention has beengiven to the needs of old people,of persons with a disability and ofaccompanying carers.

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assessed and interpreted in direct in-teraction between users, researchers,technicians and designers, and thusoperatively influenced the develop-ment process [7]. One of the finalprototypes located in a laboratory en-vironment (see Fig. 1) is described be-low.

The toilet hardware (based on aproduct of [1]) is installed in a 'booth'which is wide enough to providespace for a wheelchair and a care per-son and was defined following theneeds of laboratory testing with el-derly and disabled persons. The pro-totype is connected to electricity butnot to water. Testing simulations aredone with the clothes on. During thetests a technician was available forsupervision of the system.

System ControlThe prototype system was controlledvia a standard PC running Windows-XP, using a self-developed software(C++) for measuring, steering andlogging tasks. PCI bus I/O cards (bina-ry input, ADC, digital counter, relaysoutput) connected the several sen-sors, the remote control and the mo-tors with the system PC.

The basic functionality of the toilet isthe adjustability of height and tilt ofthe toilet bowl, seat and supportbars. The height of the seat can beadjusted between 44.5 cm and 77.5cm at a speed of 1.1cm/sec. The tiltangle of the seat ranges from 9° (for-ward) to -1.5° (backwards) andchanges with a speed of 1.3°/sec. Di-rect steering of the toilet by users ispossible by a simple 6-button remotecontrol and alternatively with a touchscreen user interface, which also pro-vides capabilities to control the moreenhanced features of the system(speech recognition, audible feed-back, lighting control, user prefer-ence settings, etc.) Voice Control provides additionalmeans for steering the toilet hard-ware and environment. For carerswho are using both hands for assist-ing the primary users the voice con-trol offers a "third hand". Using asimple desktop-type microphone andan off-the-shelf speaker-independentspeech recognition engine with anadapted grammar for the specifictask of steering the toilet 90% of the

commands (pre-defined word-triplets) were recognized correctly fordifferent speakers in a noisy environ-ment.

SensorsIn the prototypes the following sen-sors were used for data gatheringabout the system and the user.• Position sensors: For measuring

the seat height and tilt, wire-actu-ated optical transducers wereused. The actual seat height wasdirectly derived from the digitalsensor reading, tilt was calculatedindirectly by the measuring soft-ware from the linear signal of thesensor for the tilt displacement.

• Force sensors: Deliver the distribu-tion of forces due to a person's ac-tivities like sitting down, shiftingon seat for better comfort orstanding up. High-precision loadcells were integrated into theframe of the toilet, mounted alongthe axis of the motors for pickingup the vertical load (total weight)and the load on the tilting mecha-nism (centre of gravity) when theuser moves forward and backward.Additional cheap strain gauge sen-sors were used to pick up signalson the frame of the toilet (relatedto tension in vertical and tilting di-rection) for comparison with theload cell readings. These differentforce sensors can also be used toprovide information about theuser's position and intention (e.g.to stand up) so that the system can

Figure 1: FRR prototype in Vienna lab.

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react to this (e.g. by moving thetoilet seat into a higher positiontogether with increasing the tilt).

• Safety sensor: Provides means for

recognising falls. A prototype ofan optic sensory system was test-ed. When a person falls, the out-put signal of this system is used tofirst request a response from theuser and trigger alarm calls in caseof a classified fall emergency. Inthis way the safety of fragile per-sons can be improved and unde-tected critical situations can beavoided. Obviously this approachis complementary to fall preven-tion [2].

• RFID system: To recall user prefer-ences (e.g. preferred height, tiltetc) RFID smart card technologywas used. A long-range readermodule working at 125kHz with asingle antenna was used to detectISO card transponders worn by theusers of the system. When the userenters the toilet room he/she isdetected by the system (withoutthe need to manipulate the smartcard or any other device) andhis/her preferred settings can berecalled. In this way the toilet prototype can presents itself invery different ways to differentpeople.

Test with usersThe user tests of the system present-ed above have been carried out in alaboratory setting. Additionally a re-al life test with a selected number ofsmart toilet components was carriedout in a day care centre for multiple

Figure 2: Load cell (upper red circle) and straingauge sensors (lower red circle) mounted on up-per part of toilet frame.


Continuation on page 35

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Oct 10 – 12, 2005Mikrosystemtechnik-Kongress(in German) www.mikrosystemtechnik-kongress.deFreiburg - Germany

Oct 18 – 20, 2005BioTechnica Int'l Fairwww.biotechnica.deHannover – Germany

Oct 19, 2005NSTI Nano Impact Summit 2005 www.nsti.org/NanoImpact2005Washington DC - USA

Oct 19 - 20, 2005 1st Austrian Nanotechnology Co-operation Event www.ogms.at/nano05/default_e.htmVienna - Austria

Oct 20, 2005Seminar: Sensor Applications of Micro-Systems Technologywww.sira.co.uk/downloads/skillsSAMSTOct0506.pdfSira, Chislehurst, Kent - UK

Oct 26 – 28, 2005SEMI Europe Standards AutumnConference and Meetingshttp://wps2a.semi.org/wps/portalLeuven - Belgium

Oct 31 – Nov. 03, 2005IEEE Sensors 2005http://ewh.ieee.org/tc/sensors/sen-sors2005/index.htmlIrvine, CA - USA

Nov 1 - 3, 2005 NanoCommerce and SEMI Nano-Forum 2005http://nanocommerceforum.comChicago, IL - USA(for information on the previousNanoCommerce event see mstnews5/04, page 19)

November 03 - 04 , 20051st Int’l Wafer-Level PackagingCongresswww.smta.org/iwlpcSan Jose, CA - USA

Nov 07 – 08, 2005 Course: Hand on MEMSwww.fsrm.chBesançon – France

Nov 08 – 10, 2005 NanoSolutions 2005 - The Engine forIndustrial Growthwww.nanosolutions-cologne.com/client/enCologne – Germany

Nov 10 – 11, 2005Course: Reliability and Test of Microsystemswww.fsrm.chVienna - Austria

Nov 15, 2005Test and Quality Control System forthe Industrial Manufacturing ofWafer-bonded Microsystems review of the German R&D project"MIKROPRUEF" at Productronica Fair2005, Hall 05 (in English)www.mstnews.de/events/mikropruefMunich - Germany

Nov 15-17, 2005, Nanotech-Montreux 2005 The 9th Annual European Conferenceon Micro & Nanoscale Technologiesfor the Bioscienceswww.nanotech-montreux.comMontreux - CH

Nov 15 - 18 , 2005 Productronica 2005 with MicroNanoWorld, see p. 46-47www.global-electronics.net/id/35332Munich - Germany

Nov 16 – 19, 2005ComPaMED / MEDICA 2005www.compamed.deDüsseldorf - Germany

Dec 01 – 02, 2005Course: Microfluidics for Labs on Chipwww.fsrm.chMainz - Germany

Dec 5 - 7, 2005 Optomechanic Technologies, ISOT2005 http://spie.org/Conferences/Calls/05/jomSapporo - Japan

Dec 11- 14, 2005SPIE Int'l Symposion on Microelectronics, MEMS, and Nan-otechnology http://spie.org/conferences/calls/05/auBrisbane – Australia

Dec 12 – 13, 2005Course: Characterization and Modifi-cation of Micro- and Nano-structureswww.fsrm.chLausanne – Switzerland

Dec 12 – 14, 2005Micro and Nanotechnology 2005(MNT 05) Int'l Conference Incorporating the 2nd Int'l Conf. onNanomaterials and -manufacturing www.iom3.org/events/mnt2005.htmLondon - UK

Jan 22 – 26,2006MEMS 2006 – Int’l congress spon-sored by IEEE and the Robotics andAutomation Societywww.mems2006.orgIstanbul - Turkey

April 24-28, 2006, Microtechnology @ Hannover Fair2006 - The int'l market place for applied MicrosystemsOpen call: IVAM organises the "Prod-uct Market Microtechnology" www.ivam.deHannover - Germany

April 25 – 27, 200610th Int'l Forum on Advanced Mi-crosystems for Automotive Applica-tions (AMAA)Abstracts due date: Oct 15, 2005www.amaa.de/call.htmBerlin - Germany

May 7-11, 2006NSTI NanoTech Conference andTrade ShowAbstracts due date: Nov. 18, 2005www.nsti.org/Nanotech2006Boston, MA - USA

May 28 – June 01, 2006euspen 6th Int’l Conference and 8th

Annual General Meeting Abstracts due date: Oct 21, 2005www.euspen.orgBaden (near Vienna) – Austria

June 14 – 16, 2006ACTUATOR 2006 - 10th Int'l Confer-ence on New Actuators and the4th Int'l Exhibition on Smart Actua-tors and Drive SystemsAbstracts due date: Nov 30, 2005www.actuator.deBremen - Germany

EVENTS

Call for Papers

mstnews publishes selected announcements and calls. Pleasesend your announcement to [email protected].

E V E N T S

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The 10th International Commercializa-tion of Micro and Nano Systems Con-ference and Exhibition, COMS 2005,was held this year in the beautifulcity of Baden-Baden in Germany. TheCOMS brought together key peoplefrom across the world and frommany sectors of industry, govern-ment and education. The partici-pants discussed major trends and is-sues in the industry like: paths tocommercialisation, business and en-trepreneurship, market analysis andchallenges of MNT manufacturing.Roger Carline presented the UK MNTnetwork, a joint venture between re-gional and national government toinvest in MNT and provide a contactpoint between UK MNT players. Al-though in the UK there is some hesi-tation about government funding,the MST/MEMS community there isvery satisfied with the way the UKMNT network is organised, to catal-yse technology-based innovation.

In general a trend is seen where gov-ernment MNT support is shifting tothe regions, being able to give bet-ter support to smaller enterprisesand start-ups then can be done atnational or European level. After several difficult years, MSTfoundries are doing better than ev-er; all market segments flourish, butespecially consumer products, likemicrophones, are showing highgrowth rates. One of the highlights of the confer-ence was the presentation of the re-sults of the third Nexus Market studyof Microsystems covering the years2005 – 2009 by Henning Wicht fromWTC, which will be available by theend of September. Several institutes presented theirstrategies to commercialise MNT, ei-ther by promoting take-up by indus-try (IMEC) or fostering start-ups(MIC, MESA+). Ongoing develop-ments in equipment performance

were presented, dealing with waferbonding (Suss, EVG and AML), DRIE(Adixen, STS) and nanoimprinting.Successful entrepreneurs like Ronnyvan’t Oever (Micronit), Richard Caro(Tangiblefuture) and Daniel Hyman(XCOM) discussed good and badpractices in commercialisation.Over 40 exhibitors from across theglobe, representing MICRO andNANO technology industry, werepresenting their activities. The conference was organised byForschungszentrum Karlsruhe andthe Micro and Nanotechnology Com-mercialization and Education Foun-dation (MANCEF). It was announcedthat next year’s conference will beheld in St. Petersburg, Florida, 27-31Aug 2006.

Henne van HeerenPatric Salomonwww.enablingMNT.com

Report from COMS, Baden-Baden, 21-25 Aug 2005

Bremen is announced to be in the fo-cus of the international robot com-munity in June next year. ACTUATOR,the International Conference on NewActuators, is going to celebrate its10th event in this series of biennialevents in a joint event together withKI 2006, the 29th Annual German Con-ference on Artificial Intelligence, andRoboCup 2006, the 10th RoboCupWorld Championship. All three eventswill give their special input to an ac-companying exhibition “ServiceRobotics,” demonstrating state-of-the-art products and outlining futuretrends in this emerging market sector.

RoboCup is more than “just” a soc-cer world championship for robots.This international initiative was setup in 1995 to intensify and promotescientific and technical progress inthe fields of “Robotics” and “Artifi-cial Intelligence” leading to au-tonomous mobile robots. In gainingthe chance of free motion in a realphysical world, these robots have toanalyze their environment indepen-dently, to self-orientate, to identifybarriers, to evaluate alternativestrategies to achieve their aims and,

last but not least, to communicatewith other agents of their team and,of course, with human beings withintheir environment. Thus, theRoboCup competitions offer a stan-dardized test area in differentleagues, which demonstrates andcompares the performance abilitiesof the current agents. The visionaryaim of the RoboCup initiative is tobuild a team consisting of complete-ly autonomous humanoid robotsthat have a realistic chance of win-ning against the human world cham-pion soccer team by the year 2050.

Mobile robots like these are fore-seen to serve their human counter-parts as service robots not only inthe business world, but in particularat their home in the near future. Ex-perts believe that the use of person-al robots will spread just as personalcomputers have already done. Thefirst robots aimed at mowing thelawn, cleaning the floor or the build-ing in your absence autonomously,are commercially available. Productsdedicated to additional fields of ap-plications are at the developingstage. For 2007, a huge crowd of 8

million home robots is predicted.

This year’s competitions, RoboCup2005 in Osaka, Japan, turned out tobe a significant attraction for visi-tors: more than 100,000 spectatorsbrimmed over with enthusiasm forthe robots and the great job of the2,500 participants involved. Whatev-er happens, the development of au-tonomous domestic robots remainsone of the most exciting topics of re-search, and highly miniaturized actu-ators are – among others – key ele-ments of this new generation ofrobots. Therefore, ACTUATOR 2006,KI2006 and RoboCup 2006 join inBremen to present “ServiceRobotics” as a showcase into the fu-ture of robotics. Companies, re-search institutes and other institu-tions involved in these topics arekindly invited to contribute.

Further informationDr. Hubert BorgmannMesse Bremen, GermanyE-Mail: borgmann@messe-bremen.dewww.actuator.dewww.robocup2006.orgwww.ki2006.fb3.uni-bremen.de

Service robotics, a new market for miniaturized drives

ACTUATOR Meets KI and RoboCup in Bremen in June 2006

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IME to Develop Fully-integrated Labon Chip with EV Group Equipment

EV Group, a leading manufacturer ofMEMS, nano and semiconductorwafer-processing equipment, an-nounces Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) re-search highlights achieved at theirSingapore customer Institute of Mi-croelectronics (IME). IME is currentlysetting its sights on developing a ful-ly integrated LoC, also known as Mi-cro Total Analysis System (µTAS),which will perform the three func-tions of DNA/ RNA analysis - extrac-tion, amplification (or multiplication)and detection in one chip. This is ex-pected to be ready for commercialproduction in two to three years'time. Throughout the past years, EVGroup has supplied to IME severalwafer processing tools like theEVG620 Mask Aligner and EVG501Bonder for 150 mm wafer process-ing. The new EVG Mask Aligner andEVG520 Production Bonder for bond-ing silicon MEMS wafers to glasswafers are part of IME's new fullyoperational 200 mm silicon MEMSwafer process line, which was com-pleted last year. The new 200 mmwafer process line increases the yieldof the large DNA chips by 3 times,compared to the previous productionprocess. MEMS are increasingly beingapplied in the biomedical field asminiaturization makes its impact, inminimally invasive surgery, in-vivomonitoring, in-vitro testing andsmart implants. MEMS technologyand microfluidics serve as the func-tional basis for many of these devicesand research tools.EV Group is a global supplier ofwafer bonders, aligners, photoresistcoaters, cleaners and inspection sys-tems for semiconductor, MEMS andemerging nanotechnology markets.It holds the dominant share of themarket for wafer bonding equip-ment (especially SOI bonding) and isa leader in lithography. Headquar-tered in Schärding, Austria, EV Groupoperates via a global customer sup-port network. For more information,please visit www.EVGroup.com

RoseStreet Labs Announces 3D &MEMs Packaging R&D Laboratoryand Alliance with SUSS MicroTec

RoseStreet Labs announced theopening of their 3D Research and

Development laboratory for nextgeneration semiconductor packag-ing. RoseStreet Labs and its sub-sidiary, FlipChip International, devel-op new materials and processes forpackaging utilized in leading wire-less products. RSL also announced analliance with SUSS MicroTec. SUSSMicroTec's full suite of lithographyand 3D packaging equipment was se-lected for RoseStreet's laboratory.RoseSteet Labs is headquartered inPhoenix, AZ with capabilities in poly-mer development, metal deposition,lithography, 3D packaging, System-in-Package, MEMs packaging and in-terconnect development. RoseStreetLabs R&D offers contract R&D ser-vices in addition to its internal R&Dwork in support of FlipChip Interna-tional's globally recognized flip chipand wafer level packaging productlines. Dr. Joan K. Vrtis, CTO of RoseS-treet Labs, said “We are very pleasedto have such a strong technical al-liance with SUSS MicroTec. The op-portunity to expand RoseStreet LabsR&D capabilities in photolithogra-phy, MEMs & 3D structures strength-ens our position to aggressively exe-cute to RoseStreet's technologyroadmap.RoseStreet Labs, LLC, is a supplier ofproducts and services for wireless in-frastructure and sensors in the lifescience, renewable energy andhomeland security markets. RoseS-treet Labs actively provides intercon-nect and assembly R&D for next gen-eration products and is the parent toFlipChip International, LLC., the glob-al leader in flip chip bumping, wafer-level packaging, semiconductor dic-ing, tape & reel, and known-good-die sales. RoseStreet Labs andFlipChip International are located inPhoenix, Arizona. For more informa-tion, please contact:www.rosestreetlabs.comwww.flipchip.comwww.suss.com

Alphasem AG opens its new premises in China

Three years after the founding of asubsidiary in Shenzhen in 2002, Al-phasem Co, Ltd. relocated to largerpremises in Suzhou. The grand open-ing took place on the 15th of Septem-ber 2005. The Swiss based company,which has developed into one of theleading suppliers of die attach sys-

tems and die sort systems in thebackend sector of semiconductorproduction, generates approximately75 percent of its turnover in Asia.With the new subsidiary in Suzhou,Alphasem should be able to servethis market faster and more effi-ciently and be able to gain a largermarket share. The new subsidiary of-fers tremendous advantages becauseof its closeness to customers, espe-cially in Shanghai and the surround-ing area, in working together and inimplementing technically exactingsolutions. Viewed like this, it is onlyconsequent that what was once amere production facility in China isnow a full production and develop-ment center. The Easyline series ofmachines will be produced in thenew facility in Suzhou as before.These machines are mainly used forthe production of ICs and Power De-vices. The research and developmentfacilities for this machine type will befully developed and in future, equip-ment innovations will also comefrom China. The first Easyline ma-chines and an assembly-line for pow-er devices have already been manu-factured at the new facilities. Thereare more than 20 assembly areas forthe production of the Easyline seriesof machines. The Easyline series ofmachines can be used in a broad-spectrum of applications. In the newfacilities, which have a productionarea of almost 1 500 square meters,the necessary capacity for develop-ment, training, application and test-ing of the machine. Alphasem has produced equipmentfor the semiconductor industry since1979 and can look back on a success-ful business history. The companyemploys more than 300 staff world-wide and has generated a turnoverof around 75 Million US Dollar. Since1999, Alphasem belongs to theAmerican Dover-Group. For more in-formation please have a look towww.alphasem.com

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many more Short news and pressreleases belonging to this mstnewsissue you will find for the next 2months at

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E U - P R O G R A M M E N E W S

10th anniversary of the InnovationRelay Centre Network

The Innovation Relay Centre Net-work (IRC) celebrated its 10th anniver-sary from 27th to 29th June. The Net-work was established in 1995 in or-der to facilitate the transfer of inno-vative technologies to and from Eu-ropean companies or research de-partments. As a mover and shaker ininnovation, the IRC network has be-come a leading European networkfor the promotion of technologypartnerships and transfer mainly be-tween small and medium-sized com-panies (SMEs).

Today the network consists of morethan 250 technology transfer institu-tions in 33 European countries. Un-der the European Commission’s newframework programme the IRC Net-work has also gone beyond itsboarders and included a centre inTurkey and in Chile. The IRCs are in-novation support service providersmainly hosted by public organisa-tions such as university technologycentres, chambers of commerce, re-gional development agencies or na-tional innovation agencies. Each cen-tre is staffed by personnel who haveextensive knowledge of the techno-logical and economic profile of thecompanies and regions they serve.

During the 9th Annual Meeting of theIRC Network, celebrating its 10th an-niversary, the Commission’s Vice-President Günter Verheugen, who isin charge of enterprise and industrypolicy, paid tribute to the results ofthe network: “Innovation is the keyto opening the door to a brightereconomic future. If we want to over-come Europe’s current stagnationand raise its capacity for growth, wehave to reduce the gap between theEU and the US in innovation perfor-mance. The IRC network is enablingSMEs to play a crucial part in reach-ing this goal.”

During their 10 years of successfuloperation the IRCs have facilitatedmore than 1,000 transnational trans-fers of technology - signed agree-ments for the sale, licensing, distribu-tion or joint development of newtechnologies. For more informationabout the network, go to: www.ircnet.lu.

Technology offers and requests fromthe Network of Innovation RelayCentres

• Manufacture of semiconductor de-vices and substrateless thin-filmfield On 27th to 29th of June effectdevices

An Italian university has developeda method for fabricating sub-strateless thin-film field effect de-vices and an organic thin film tran-sistor obtainable by that method.A possible field of application isthe development of chemical sen-sors. Another possible field of ap-plication is the production of pres-sure sensors and/or deformationsensors. The research group islooking for a license agreement.

• Predictive Fault Sensor (PFS) forelectrical motors

A Turkish SME has developed apredictive fault sensor for electri-cal motors, which provides contin-uous and automatic monitoring ofelectrical and mechanical faultconditions. The system warns the operator asa fault develops, preventing down-time and facilitating maintenanceschedules. Licenses will be given toelectrical macro component manu-facturers to embed the technologyin their products.

• Microelectronic components anddevices manufacturing facilitiesfor fabless companies

A French company with 20 yearsexperience in microelectronics pro-poses a complete manufacturingservice for specific devices realisa-tion. The offer includes IndividualSteps (etching, depositions, pho-tolithography, etc.), TechnologicalBlocks (combination of steps) orFull Components. The company islooking for technical and commer-cial partnership within fablesscompanies involved in the devel-opment of microelectronic devicesand offers manufacturing supportfrom small to medium quantities.

Info at: Miriam Kreibich, VDI/VDE-ITTeltow, [email protected]

European Technology Platforms: fos-tering public-private partnership forresearch&development to boost Eu-rope’s industrial competitiveness

At the initiative of the EuropeanCommission and the industry "Tech-nology Platforms" have been set upsince Spring, which “bring togethercompanies, research institutions, thefinancial world and the regulatoryauthorities at the European level todefine a common research agendathat should mobilise a critical mass of- national and European - public andprivate resources.”

First results of the initiative havenow been summarised in a report onthe first three steps within thepreparatory work: the emergenceand setting up, the definition of astrategic research agenda and theirimplementation.

The Commission has identified six areas were a Joint Technology Initia-tive could be of particular relevance:

• Hydrogen and Fuel Cells• Aeronautics and Air Transport• Innovative Medicine• Nanoelectronics Technologies

2020• Embedded Computing Systems• Global Monitoring for Environ-

ment and Security

There are currently 25 platforms atvarious stages of development. It is the aim of the Technology Plat-forms and therefore of the EuropeanCommission that the Joint Technolo-gy Initiatives become the flagshipprojects for a competitive Europe.

www.cordis.lu/technology-platforms

Advance notice

One-on-one cooperation forum onMicrosystems

On 8th March 2006 the Innovation Relay Centre in Bavaria will organisea cooperation meeting on Microsys-tems Technologies in Munich. Regis-trations will begin on Oct 01, 2005.Please refer to www.bayern-innovativ.de for anyfurther information.

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The GoodFood Integrated Project(FP6-IST-1-508744-IP) aims at devel-oping an innovative tool based onMST/MNT and IST technologies forfull safety and quality assurancealong the complete food chain in theagrofood industry. GoodFood, in col-laboration with the University of Flo-rence and the European Commission,announces the celebration of a 2-dayopen event on 15-16 November,2005, in Florence (Italy), devoted to

the application of wireless sensornetworks and micro&nano technolo-gies to the Agrofood field. The eventwill feature specific talks for fruitand wine sectors including the Good-Food vineyard pilot site Demo.

Contact: Prof. G. Manes University of Florence, ItalyE-Mail: [email protected] www.goodfood-project.com

Ambient Intelligence for Food Qualityand Safety, Florence, Italy, 15-16 Nov 2005

Currently wearable computing is stilla technology of niches and at a labo-ratory stage. wearIT@work a projectdedicated to applications waslaunched by the European Commis-sion (EC IP 004216) a year ago andthe first results are now available.The project strongly follows a usercentred design approach and mucheffort was put into the first investi-gations with users in the four appli-

cation domains of maintenance, pro-duction, hospital and fire fighting.Results relating to a wearable com-puting hardware platform and soft-ware framework were also achieved.

Contact: Michael LawoTZI – University of Bremen, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]

FP6 Integrated Project "wearIT@work– A New Working Paradigm by Wear-able Computing"

15 - 16 Nov 2005Ambient Intelligence for FoodQuality and SafetyFlorence, ItalyOrganised by the GoodFood IP, incollaboration with the University ofFlorence and the European Com-missionwww.goodfood-project.com

25 - 26 Nov 20054M Workshop Micro/Nano Engi-neering: Technology and Applica-tionsSofia, Bulgaria Workshop will be held in conjunc-tion with the 7th National Workshopon Nanoscience and Nanotechnolo-gy. www.4m-net.org

NEXUS and FP6 IP & NoE Calendar

NEXUS News is provided to NEXUSmembers and other interested mst-news readers by the NEXUS Associ-ation.

The NEXUS Association is partlyfunded through the NEXUSPLUSproject within the EC IST pro-gramme in FP6 to:

Disseminate and cross-fertilisebetween FP6 Integrated Projectsand Networks of Excellence.Increase ACC participation inNEXUS activities and within ECFP6 projects.

NEXUS Officec/o Leti, FranceE-mail: [email protected]

NEXUS News ContactPatric Salomon, Germany NEXUS News Editor 4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: [email protected]

NEXUS Membership is open to allcompanies and institutes, world-wide, that are able to contributeexpertise in areas relevant to microsystems technology.To apply for membership, com-plete the online questionnaire forthe NEXUS Who's who on theNEXUS website: www.nexus-mems.comMembership is free of charge!

NEXUS Membership

In addition to this NEXUS Newspage, an article about the latest is-sue of the NEXUS Market report isincluded on page 32 of this MSTNews issue.

Further News fromNEXUS

The NEXUS IP and NoE meetings,held in 6-monthly intervals, have thejoint aim of bringing Eastern organi-sations, SME and partners from EC IPand NoE projects closer to workingtogether, as well as providing a plat-form for disseminating project infor-mation and exploitation potential. It is planned to hold a NEXUS GAM

(General Assembly Meeting) meetingin conjunction with the IP and NoEMeeting.

More information is available fromthe NEXUS website and through theNEXUS E-zine.

Please register for the E-zine atwww.nexus-mems.com/registration.asp

NEXUS IP and NoE Meeting andNEXUS GAM, 5-6 Dec 2005, Paris

NEXUS Contact

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E U R O P R A C T I C E N E W S

During the MAGSYS project (The Ser-vice for Modular Magnetic Microsys-tems Design and Packaging Support)a small multidisciplinary consortiumsucceeded in fabricating two demon-strators: a high current sensor systemCSS and a three-dimensional anglesensor package. Both sensors arebased on the anisotropic magnetore-sistive (AMR) effect, which is increas-ingly being utilized to build verycompact sensors robust against hu-midity, dust and applicable within awide temperature range.

The great challenge in the develop-ment of the CSS sensor was to assem-ble various components made out ofdifferent materials into a compactsystem capable of working properlyin a temperature range of –20°C to+85°C (industrial application) and forautomotive application from –40°Cto +150°C. In order to achieve firstresults within a rather short periodof time virtual prototyping of ther-mo-mechanical deformation andstress behaviour was conducted byAMIC GmbH and Sensitec GmbH. Forthis purpose, a complex model wasgenerated and material parameterscollected and measured. Using FiniteElement Analysis (FEA), various sen-sor parameters were evaluated and areliable sensor design developed.Particularly the interaction betweenthe sensor housing - designed andfabricated by Paragon AG - and the

potting material was a critical point,which could easily lead to consider-able deformation and stress on thesensor elements when exposed totemperature profiles.

By the end of the project a first pro-totype was fabricated and tested suc-cessfully for industrial application.Selected customers were providedwith samples for in-house experi-ments. As a result of the customerfeedback, the development of theavailable prototypes into a seriesproduct will be pushed forward in2005 in order to satisfy the growingdemand for CSS by new customersspecialized in hybrid vehicle or elec-trical drive technology.

The second prototype assembles twoAMR angle sensor chips mountedrectangularly in one package. Thedesign requires very low distancesbetween the sensor dies and a highaccuracy of the 90° angle betweenthe sensor chips. The Lithuanian pro-ject partner Vilniaus Ventos Puslai-dininkiai applied a modified leadframe technology together withtransfer moulding. First sampleswere exposed to a temperaturerange of –20°C to +85°C (industrialapplication) in a temperature shockchamber by AMIC and afterwardstested by Sensitec. The samples sur-vived 500 shock cycles without anyfailure. Additional shock treatments

are planned to further evaluate therobustness of the package. Possibleapplications for such a mass pro-ducible device could be in a compassor in the measurement of 2D move-ments, (e.g. joystick).

Contact:Joachim HölzlSensitec GmbH, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]

New Packaging Technologies for a Very Compact High Current Sensor and an Innovative Double Angle Sensor

EUROPRACTICE News is provided tomstnews readers by EUROPRACTICEMicrosystems Service for Europe.

EUROPRACTICE is funded by theEuropean Commission DG INFSO E5within the framework of the Infor-mation Society Technologies (IST)Programme.

EUROPRACTICE Programme Manager:Leonello DoriEuropean Commission, DG INFSO C2E-mail: [email protected]

EUROPRACTICE News Editor:Patric Salomon4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: [email protected]

For information on specific activitieswithin Europractice, please contactCompetence Centers, Design Housesand Manufacturing Centers directly.Contact information can be found atwww.europractice.com

EP Contact

Prototype of Compact High Current Sensor CSS

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Support Project to Sandvik Osprey in use of Controlled Expansion Sili-con / Aluminium Alloys for MEMSpackagingThis work has been carried out byLancaster University’s Product Devel-opment Unit with a specific objectiveof assisting Sandvik Osprey in enter-ing the MEMS packaging market.Computational models capable ofpredicting the stresses involved inproducing multiple layer assembliesfrom CE (Controlled expansion) Alu-minium/Silicon alloys have been re-alised.

CE alloys are a product of SandvikOsprey, and are manufactured byrapid solidification spray forming ofAluminium and Silicon. The effort re-quired to produce these materials isconsiderable, however the propertiesof light weight, low Coefficient ofThermal Expansion (CTE) and goodthermal conductivity are ideal forpackaging of a range of high-powerelectronics and MEMS technologieswhere heat dissipation and low ex-pansion are required to protect com-ponents. However the brittlenessand low CTE of the CE alloys be-comes a problem when it is a re-quirement that they be joined toother materials.

Although at present steps have beentaken, and progress has been made,the analysis models produce resultsthat conflict with the result of physi-

cal prototype manufacture. Beforethe extent of the disparity can be as-certained it will be necessary to com-pare the material properties usedwith a more complete set of valuesfrom the manufacturer. All the toolsdeveloped to date are equally appli-cable to the new models that areneeded. As a result, progress can bemade without time being spent re-producing existing work. Furtherprogress will now rely heavily on theability to characterise the as yet un-defined, non-linear, material proper-ties such as thermal creep.

Contact: Dr Alan RennieE-Mail: [email protected]

Electrical only testing of MNT basedsystemsMNT based systems in most casescontain a transducer that interactswith a non-electrical quantity such aspressure, chemical, temperature, mo-tion and electronics for processing.Testing of these devices thus requiresthe application of this "physicalquantity" that is normally expensiveand slow hence not practical formass-produced low-cost devices. Thisproject is investigating the potentialfor testing these devices using elec-trical only stimuli applied by eithersuperimposing test stimuli onto thebias signal or modulating the biasingof the device. The work is being car-

ried out by Lancaster University, LIRMM, Montpellier and Qinetiq. Todate the technique has been appliedto an electro-chemical sensor, a sili-con accelerometer and a magne-tosensor for embedded compass ap-plications.

Contact: Prof. Pascal Nouet E-Mail: [email protected]. Andrew Richardson E-Mail: [email protected] John Bunyan E-Mail: [email protected]

DfMM News is provided to mst-news readers by the project "De-sign for Micro & Nano Manufacture(Patent-DfMM)", a Network of Ex-cellence funded by the EuropeanCommission DG INFSO E5 withinthe Information Society Technolo-gies (IST) Programme of FP6.

The NoE Patent-DfMM aims to es-tablish a collaborative team to pro-vide European industry with sup-port in the field of "design for mi-cro nano manufacture" to ensurethat problems affecting the manu-facture and reliability of productsbased on micro nano technologies(MNT) can be addressed beforeprototype and pre-production.

NoE Patent-DfMM Co-ordinator:Andrew RichardsonUniversity of Lancaster, UKE-mail:[email protected]

NoE Patent-DfMM News Editor:Patric Salomon4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: [email protected]

www.patent-dfmm.org

DfMM Contact

Here we feature 2 specific activities of projects carried out under the PATENT-DfMM initiative – more willbe available in upcoming issues of MST News and our Email newsletter.

The PATENT DfMM Summer School isan annual event which providestraining in various aspects of tech-nology related to the manufactura-bility of MEMS devices and packag-ing. It also presents a “shop win-dow” for selected research topics un-dertaken by partners in the PATENT-DfMM Network of Excellence, involv-ing advancements in Design forManufacturable Micro and Nano Sys-tems. Following an introductoryoverview of the industry and mar-kets, the programme this year in-cluded a case study in Design andTest of MEMS, various sessions on

MEMS Modelling and CAD tools, andsessions on Reliability including amajor tutorial on Failure Analysis.Initial feedback again seemed posi-tive, and a number of the topics willbe developed into more substantialtraining courses within the PATENTtraining portfolio over the comingmonths.

Contact: George Bell, ISLI, UKE-Mail: [email protected]

Report: MEMS Summer School, 5-7 Sep, Montpellier, France

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E U R I M U S N E W S

1. EURIMUS in the ERAWith the aim of being part of theERA (European Research Area) con-struction and reinforcement, the EU-RIMUS Organisation has decided tobe an active partner in launching Eu-ropean initiatives. That’s why todayEURIMUS is participating in two pro-jects funded by the European Com-mission.

EURIMUS will bring:

• its competence and knowledge ofthe micro- and nanotechnologiesdomain

• its competence and knowledge ofMNT actors in Europe

• its technical expertise.

In addition, EURIMUS will transmit itsknowledge in running EUREKA pro-grammes such as:

• project evaluation• project selection• project follow-up• links with EURIMUS members, pro-

ject partners and national publicauthorities.

The two European projects in whichEURIMUS is participating are:

1.1 ERA PILOT MiNa TSI “EuropeanResearch Area Pilot Action onMicro-Nano-Technology SystemsIntegration”.

Web site: under construction.

EURIMUS acts as full partner.

Summary:The Era Pilot MiNa TSI will networknational and European entities sup-porting systems integration relatedto micro- and nanotechnologies. Thepartners therefore are organisationsand initiatives designing policiesand/or running programmes in thissector including the EUREKA initia-tives EURIMUS and PIDEA. The na-tional ministries represent the mem-ber states’ interests in the Board ofthe project. The European Commis-sion as one of the main policy actorsin this area will also be involved. Theproject will be based on and assistthe attempts of industry to establishan initiative for defining research

priorities and policy options for FPVII and beyond.

There is the necessity to transform anunsteady and irregular dialogue be-tween the national and Europeanprogrammes into a solid platform –including industry - on which thoseresponsible for research manage-ment can establish mechanisms forco-ordination and explore formulasto be more efficient in the way re-search is carried out and specially toimprove the transformation of tech-nological excellence into economicand social achievements.

Bridges have to be built to industryin order to insure their input. Theproject will therefore help industryto define their research priorities andbased hereon establish a formal dia-logue between those institutionalentities involved in promoting microand nano systems and integration as-pects in Europe. The project will in-clude the following aspects:

• Research priorities will be definedand a research agenda will be setup in close co-operation with in-dustry.

• A process of exchange and com-munication on funding and policyapproaches of European initiativesand at member state level will beestablished.

• Common actions will be definedas interim and final results of theprocess (e.g. an output could con-sist of creating a basis for an In-dustry-driven Policy Initiative).

• Along technology roadmaps fu-ture R&D and innovation policy requirements will be defined.

• Policy/funding concepts will be de-veloped.

• A commitment will be reached onthe "division of labour" amongnational programmes, EUREKA ini-tiatives and FP activities.

Strategic objectives addressed:

The Era Pilot will contribute to thecreation of the ERA in realising a co-

ordinated and concerted, betterstructured and more coherent policyrelated to MNT Systems Integrationin Europe. It is the project’s objectiveto optimise the allocation of re-sources, creating synergies and com-plementarities among the variousentities funding/financing RTD andavoiding incongruities of policy ef-forts in Europe. The envisaged resultswill contribute to consolidating theleading position and competitivenessof European industry in that area.

Starting date: July 1, 2005Duration: 24 monthsCo-ordinator: VDI/VDE-IT (D)

1.2 MNT ERA-NET “Micro- andNanoscale Science to New Tech-nologies for Europe”

Web site: www.mnt-era.net

EURIMUS acts under this project asexternal expert.

Summary:Micro- Nano- Technology (MNT) is akey enabling technology coveringthe fields of microtechnologies, nan-otechnology and microsystems. MNTis expected to impact significantly onfuture economic and social develop-ment. It will stimulate new productsand services, create and secure em-ployment in Europe and improve liv-ing conditions, including people whocurrently lack autonomy as a resultof age, illness or accidents. MNT willalso contribute greatly to meetingecological challenges and achievingsustainable development, innovative-ly and economically.

The main objectives of MNT ERA-NETduring the four years are:

• exchanging strategic informationabout programme design andmanagement between the partici-pating programmes;

• learning from each other throughthe exchange of good practice;

• implementing joint and co-ordi-nated activities between partici-pating programmes so as to addvalue for programme users, pro-gramme managers and pro-gramme owners;

• securing mid-term co-operation

News from EURIMUS

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between the participating pro-grammes through a detailed ac-tion plan;

• expanding the project to furthercountries and regions in Europe soas to broaden its impact, and

• establishing long-term co-opera-tion by exploring options and se-lecting and implementing a pre-ferred institutional framework forsustained co-operation betweenthe participating programmes,other European initiatives andother relevant stakeholders.

Europe currently holds a good scien-tific and technological position inMNT, but in comparison with NorthAmerica, Asia and Australia our re-search and application efforts aredispersed and fragmented.

In order to exploit Europe's good po-sition, this dispersion and fragmenta-tion have to be addressed through,inter alia, better co-operation be-tween national MNT programmes ona transnational level in Europe.

The partners participating in launch-ing MNT ERA-NET are key MNT pro-grammes and leading programmemanagement agencies from 16 coun-tries managed by Austria.

Starting date: January 1, 2004Duration: 36 monthsCo-ordinator: FFG (A)

2. Road show in Israel on June 14,2005

In 2005, the EURIMUS Organisation iscontinuing its European tour startedin late 2003.

The Chairman of EURIMUS II, MrGaëtan MENOZZI, made a presenta-tion of EURIMUS II during a confer-ence in Haifa, Israel, on June 14,2005.

Israel was part of the countries to vis-it because it is a full member of EU-REKA. So far, it has run about 40 co-operative projects amounting to atotal volume of 100 million €, ofwhich nearly one third is related toIsraeli participation.

Israeli Public Authority contact:

Mr Udo J. MannesNational Project Coordinator (NPC)

EUREKA Office IsraelMATIMOPIsraeli Industry Center for R&D, P.O.Box 50364, Tel Aviv 61500, Israel,

Phone: +972 (3) 511 8111. EUREKA Israel: www.eureka.org.il.

3. Next Annual Progress MonitoringMeeting (APMM) Project Outlineevaluation

The next APMM will take place inMadrid on September 28-29. 11 run-ning or just finished projects will bepresented. This meeting will give thepartners of the projects the opportu-nity to present the evolution, thestate and the results of their projectsto the EURIMUS experts and the Na-tional Public Authorities representa-tives (EURIMAC).

Following these two days, the evalu-ation of the Project Outlines (shortproposals) submitted for the 4th callof EURIMUS will be done. The lead-ers and partners of the proposals willhave the opportunity, before theevaluation discussions between theTC, to present their proposal orally,and answer the questions of the TC.This procedure is very appreciated bythe proposers, who can directly be incontact with their evaluators.

EURIMUS OFFICECEA-Grenoble17 avenue des Martyrs38054 Grenoble Cedex 9FrancePhone: +33 438 78 36 38Fax: +33 438 78 56 70E-Mail: [email protected]

EURIMUS Contact

Call 4 of EURIMUS II:

Closing date for FPP registration:October 28, 2005

Closing date for FPP submission:November 17, 2005

T.C. evaluation meeting: December 1, 2005

Board labelling meeting: December 2, 2005

Next Call for Proposals

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G E R M A N M S T P R O G R A M M E N E W S

Micro goes Bio: The BMBF is fundingthe development of microsystems forbiotechnology under the recent “Microsystems” framework pro-gramme. Biotechnology has devel-oped into a key technology in differ-ent industries and research areas andhas become a relevant economic fac-tor in Germany since the 1990s. Signif-icant improvements have been made.Thus, therapeutic as well as diagnosticimprovements in medicine and thedevelopment of pharmaceuticals arefrequently based on new concepts ofmodern biotechnology.In many areas of biotechnology min-imising processes turns out to be anadvantage. A key to this is micro flu-idics, an area of microsystems technol-ogy (MST) that allows dosing andtransporting minute amounts of liq-uids or processing something. Othermicrotechnologies like microelectron-ics, micro optics, micro mechanics orstructural-design and joining technol-ogy play an important role in thetransfer of biological and/or bio-chemical processes to a miniaturisedtechnological environment as well.Technical miniaturisation has manyadvantages, for instance reduced re-source input, shorter times of analysis

or higher throughputs. Hence, the ad-vantages of bioMST result from lowerprocess costs as well as from entirelynew application possibilities. Due tothe enormous miniaturisation poten-tial and the resulting high functiondensity new biotechnological produc-tion concepts can be realised that areparticularly characterised by large-scale technological integration. Thus,microtechnologies are used to an in-creasing degree in biological analysis(e.g. integrated bio-sensorics), medi-cal diagnostic (e.g. point-of-care test-ing) or in the course of pharmaceuti-cal development. The underlying bio-logical and biochemical methods arebased on modern biotechnologicalconcepts and chiefly take place out-side of the body, i.e. “ex vivo”.Microsystems for biotechnology willplay a significant role in medicine andpharmaceutical development. Manybasic micro technical components andprocesses that are suitable forbiotechnological applications have al-ready been developed in Germany. Itis necessary to expand the integrationof individual microtechnological solu-tions into complete systems to keepthis technological leadership and, inaddition, be able to address different

application fields. The BMBF will pro-mote this process with the new fund-ing of “Integrated microsystems forbiotechnological applications”.Projects eligible for funding shouldhave the objective of finding MST so-lutions for the development of phar-maceuticals or molecular-medical di-agnostics. The focus should be onthose technologies that integrate allsubstantial work steps necessary forthe particular biological and/or bio-chemical process within a machine orsystem platform. That involves samplepreparation and processing, measure-ment and detection, outcome analysisand description or process controlling.The utilisation and analysis of func-tion-critical biological key compo-nents, i.e., basically nucleic acids, pro-teins/peptides as well as cells or partsthereof, have to be part of the devel-opment work. Furthermore, biotech-nological microsystems that are ap-plied “ex vivo” will be funded specifi-cally. “In vivo” microsystems used asimplants are explicitly excluded.

Further information is available atwww.mstonline.de/skizzen/aktuell.The deadline for project drafts is January 16, 2006

BMBF is Funding Integrated Microsystems for Biotechnological Applications

One of the highlights of the Microsys-tems Technology Congress to be heldon October 10th-12th in Freiburg is thepremiere of the new BMBF touringexhibition “Micro Worlds – FutureWorlds: the Invisible Revolution”. Theexhibition shows special features andpotentials of Microsystems Technolo-gy (MST) and thereby wants to in-spire students, citizens, media repre-sentatives and politicians for this fu-ture field.The application fields of life sciences,mobility, logistics as well as sportsand leisure show the importance ofMST for daily life, for the economy,the creation of jobs as well as for so-cial progress. Countless MST productsof German manufacturers are indica-tive of Germany’s position in thisgrowth field.The exhibition starts with special fea-

tures of MST, explaining, among oth-er things, the systemic and cross-sec-tional character of MST and its signif-icance e.g. for bio- and nanotechnol-ogy. The dimensional differences ex-isting between microsystems and con-ventional technical solutions are wellillustrated. Visitors are able to com-pare for instance a lab-on-a-chip witha laboratory.The focus of the exhibition is ondemonstrative MST application sce-narios that show visitors the poten-tials of present and future develop-ments. The journey through MSTleads to automobiles which due todriver-assist systems have become sig-nificantly safer, to the networked lo-gistic world of goods, to ambient as-sisted living, to intelligent textiles forsports and leisure and even to Mars.One of the most impressive exhibits is

the model of the Mars Rover, which isequipped with MST Made in Ger-many. Other areas of the exhibitiongive insights into different technolo-gies and components of MST.The fun of playing and experiment-ing will occupy a major part of theexhibition. In the experimental the-atre visitors may try out and experi-ence live important micro world phe-nomena. They learn to know e.g. thefunctionality of a biosensor and canexamine the characteristics of lighton an optical workbench. In a com-puter game developed specifically forthis exhibition the finishing line canbe reached fastest if microsystems areinserted skilfully.The exhibition can be seen first fromOctober 10th to 12th in the concert hallin Freiburg and afterwards will betouring through Germany.

New Touring Exhibition of the BMBF:Mars Automobile Inspires for Microsystems Technology

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G E R M A N M S T P R O G R A M M E N E W S

The Federal Ministry of Education andResearch (BMBF) is boosting the de-velopment of micro fuel cell technolo-gy with a generous funding pro-gramme. Business companies and re-search institutions of different indus-tries will apply for a sum of about 20million Euro. They should be willingto cooperate under an inter- and mul-tidisciplinary collaborative project.The aim of the funding project “Microfuel cell lead innovation” is develop-ing efficient and cheap small fuel cellsystems and their production.In the near future micro fuel cellspowered by hydrogen or methanolare supposed to replace regular ener-gy supply systems, e.g. lithium batter-ies, in many portable electronic de-vices. Their high-energy yield and theseparation between transducer (fuelcell) and storage (tank) will signifi-cantly increase the benefit of mobileelectronic devices.Bringing promising approaches to ma-turity will require cooperation be-tween the key technologies Materialscience, Microsystem technology andProduction technology. Therefore, thethree framework programmes “Mate-rial Innovations for Industry and Soci-ety”, “Microsystems” and “Researchfor Tomorrow’s Production” all ad-dress the same goal: the funding ofcollaborative projects that will allowmarket access for the micro fuel cell.Applicants should be prepared for in-

tensive cooperation and should great-ly enforce the reduction of the systemperiphery (e.g. pumps or valves), themicrostructuring of e.g. microfluidicparticles, the miniaturisation of sys-tem control or system integration. Al-ternative materials and constructionmethods are supposed to furtherminiaturised micro fuel cells. The re-sult could be a flexible constructionthat provides to producers of portableelectronic products new opportunitiesin the way of design and impulses forseminal solutions.The BMBF expects from the applicantsto work in an application-orientedway and to focus on subsequent pro-duction. Applied solutions should farexceed the present state of technolo-gy. The BMBF especially encouragessmall- and medium-sized enterprisesto submit a tender. The deadline forproject drafts is January 13, 2006. Eli-gible for funding are projects dealingwith micro fuel cells with the follow-ing characteristics:electrical power up to 100 W, gravi-metric power density above 200 W/kg,volumetric power density above 150W/l, energy density above 1.000 Wh/l,costs below 4 EUR/W, minimum dura-bility 2000 h.

The BMBF has entrusted VDI/VDE In-novation + Technik GmbH, "ProjectExecution Organisation MicrosystemTechnology" with the processing of

the funding measures. Details con-cerning funding application and crite-ria can be obtained from the BMBFleaflet www.kp.dlr.de/profi/easy/bmbf/pdf/0110.pdf or directlyfrom the project management. Formsfor project drafts, guidelines, leafletsand advice as well as riders are avail-able from URL www.mstonline.de/skizzen/aktuell.

Workshop VUV and XUV – new opportunitiesfor the measurement of microsys-temsOctober 5, 2005Göttingen Laser Laboratory [email protected]

CongressMicrosystems Technology CongressGermanyOctober 10 - 12, 2005Freiburg concert hall [email protected]

Special eventMicrosystems Technology forBiotechnology

October 18 – 20, 2005 Biotechnika, Hanover [email protected]

Workshop Nanotechnology – specific applica-tions & possible cross-sectoral solutionsNovember 3, 2005Physikalisch-technische Bundes-anstalt [email protected]

Final presentationNew Approaches for demand-driven lubrication of bearingsNovember 9, 2005VDMA-Building, Frankfurt [email protected]

Review presentation Test and quality assurance systemfor the industrial manufacturing ofwafer-bonded MicrosystemsMIKROPRÜFNovember 15, 2005Munich Fairground (at Productronica 2005, Hall 05)[email protected]

WorkshopWafer bonding for MEMS TechnologiesApril 9 - 11, 2006Halle [email protected]

Events

GERMAN MST PROGRAMME Newsis provided to mstnews readers bythe German Programme Microsys-tems (MST), managed by VDI/VDE-IT on behalf of the German FederalMinistry of Education and Research(BMBF).

Support ProgrammeDr. Lars HeinzeVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: [email protected]

Accompanying MeasuresAlfons BotthofVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: [email protected]

German MST Programme News iscompiled by:Wiebke EhretVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: [email protected]: +49 3328 435 281

Contact

Great Time for Micro Fuel Cell Ahead

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M I N A E A S T- N E T N e w s

Coordinator: National Institute forResearch and Development in Mi-crotechnologies, Romania

The Second MINAEAST-NET Work-shop within the MINAEAST-NET EUproject The Second MINAEAST-NET Work-shop took place in Athens, Greece,organized by the Institute for Micro-electronics (IMEL), National Centre ofScientific Research “Demokritos”, on15th July 2005. The workshop was intended to inten-sify the collaboration with EasternEurope in the micro-nanotechnolo-gies domain.During the first part of the workshop,the hosts from IMEL/ NCSR “Demokri-tos” presented their research activi-ties and experience in internationalprojects and networks. Dr. AndroulaNassiopoulou, the director of IMEL,presented the research activities atIMEL, envisaging the main researchdomains and results, research pro-jects, collaboration with industry andinstitute infrastructure and also theEU NoE “SINANO: A Network of Ex-cellence for Silicon Nanoelectronics”within IST priority. The other present-ed projects from IMEL were: “TAS-NANO” (EU STREP on Tools and Tech-nologies for the analysis and synthe-sis of nanostructures), “BIOMIC - AnEU project on Monolithic Silicon Opti-cal Biosensors”, “EU Nano2life NoE”and “Issues for smooth roughness-free nano-patterning with lithogra-phy and plasma etching - EU projects:More-Moore, NanoPlasma, contractwith INTEL”.

A tour of the IMEL laboratories wasprovided by Dr. Nassiopoulou be-tween the two parts, showing themain institute facilities.

During the second part, the Easternparticipants presented recent re-search results obtained in the MNTdomain, current projects and also thehuman and material potential, to-gether with possibilities for coopera-tion.

All the presentations given at theworkshop can be accessed on theproject website, at the addresshttp://www.minaeast.net. 20 participants from different coun-tries, including the MINAEAST-NETproject partners, attended the event.2 participants from Bulgaria and Hun-gary benefited from travel grants forattending the workshop, offered bythe project.The event offered the participantsthe chance to identify better the sci-entific and technological capabilitiesof Eastern and Western organisationsand opportunities for cooperation.New contacts were established be-tween the participants and new pro-ject ideas put forward.

MINOS-EURONET (http://www.minos-euro.net) is another SSA project coor-dinated by IMT-Bucharest, especiallyaddressed to the Eastern Europeancountries, contributing to the samedomain as MINAEAST-NET. MINOS-EURONET is devoted to stimulating,encouraging and facilitating the par-ticipation of New Member States(NMS) and the Associated CandidateCountries (ACC) in the IST domain ac-tivities. The project can be viewed asa follow-up to the MINAEAST-NETproject. The characteristic of this pro-ject is given by the presence in theproject consortium of eight coordina-tors of big FP6 projects (5 NoEs and 2IPs, mostly from IST field).

The two projects, MINAEAST-NET andMINOS-EURONET, have commonpublic and interactive electronicdatabases, in English, displaying in-formation about Research Centres,International projects, Specialists anddatabases for partner matching andexpressions of interest calls in FP6.

CEEX - The new Romanian researchprogramme (on topics related to FP7)The CCEX Programme was launched

at the end of May 2005. The main ob-jective of the CEEX Programme of re-search excellence consists in prepar-ing the participation of Romanian re-search entities in the future FP7 pro-gramme, in the period 2007-2013. CEEX will support cooperation be-tween the research units and institu-tions, universities and companies inorder to determine a visible impact inthe quality of Romanian research, toincrease the number of researchers tobe involved in high standards projectsand to disseminate knowledge andresults.

The CEEX programme thereforehelps:• increasing R&D system capacity in

order to assure new competitivepartners in programmes for scien-tific and technical cooperation andtechnological international al-liances

• the process of concentrating andraising quality and performance inresearch&development activities,aiming to attain the level of com-patibility and competitiveness nec-essary for integration into the Eu-ropean Research Area (ERA).

MINAEAST-NETSpecific Support Action from FP 6 (2004-2006): MIcro and NAnotechnologies going to EASTern Europe through NETworking” (MINAEAST-NET)

MIcro and NAnotechnologies go-ing to EASTern Europe through NETworkingEU Contract no.: 510470 (SSA in FP 6)Project coordinator:National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest)Contact persons: Project coordinator Prof. Dan Dascalu([email protected])Project Vice-Coordinator Dr. Carmen Moldovan([email protected])E-mail contact: [email protected]: +40 21 490 82 12 or

+40 21 490 84 12Fax: +40 21 490 82 38 or

+40 21 490 85 82Web page: www.minaeast.netSpecial pages also dedicated tothis project are published in theMNT Bulletin (www.imt.ro/MNT)

MINAEAST-NET project

Participants to the Second MINAEAST-NETworkshop, Athens

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First IVAM conducted a surveyamong IVAM members as an anony-mous internet-based e-mail poll. Thissurvey covers numbers of employees,turnover, target markets and futureexpectations. We learned that SMEsare strongly export-orientated. Halfof all German SMEs investigated ex-port more than fifty percent of theirannual turnover. In contrast to do-mestic sales, a quarter of those com-

panies achieve export sales of aboutseventy-five percent of their annualturnover. Technology companies,e.g. microtechnology companies, ap-parently grow faster when they aresituated in a cluster. Silicon Valley isa synonym for such a development.IVAM Research, a division within theIVAM association, has conducted asurvey of clusters of five hundred Mi-crosystems/MEMS and Nanotechcompanies in Germany.

As a result of the cluster study MST-Atlas Germany we were able to iden-tify the top six MST clusters Dort-mund, Jena, Munich, Berlin, Ruhr-Valley and Dresden and fourteenother clusters of young MST/MEMScompanies at different stages of de-velopment. The MST-Atlas Germanyprovides information and trends e.g.for investors, companies looking fora location and for economic develop-ment agencies.

Why study small companies?The emergent technologies Microsys-tems and Nanotechnology today al-ready have an impact e.g. in the au-tomotive industry with 70 up to 100microsensors and actuators in premi-

um cars. The leverageeffect of small partscan create a highturnover, for instancemicromirrors make DLPsystems of Texas Instru-ments million-dollarsellers. Those DLP sys-tems are used in pro-jectors for better pic-ture quality. Consumergoods are proclaimedto be the next high-volume applicationswith more products tocome, e.g. cell phoneswith acceleration sen-sors. Besides big play-ers such as Texas In-struments, HewlettPackard and Boschthere is a lively and dy-namic scene of smalland medium-sized en-terprises. Since compa-

nies such as Hewlett Packard startedas small start-ups years ago, it mightbe useful to watch today’s smallcompanies in the high-tech field aswell.

The MST-Atlas Germany – A clusterstudyThe MST-Atlas is based on the IVAMdatabase and desktop research. Overfive hundred SMEs were investigat-ed. A major challenge was to definewhat constitutes a MST company.Since there is no internationally ac-cepted definition, we chose a prag-matic one. We referred to productportfolio, activities in associationssuch as IVAM, NEXUS, VDMA Micro-Technology or participation in rele-vant B2B platforms such as the Mi-croTechnology trade show at theHanover Fair or similar events. Thereport was presented for the firsttime at the Microsystems conferencein Dortmund in September 2005 andis published in German. The MST-At-las is not a data collection of address-es and company profiles as found inthe MEMS directory (www.ivam.de)or other data compilations. Twentyclusters of MST/MEMS companieswere investigated with regard totechnologies and target markets(one example see fig. 2).

There is a belt of MST/MEMS clustersfrom Aachen to Dresden, from Eastto West, where most of the compa-nies are organized in agglomerations(see fig. 3).

In southern Germany more compa-nies are located on greenfield sites.Forty-five percent of all companiesare not located in clusters and can be

Microsystems Clusters in Germany and Economic Perfor-mance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Uwe Kleinkes

There is an intensive debate onGermany’s economic performanceand its capability to cope with fu-ture challenges these days. Smallhigh-tech companies should playan important role in creating jobsand in growth. Data material aboutthe economic performance of smalland medium-sized MST/MEMS com-panies has been scarce and a com-prehensive overview of Microsys-tems clusters in Germany does notexist. IVAM as an international as-sociation of one hundred and sixtycompanies and institutes workingin the field of micro- and nanotech-nology has investigated those com-panies and their regional economicand technological landscape in twodifferent studies.

Figure 1: MST Cluster in Germany

Figure 2: Technologies and markets in the clus-ter of Mainz

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found in Bavaria and Baden-Wurt-temberg. Local economic develop-ment agencies tend to declare theircity or region the “new silicon valleyfor MST or Nano” even though thereare only three companies. From amore global point of view we can ex-pect that not all the clusters willgrow with the same performance oreven survive.

In Germany twenty MST clusters withup to forty companies were identi-fied. They are concentrated in Dort-mund, Jena, Munich and Berlin. Thestates with most MST companies areNorth Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria,Baden-Wurttemberg, Saxony undThuringia.

2005 IVAM economic surveyIVAM conducted this internet-basedsurvey in early 2005. The total num-ber of companies and institutespolled was one hundred thirty-twowith a response rate of fifty percent.Most of the IVAM members comefrom Germany. So it is no surprisethat eighty percent of the repliescame from Germany. Therefore theresults strongly reflect the situationof SMEs in Germany. The first resultsof this survey were presented at theHanover Fair and in the Germanmagazine INNO Nr. 31 (p. 6). As wementioned before, there is a strongorientation towards exports markets.The figure 4 shows a bifurcation be-tween a majority of more than fiftypercent of the companies with an ex-port-oriented turnover.

There are companies who state theirexport ratio with more than ninety-five percent. On the other hand,twenty-five percent of the compa-nies are nationally or regionally ori-ented. Top export markets for Ger-man SMEs are the USA, Switzerland,Japan and France. Regarding EasternAsia at the moment Taiwan is namedmore often than China and India isnot mentioned as a target market.This export orientation is astonishingif we take a closer look at the num-ber of employees. More than fiftypercent of the companies in this in-vestigation have up to twenty em-ployees. Twenty percent of the com-panies have between twenty-oneand fifty employees.

Fifty percent of compa-nies have a turnover ofup to one million Euros.Twenty percent have aturnover of between oneand five million Eurosand twelve percent ofthe companies havemore than ten millionEuros annual turnover.Therefore the companiesin this survey are rathersmall than medium-sizedbut they all expect astrong growth inturnover and the num-ber of employees. Onethird of German compa-nies expect a growth inturnover of more thaneleven percent in the

next three to five years. The samefigures are true for the growth in thenumber of employees. We also haveasked them to identify barriers togrowth. The growing complexity oftechnology is no problem for thecompanies. But the implementationand duration of innovation plans,development costs of new technolo-gies and acquiring equity and loancapital are major obstacles.

ConclusionGermany has a lively scene of smalland medium-sized enterprises in thefield of micro- and nanotechnology.There is great potential for growthand companies expect a strong risein turnover and in the number ofemployees in the next three to fiveyears. There is a pronounced exportorientation, which indicates interna-tional competitiveness and a proba-bly weak national market. This mayinfluence the German economy sinceMST companies find themselves atthe very beginning of the supplychain. Although MST is necessary tomanufacture competitive products,bigger profits are made at laterstages of the supply chain. The MST-Atlas shows where clusters of mi-crosystems and nanotechnology com-panies are based in Germany. Thoseclusters are an excellent starting basefor entering the microtechnologybusiness, securing further growthand creating jobs.

Contact:Dr. Uwe Kleinkes, IVAM ResearchEmil-Figge-Str. 7644227 Dortmund, GermanyPhone: +49 231 9742 148E-Mail: [email protected]

IVAM is an international associa-tion of one hundred and sixty com-panies and institutes focusing onmicro- and nanotechnology. It isthe communicative bridge betweenusers and suppliers. IVAM focus on • technology marketing• international networking• lobby work for high-tech SMEs

Internet: www.ivam.dewww.mst-atlas.de

Figure 3: Map of Germany

Figure 5: Development of turnover

Figure 4: Export ratio

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Barriers to the commercialization ofevery technology exist. Nanotechnol-ogy and Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)/Microsystems Tech-nologies (MST) are not exceptions.We are currently at a half-century ofMEMS research, design, and develop-ment. Many people ask, “Why has ittaken so long for the MEMS/MST mar-ket and technology to realize its po-tential or reach the expected vol-umes?” Will Nanotechnology facethe same barriers? Here, I will attemptto address the major barriers to thecommercialization of MEMS/ MST andthe progress made to overcome thesebarriers through the introduction of a“MEMS Industry Report Card ” givenin Figure 1. The report card has beenupdated yearly since 1998 [1], whereit was first presented at the seminalHilton Head (South Carolina US) Con-ference. It has been a popular pre-sentation at the annual Commercial-ization of Micro and NanosystemsConference (COMS) since the ReportCard’s inception and was a keynotepresentation at COMS 2005 in Baden-Baden, Germany. The changes ingrades from 1998 to 2005 will be ad-dressed here with some rationale forthe actual grade as well as recom-mendations for improvement. Forthe successful commercialization ofNanotechnology, lessons learnedfrom the MEMS/MST (as well as fromthe semiconductor industry) areasmust be heeded.

Research MethodologyThe methodology used to develop thegrades and the rationale was to em-ploy a “Delphi” market research tech-nique where a select number ofMEMS/MST industry experts repre-senting the Americas, Europe andAsia/Pacific were personally inter-viewed for their opinions. These in-terviewees represented the broadMEMS/MST industry and includedpeople from infrastructure (testing,foundries, capital equipment, consul-tants and software providers); manu-facturers of MEMS/MST componentsand end users of MEMS/MST products.In this fashion, a truly representativebut not statistically significant samplewas realized. The period of interest

for the 2005 grades encompassed July2004 to June 2005.

R&D (Grade = A-):Spending on MEMS R&D has been ro-bust even before 1998 withDARPA/ARPA making major invest-ments early in the game. It has beenthrough the visionary leadership andrecommendations of many DARPAstaffers that judicious investmentshave been made in MEMS that havebeen the foundation of its commer-cialization. Private funding also hashistorically supported this R&D activi-ty in a robust fashion. The year 2005saw a small upturn in the high-techeconomy and in corporate R&D bud-gets (including personnel) but notenough to affect its grade. The 2005grade continued from its “A-“ valuein 2004 and 2003.

Profitability (Grade = C), Creation ofWealth (Grade = C-), and VentureCapital Attraction (Grade = C+): The downturn in worldwide economicconditions severely punished mosthigh technology companies in the2001-2003 time frame, including com-panies with MEMS/MST programs.Corresponding to the height of theNASDAQ in 1999 and early 2000,many new MEMS/MST companies, es-pecially those participating in thebooming optical telecom market,were founded. Today, it is quite a dif-ferent story. Moderate activity existsin new startups. Invensense, LV Sen-sors and SiTime are three new promis-ing startups in Silicon Valley that havebeen venture capitalist funded. MostMEMS/MST optical telecom compa-nies have gone out of business orhave been consolidated. VC’s haveelected to not continue to fund manyof these companies. However, thegood news is that US venture capitalfirms have raised more venture mon-ey in the first half of 2005 than theydid in all of 2003 and the $6.1 BillionUS they raised in Q-2 2004 is greaterthan any three month period since2001. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)have been on the upturn, especially inoptical telecom. The early wealth cre-ated in the MEMS/MST industry by asmall number of entrepreneurs was

vis-à-vis acquisition by large opticaltelecom companies. Due to thedemise of this industry, these ac-quired MEMS/MST companies alsowere adversely affected, sold, or writ-ten off by their previous owners. Apositive note here was the acquisitionof BEI Systems by Schneider in a stocktrade valued at $562 Million US andthe pending acquisition of Knowles(microphones). In the US, there hasbeen $7.16 Billion US in M&A throughmid September 2005 comapred to$5.5 Billion US in 2003 and $8.3 BillionUS in 2004. A number of biomemscompanies have gone public in the1996-1998 timeframe. However,these companies have not been assuccessful as hoped for with theirsales volumes less than projected andstock prices currently not much higherthan their original offering price andcertainly significant less than their his-torical high, e.g. Cepheid, Affymetrix.Profitable MEMS/MST companies arefew and far between (e.g. Micralyneand NovaSensor, Analog Devices, Sili-con Microstructures). This is due tomany factors including the commodi-tization of solutions (automotive sen-sors), small number of killer applica-tions, and lack of product differentia-tion and adequate marketing. Com-panies including Akustica (micro-phones), IMT (MEMS foundry),Coli-brys (accelerometers and foundry)and Microfabrica (foundry) have re-ceived substantial second round ven-ture capital funding. Although agreat deal of funding has been allo-cated to new Nano companies,MEMS/MST companies are beginning(again) to attract the interest of VCsbecause they show well-establishedmarket opportunities. In summary,things are getting better and are ex-pected to continue to do so into thenear future barring unforeseen majoreconomic downturns.

Technology Cluster Development(Grade = B+):This subject was added in 2003 to re-flect the ever-increasing value that re-gional and federal governments placeon micro and nanotechnology as a vi-able business. No less than 20MEMS/MST/NANO clusters have been

An Updated Report Card on the Barriers to the Commercialization of MEMS and Nanotechnology: Lessons to be Learned from the Semiconductor Industry

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formed since the first one in Dort-mund Germany in 1986 [2]. Currently,clusters exist or are in the process ofbeing formed in Europe, Asia/Pacific,North and South America. Of consid-erable interest is the level of commit-ment of the regional governments ofEdmonton Canada, Manaus (Amazon)Brazil [3] and in Mexico especially inPaseo De Norte in their rapid expan-sion of programs to support MEMStechnology development. To date,thousands of highly trained and highpaying jobs and scores of companiesowe their existence to the creation ofthese more than 20 clusters. Lessonto be learned from the Semiconduc-tor Industry: clusters certainly have ex-isted in the semiconductor industrysince the early 60’s. Silicon Valley,Route 128, and Austin, Texas are mostnoteworthy. The intellectual proper-ty, source of capital funding and es-tablishment of in-depth infrastructureassociated with these semiconductorclusters are prerequisites for futuresuccess.

Lessons to be LearnedSo, what commercialization lessonshave been learned to date by theNanotechnology industry and whatare the key lessons to be learned fromthe semiconductor and MEMS/MST in-dustries? 1) Do not create technologyfor technology sake…the raisond’etre should be a well-defined mar-ket need for a specific solution that isuniquely enabled by a nanotechnolo-gy-based solution. 2) Care must betaken to understand competitive of-ferings and to communicate/promoteto the market the unique customerbenefit of the nanotechnology-basedapproach. 3) Do not fall prey to and

participate in the great “hype” ofnanotechnology in the popular press.

It is gratifying that nanotechnologyresearch has received a great deal ofsupport from governments worldwidewith 2005 funding levels exceeding$3.0 Billion US. MEMS/MST has neverachieved this level of support fromfederal governments and is morethan likely not to ever achieve such. Inaddition, a great deal of private in-vestment through venture capital hasmade itself available…more so thanhas ever been available for MEMS/MST. A number of the companiesthat are being funded are in theequipment and metrology area…thecreation of a solid manufacturing in-frastructure to insure large through-put and low-cost nanotechnology-based solutions was a major deficien-cy of the MEMS/MST industry as canbe seen from the report card. Mostnoteworthy is the National ScienceFoundation in the US and their majorsupport through numerous grants tosupport Nano-manufacturing re-search. At this point in time, it ap-pears that nanotechnology has beena good student of its bigger brother,i.e. MEMS/ MST in a number of areasnoted above. The challenge will be tocontinue to fund research; attractventure capital money; continue tosupport infrastructure developmentincluding design for manufacturing,metrology and manufacturing equip-ment; and to create roadmaps andstandards to help guide the directionof these efforts.

SummaryAs one can see, the MEMS/MST indus-try has made significant advances in

overcoming commercialization barri-ers since the first report card was pub-lished in 1998. While a number ofgrades have changed over the past 12months, the 2005 overall grade re-mains at a B. Many lessons have andstill need to be learned from the semi-conductor industry (as well as otherindustries). It is interesting to notethat education continues generationafter generation, today education op-portunities abound in the nanotech-nology industry from its big brother,the MEMS/MST industries. The authorstrongly recommends that people in-terested in the commercialization ofnanotechnology become students ofthe progress of both the semiconduc-tor and MEMS. To quote a popularauthor, George Santayana in hisbook, The Age of Reason (1908-1910)…”Those who forget the pastare condemned to relive it”. For anexpanded version of the Report Card,please go to www.rgrace.com or reference [4].

References:[1]Presentation to Solid State Sensors

and Actuators Conference, HiltonHead, South Carolina, June, 1988.

[2]R.H. Grace, “Technology Clustersand Their Role in the Developmentof the Microsystems Industry”, Pro-ceedings of COMS 2003, Amster-dam, The Netherlands, September8-11, 2003. (www.rgrace.com).

[3]R.H. Grace, “Conference Report onthe Second SUFRAMA MST Confer-ence (MINIPIM) in Manaus Brazil”,Micro Nano Newsletter, December,2005.

[4]R.H. Grace, “An Updated ReportCard on the Barriers to the Com-mercialization of MEMS and Nan-otechnology: Lessons to beLearned from the SemiconductorIndustry”, Proceedings of the 10th.International Commercialization ofMicro and Nano Systems Confer-ence, Baden-Baden Germany, Au-gust 21-25, 2005, pp. 471-476.

Contact:Roger H. GracePresident, Roger Grace AssociatesPast President, Co-Founder, Micro andNanotechnology CommercializationEducation Foundation (MANCEF)E-Mail: [email protected]

Figure 1: MEMS Industry Report Card

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IntroductionThe Nexus Market analysis for Mi-crosystems has been the most recog-nized source of market data for Mi-crosystems worldwide since 1998.The Task Force Market Analysis hasjust released the updated report en-titled “Market Analysis for MEMSand Microsystems III 2005- 2009.”This follows on from the highly suc-cessful 1996-2002 and 2000-2005 re-ports that have become industrystandards. The new report is com-pletely revised. It shows new MEMS/MST products, application fields anda worldwide regional analysis ofcompetencies

The total market for MEMS and Mi-crosystemsThe new study estimates a projectedmarket growth for 1st level pack-aged Microsystems and MEMS fromUS$ 12 billion in 2004 to 25 billion in2009. This corresponds to an AnnualCompound Growth Rate (CAGR) of16%. Considering the traditionalNEXUS definition used in the reportsI and II - the market for the smallestunit, incorporating MSTcomponent(s), that is commerciallyavailable - the market will increasefrom US$ 33.5 billion in 2004 to US$57.1 billion.

Market by MEMS/MST products: micro-displays are the new block-busterGraph 1 features the market for 26MEMS/MST products investigated inthe study Three products will still ac-count for 70% of the market in 2009:read/write heads, Inkjet heads andmicro-displays.

• RW heads will still representaround 51% of the market in2009. Traditional application forPCs will grow moderately; howev-er, the RW market is experiencinga renaissance in consumer elec-tronics as hard discs are enteringmusic players (e.g. in every famousi-pod), in smart phones (Samsungintroduced the first cell phonewith HDD in 2004), as well as digi-tal video cameras, set top players,DVD recorders, etc.

• Inkjet heads will continue to beone of the most profitable mar-kets for MEMS. The main driverfor inkjet heads in the next 4 yearsis the printing of digital photos –especially cell phone cameras –growing at 15% to 20% per year.A major trend is the integration ofnon-disposable inkjet heads in theprinter instead of disposable print

heads in cartridges. After Epsonand Canon, HP is starting to shipprinters with integrated printhead. This will slow down thegrowth in units; however, the val-ue of these non-disposable printheads is 3 to 5 times higher.

• Microdisplays are the blockbusterof the 2004-2009 period. Micro-displays revenues will overtakeinkjet heads in 2009 as Texas In-struments is forging ahead withthe DLP chip for front projectorsand rear projection TVs. DLP tech-nology dominated the pront pro-jector market almost 40% marketshare in 2004 and is also dominat-ing the large screen rear projec-tion market segment. The emer-gence of new MEMS micro dis-plays products such as iMoD dis-plays for mobile handsets fromQualcomm is also worth noticing.

Other fast growing markets are mi-crophones, RF MEMS, and tire pres-sure monitors next to establishedpressure and motion sensors, whichare increasingly being driven by con-sumer applications.

Emerging markets include waferprobes, liquid lenses for

NEXUS Market Analysis for MEMS and MicrosystemsIII 2005 - 2009Henning Wicht and Jérémie Bouchaud

MEMS and Microsystems sensorsand actuators are consolidatingtheir position in established mar-kets and finding new applications,leveraging a combination of lowmanufacturing cost, compact size,low weight and power consump-tion, and increased intelligence. Inthe next five years, the market willgrow at 16% per year from $12 bil-lion in 2004 to $25 billion in 2009for 26 MEMS/MST products. Chiefamong these are read/write headswith a 51% share and micro-dis-plays, which will overtake inkjetheads by 2009. Fast growing mar-kets for microphones, RF MEMS,and tire pressure monitors are ex-amined next to established pres-sure and motion sensors, which areincreasingly being driven by con-sumer applications.

Graph 1: Total market for 26 MST/MEMS products

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autofocus/zoom in camera phones,micro-motors, micro-spectrometers,micro-pumps and micro-reactionproducts. NEXUS also considers prod-ucts that will begin to impact mar-kets at the end of the decade, name-ly micro fuel cells, MEMS memoriesand e-fuses, chip coolers.

Market by application field: con-sumer electronics driving marketgrowth

The market by application field asshown in graph 3 may be subdividedinto three main application fields: ITperipherals, Automotive and Con-sumer Electronics.

• IT peripherals will by far remainthe first application field of MEMSand MST in 2009, mainly with RWheads and inkjet heads. However,the share of IT peripherals will de-crease from 69% to 54%.

• Automotive will remain a majorapplication field with several killerapplication fields such as airbagsor Tire Pressure Monitoring(TPMS). Numbers of units will stillgrow at a rapid pace; however,the growth in revenue will bemoderate due to a continuouspressure on prices (e.g. gyro-scopes: + 15% /year in units buts8% in revenue).

• Consumer electronics will experi-ence the strongest market growthin the time period under consider-ation and will overtake automo-tive. The share of consumer elec-tronics in MEMS/MST markets willgrow from 6% in 2004 to 22% in2009.

NEXUS identified the three driversfor MEMS in consumer electronics asthe following:

1. Large screens High DefinitionTelevision for everybody. Indeed,the market for rear projection TVsis skyrocketing from 6.5 M units in2005 to 11.9 M units in 2009 ac-cording to iSuppli Corp.

2. More storage in digital equip-ment. HDD enter digital videocameras, music players, smartphones… Shipment of HDDs is ex-pected to explode in consumerelectronics from 10 M units in2004 to 200 M units in 2009

3. Mobile handset…you can alsophone with it. After MEMS ac-celerometers from ADI which en-tered a cell phone from NTT Doco-mo in September 2003, a numberof MEMS products are followingincluding pressure sensors, gyro-scopes, MEMS display, micro fuelcell, MEMS fingerprint, liquid lens-es, thermopiles…

ConclusionThe MEMS/MST market volume wasworth $12billion in 2004. It is expect-ed to reach $24billion in 2009. Thegrowth is still rapid: 16% CAGR invalue in 2004–2009. Consumer elec-tronics will drive market growth inthe next 4 years. With regard toproducts, 14 out of 26 MEMS/MSTproducts are expected to exceed$100 million in revenue in 2009.Completely new products in 2009will include micro fuel cells, MEMSmemories, chip coolers, liquid lensesfor cell phone zoom and autofocus.

Contact:Henning Wicht, PresidentJérémie BouchaudWTC – Wicht Technologie ConsultingFrauenplatz 5D-80331 Munich, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]

Graph 2: MST/MEMS market by application fields

Graph 3: Market for MST/MEMS in consumer electronics

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sclerosis (MS) patients and it verifiedthat the system is actually able to im-prove the patient’s quality of life. It isnecessary to consider the fact that asmart assistive toilet will bring directand indirect benefit to all the stake-holders involved. Being more inde-pendent and autonomous in usingthe toilet is not only important forthe individual's quality of life but alsofor the wider society.

By introducing innovative technolo-gies in the area of toilet and especial-ly by providing a complete solutionfor the whole toileting area, the FRRconsortium has contributed to em-powering old and/or disabled personsto use public restrooms throughoutEurope even if the individual has anincreasing level of disability, and tosupporting secondary users by provid-ing an innovative, user-friendly andhighly adaptable, smart toilet system.For more information regarding the

different activities and outcome ofthe FRR project, please contact theweb site of the consortium atwww.frr-consortium.org and the sitewww.fortec.tuwien.ac.at/frr.

AcknowledgementsFRR was partially funded in 2002-2005 by the European Commission asproject QLRT-2001-00458 under theQuality of Life programme. Projectpartners: Industrial Design Engineer-ing - TU-Delft (NL), fortec - ResearchGroup for Rehabilitation Technology,TU-Vienna (AT), Certec - Departmentof Rehabilitation Engineering, LundUniv. (SE), EURAG - European Federa-tion of Older Persons, Graz (AT), Lab-oratory of Health Informatics – Univ.of Athens (GR), Applied Computing –Dundee Univ. (UK), Landmark DesignHolding, Rotterdam (NL), Clean Solu-tion Kft, Debrecen (HU), SIVA - Cen-tro IRCCS S.Maria Nascente, Milan(IT), HAGG – Hellenic Association ofGerontology and Geriatrics, Athens(GR). Ethical Review Team: Institutefor Design & Assessment of Technolo-gy, Vienna (AT)We gratefully acknowledge the in-tensive contributions to the FRR pro-ject provided by the members of theuser boards and by the persons whohave participated in the iterative cy-cles of prototype testing.

References[1]Manufacturing Partner of the FRR

Consortium: Clean Solution Kft,Hungary, www.cstechnologie.com/and www.conplan.org

[2]P. Panek, G. Edelmayer, C. Mag-nusson, et al.: Investigations to de-velop a fully adjustable intelligent

toilet for supporting old peopleand persons with disabilities - theFriendly Rest Room (FRR) Project,in: K. Miesenberger et al. (Eds.):Computer Helping People withSpecial Needs, ISBN: 3-540-22334-7,LCNS 3118, Springer, pp. 392-399,2004.

[3]R. de Bruin, J. FM Molenbroek, T.Groothuizen, M. van Weeren: Onthe development of a friendly restroom, Proc. of INCLUDE Conf., In-clusive Design for Society and Busi-ness, 2003

[4]N. Gentile, et al.: Concept, Settingup and first Results from a RealLife Installation of an ImprovedToilet System at a Care Institutionin Austria, to be published in [5]

[5]J. Molenbroek et al. (Eds): Devel-oping adaptable toilets of the fu-ture for disabled and elderly peo-ple, to be published by IOS press in2005

[6]C. Dayé: The FRR-questionnaire -Assessing Who Needs WhatWhere, to be published in [5]

[7]C. Dayé and M. Egger de Campo:User-Driven Research - How to in-tegrate users' needs and expecta-tions in a research project, to bepublished in [5]

Contact:Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Zaglerfortec - Research Group on RehabilitationTechnologyVienna University of TechnologyFavoritenstrasse 11/029A-1040 Vienna, AustriaPhone: +43 1 58801 42900Fax: +43 1 58801 42999E-Mail: [email protected]/frr

Figure 3: Height and tilt changes to supportstanding up.

Elderly bedridden persons have atendency to decubitus, incontinence,unconsciousness, sweating, highheartbeat and similar conditions.Persons with dementia tend to es-cape from bed. A regular surveillancemakes it possible to find out about apatient’s current state. If necessary,an appropriate response can be acti-vated. Quick measurements of sever-al parameters (surface pressure, tem-perature, humidity etc.) serve as abasis for the required decisions.

The modular structured bed coverconsists of several systems to registerthe parameters measured by inte-grated textile sensors.

The systems consist of the sensoricbed cover, an electronic device toprocess signals and a computer toprocess and store the data. All infor-mation is processed for further usevia standard interface.In the telematic solution the infor-mation is transferred to a central da-

Sensoric Textile Bed CoverKlaus Richter and Mario Möbius

ITP GmbH aims to develop textileproducts based on high tech – in-novations, developments of severalsciences and businesses with thetechnological potential of the tex-tile industry. Together with Fraun-hofer Gesellschaft e.V., SCAI andthe companies Suess Medizin-Tech-nik and theTelematik-Center TMDGmbH, ITP developed a telematicpatient surveillance system basedon a textile sensoric bed cover.

Continuation from page 15

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ta bank via internet, where severalmeasures can be coordinated.The system is suited for people whoare in need of care and attention, es-pecially for home care use. The two-layered textile sensoric bed cover isplaced on the mattress of the bed.

Maintenance:The top and the bottom layer consistof the tight material AmbaGate,which is permitted for clinical use. Itis welded to build a cover. 17 sensorson a carrier layer are embedded inthis cover. Both, cover and carrier,can be tended textile.

The bed cover was equipped withthe following sensors:• 12 textile pressure sensors with a

size of 10cm x 10cm each• 1 textile humidity sensor• 1 textile sensor for incontinence• 3 temperature sensors

Textile pressure sensors:Textile pressure sensors developed byITP were first used in this system. Theuse of textiles and avoidance of oth-er materials is the particularly at-tribute of this innovative sensor. Thisimplies positive attributes like textilecare and a sensoric effect over thewhole area. A specific arrangementand analysis ensure detection of apatient’s position and movements.

Detecting movements helps preventdecubitus. A person’s staying in bedmay be recognized. After operationsa certain position can be kept undersurveillance. Through combinationwith the other sensors a multitude ofconditions are deducible.

12 textile pressure sensors are em-bedded in the cover. They work inde-pendently from each other. The ca-pacitive principle is performed bytwo conductive textile surfaces thatbuild a plate condenser, while thecarrying layer is the dielectric. It pre-vents plates contacting each other.

Powering the condenser with volt-age, an electric field develops be-tween the plates.

The stored energy W and the chargeQ depend on the capacity C and thevoltage U.

The capacity is determined by the de-sign of the condenser and it's gettinghigher as:• the size of the plates increases,• the distance between the plates

decreases.

The capacity is changed by changingthe dielectric. This effect is used toreceive electrical signals. The pres-sure sensors in the cover have thefollowing capacities:• 30 pF without pressure• 50 pF while maximally loaded

The sensor consists of a spacer fabricwith high conductive surfaces. Totransfer the signals outside those sur-faces are contacted to the electronicdevice using conductive glue.

Textile Humidity Sensors:The Textile Research Institute Greize.V.developed those humidity sen-

sors. They detect relative humiditywithin the bed cover. A patient’ssweating can thus be established.The working principle bases on resis-tivity. The sensor signal output is in-directly proportional to humidity.The same sensor is integrated in theelectronic device, because the hu-midity of the environment influencesthe measurements of the sensor inthe bed cover. This allows calculatingactual humidity.

The sensor for incontinence is locat-ed in the centre of the cover nearthe surface. Since it emits a 0/1 sig-nal, calibration is not needed.The contact zones are at the rightand left end of the sensor. Again thecontact is realized using conductiveglue.

Temperature Sensor:To detect a patient sweating, his/hertemperature has to be measured too.Likewise a non-intentional uncover-ing and subsequent freezing can bedetected. A reference in the elec-tronic device is planned to receiveprecise results.

Analysis of Sensor Signals:The electric signals are transferred bya bus system via flat cable to a plugthat is still part of the bed cover.The plugged electronic device con-trols and analyzes the measured sig-nals. The sensoric bed cover is aclosed textile system that can belinked via standard protocol to sever-al other systems.

Contact: Mr. Klaus Richter, CEOITP GmbHOtto-Schmerbach-Str. 1909117 Chemnitz, Germany Phone: +49 3643 777596Fax: +49 3643 202088 E-Mail : [email protected]

Picture 4: Textile Humidity Sensor

Picture 1: Electronic device with mains applianceand wire to the bed cover

Picture 2: Arrangement of textile sensors in thecarrying layer– here: 6 pressure sensors and 1 humidity sensor

Picture 3: Structure of textile pressure sensor

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The health care needIt is widely claimed that innovation inhealthcare technologies can con-tribute to increased access to and im-proved quality of care and reducedcosts. Health care consumes 15% ofthe US gross national product andover 10% in Japan and Europe, andthese numbers are increasing. With healthcare expenditures of overseveral millions Euros, even small effi-ciency gains in labour – the most ex-pensive element - can have a signifi-cant economic impact. Technologiesfor ambient assisted living can help,by addressing the problem of trans-ferring basic patient information overnetworks, holding diagnosis, treat-ment, monitoring and education ofpatients by using systems that allowremote access to expert advice and

patient information. For the devicesand software to be effective, howev-er, it is necessary to integrate technol-ogy with healthcare applications andclinical procedures.New developments in assistive tech-nology are likely to make an impor-tant contribution to enabling elderlypeople to live self-determined andcomfortably in their own home. Re-mote health and video monitoring,wireless electronic sensors and equip-ment such as fall detectors, heath andhumidity alarms can improve olderpeople’s safety and security. Care athome is often preferable to patientsand is usually less expensive for careproviders than institutional alterna-tives: having patients treated andmonitored outside hospital structuresis not only an economic issue but animportant aspect in improving thequality of life of the patient. With thisaim in mind, we highlight an impor-tant consideration that has come fromthe Association for the Advancementof Assistive Technology in Europe(AAATE) conference (AAATE 2003Conference, Dublin): “There has beenconsiderable interest in providing as-sistive technologies and telecare solu-tions to enable people to stay in theirown homes for longer. However,there has been little formal evaluationof these technologies.“ The next gen-eration of older people may live in aworld where every beat of theirhearts and every ordinary thing theydo is watched, analyzed, and evaluat-ed for signs of trouble. Such care mayactually be less intrusive than the al-ternative: the loss of independencethat follows when people must leavetheir own homes for nursing homes.

The case studyThe ITEA (Trentino Institute for PublicHousing), a public institution utilizedby the Autonomous Province of Tren-to (Italy) to implement public residen-tial housing projects, has started a do-motic programme to aid citizens withphysical disabilities. Particular atten-tion is given to the elder population,as the average age is increasing. In theTrento province, 17,8% of the total

population is above 65, 8,7% is above75, and 2,4% above 85. The goal is tolet the elder citizens live in their homeas long as possible to avoid the dis-comforts of hospitalization, but pro-viding the same level of safeness andhealth monitoring. The reference sce-nario within the ITEA programme isthat of an autonomous elder homeuser whose environment is pervadedwith sensors and computing devices,which, in turn, are connected to re-mote assistance as required and ap-propriate for each specific case.

A solution based on MicrosystemTechnology In the first phase of the project, wehave decided to focus on the detec-tion of the fall of the home inhabi-tant. This is one of the most commonhome accidents for elder people. Todetect a fall we use two types of sen-sor: (1) a custom wearable MEMS ac-celerometer with WiFi radio transmit-ter, being developed by ITC-irst andDIT-University of Trento; (2) a set ofWiFi cameras together with a sophisti-cated image processing module com-puting mass centre and posture in re-al-time, developed by CNR-IMM ofLecce. The devices publish their eventson the event server; one of their sub-scribers is an expert system that pro-vides instantaneous reaction to alarmsituations and longer-term mining ofdata to detect patterns of behaviour.The expert system, based on the JESSrule engine, uses ECA rules and ap-proximate pattern matching.The general architecture is summa-rized in Figure 1. All sensors, includingthe video, broadcast updates on theirstate on dedicated multicast IP chan-nels; in particular, the video process-ing system sends its current hypothesison the posture of the person beingtracked as well as the raw output ofthe neural networks, analyzing thefeatures at the end of the analysis ofeach frame. Similarly, a computerequipped with a radio receiver filtersthe raw data sent by wearable sen-sors, removes noise, and re-send themon its multicast channel.

MEMS-based Technologies and Smart Detection Systems for Ambient Assisted LivingLeandro Lorenzelli, Cosimo Distante, Andrea Simoni, Paolo Busetta and Mukhiya Ravindra

The aging of the population, the in-creasing cost of hospitalization, andthe desire for living independentlyin a familiar environment makeMEMS-based technologies andsmart sensors for home safety par-ticularly valuable to elders as wellas to their concerned relatives andto health authorities. Care at homeis often preferable for patients andis usually less expensive for careproviders than institutional alterna-tives. For healthcare applications,the objectives are to recognize andto prevent potentially dangeroussituations. Heath and humidityalarms, remote health monitoring,wireless and wearable electronicmicrosensors, such as fall detectors,can improve older people’s safetyand security. Sophisticated multi-sensor fusion is often needed inhome care to reduce the chance ofmissing events and at the sametime preventing a sense of intrusionin the private life of the patient.We present, as a case study, a sys-tem in which data from wearablewireless MEMS devices are integrat-ed with information from static op-tical environmental sensors to de-tect home accidents and react ac-cording to user’s feedback (or lackof it, as in case of a shock).

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The MEMS-based wearable fall sensor The first prototype of wearable sensorused for the current demonstrator isan accelerometer, developed by Mi-crosystems Division of ITC-irst, to beattached at the level of the hips. Bothcommercial and custom MEMS-basedaccelerometers have been evaluatedas fall detector. MEMS inertial sensorsare becoming more and more popularbecause of their small size, CMOScompatibility, reliability and on chipintegration with the electronics.Among varieties of applications ofMEMS accelerometer, here our focusof concern is on the consumer andsafety appliances. Bulk microma-chined accelerometer is a miniaturizedsilicon accelerometer based on New-ton’s second law of motion, consistingof seismic mass, four beams and refer-ence frame. Proof mass is truncatedpyramidal shaped due to an-isotropicetching in TMAH (25%), and suspend-ed by four beams symmetrically.Beams are placed on the edges ofproof mass to minimize off-axis sensi-tivity. N-type (100) Si wafer is used tofabricate the accelerometer, in whichproof mass edges and beams are ori-ented in <110> direction. Sensing isbased on the piezoresistive propertyof the silicon because of its ease offabrication and to integrate with elec-tronics, but suffers from cross axis sen-sitivity because beams are on the topof the wafer. Cross axis sensitivity is minimized bythe proper electrical interconnectionsof the piezoresistors and connected toform a Wheatstone bridge. Based onsimulation and technological limita-tions the device dimensions are foundto be 9900 µm X 5500 µm. Sensing di-rection and range are application-spe-cific; the device is designed for low-gsinge-axis (out-of-plane) acceleration,but can be used for two/three axis ac-celeration measurement by changingthe orientation and the sensing direc-tion.

This device samples the vertical accel-eration and sends up to 4 notificationsper seconds, representing the averagevalue of the acceleration since the lastnotification: at regular intervals theaccelerometer sends a liveliness mes-sage to inform of correct functioning,then it notifies when it detects accel-eration due to the fall and an evenstronger, negative acceleration due tothe impact with ground. Finally, noacceleration is detected when the useris lying on the floor. To save battery,messages are sent only in the pres-ence of a significant acceleration andfor a short time afterwards.

Image processing and event aggregationThe recognition experiments havebeen executed on grey level sequenceimages acquired with a Pulnix CCDcamera at a frame rate of 15Hz. Exam-ples of casually chosen images used inthe experiments are shown in Figure3. The images coming from the cam-era are analyzed and the position ofthe user is categorized in “upright”,“bent” or “lying”. The software isvery accurate as long as there are noother people in the range of the cam-era, otherwise tracking of the usermay result in mistakes. Finally, the ex-pert system aggregates the notifica-

tions from the accelerometer andfrom the camera and generates an“attention” event followed by a “falldetected” event. The implemented ar-chitecture is completed by a wirelesssubscribing to the “fall detected”event, and generating an alarmwhenever notified of the fall event.

ConclusionsInitial tests on our fall detector arevery positive. Its architecture is de-signed to accommodate additionalsensors (biometrical and biochemicalsensors) and processing components.The results obtained inevitably lead tothe conclusion that the proposed mi-crosystem architecture could be a veryuseful tool for monitoring and man-aging health status in a person. Never-theless, a thought should also be giv-en to the massive amount of testingthat any medical system must gotrough before being allowed out intothe market.

Contact:Dr. Leandro LorenzelliITC-irst Microsystems Division, Via Sommarive, 18 I- 38050 Povo (TN) – ITALYPhone: +39 0461 314455Fax: +39 0461 314 591E-Mail: [email protected]

Figure 1: General system architecture

Figure 2: MEMS accelerometer. Finite element simulation of displacement in Z- direction (left) andmicrophotograph of the fabricated device (centre) and first prototype of the wireless wearable falldetector (right).

Figure 3: Example of image sequences used for posture estimation in the experiments, (the set is aseries of people images in standing, squatting and laying position) and results of the adaptive back-ground subtraction technique for motion detection in indoor scene (bottom centre image).

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The Laser Long Cane is a primary mo-bility device for the blind. A laser sys-tem, integrated into the handle of aconventional long cane, provides pro-tection against obstacles in the headand chest area like lorry loadingramps or low-hanging branches thatcannot be detected by the conven-tional long cane.

The laser beam is emitted in walkingdirection approximately 90° to thecane and shaped like a fan: it is fo-

cused in the horizontal and widenedin the vertical dimension (see Fig. 1).

Thus, the space directly above thecane is covered. As soon as an obstacleis detected within the cane’s rangethe handle vibrates, forcing the userto react. Since the laser fan is very nar-row and is projected above the cane,obstacles can be localised very accu-rately.

In the field of electronic travel aidsthe unique selling proposition is thelimitation of the range to the lengthof the long cane. This range limitationspares the user a lot of unnecessarywarning signals and it allows simpleyes/no information.

Technically speaking, the Laser LongCane uses a Lidar (light detection andranging) system based on the time-of-flight principle. A short laser pulse(30Wpeak, 3,5ns fwhm, 1kHz repeti-tion rate) is generated and the reflect-

ed light is detected by a high-speeddetector. The detector is equippedwith an avalanche photodiode (APD),the signal of which is amplified by athree-stage amplifier. The main prob-lem during the development of thedetector was to find a suitable com-promise between sensitivity, speed,power consumption and accuracywhile dealing with signals of very highdynamics (6 orders of magnitude!

Laser Technique Improves Safety for the BlindMaria Ritz and Lutz König

Blind people use a long cane fororientation. The long cane is a verysimple, yet very effective aid. How-ever, it has one major disadvan-tage: Obstacles in the head andchest area are not detected andthis can lead to accidents and in-juries. Vistac GmbH in Teltow, Ger-many, has developed the LaserLong Cane to overcome these diffi-culties using laser distance measur-ing techniques. Figure 1: Use of the Laser Long Cane (red is a

schematic representation of the laser beamshape)

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Imagine a bright wall directly in frontof the detector or a clothes line ashigh as a user’s head, i. e. at a dis-tance of 1.5 metres).

The time interval between the emis-sion and the detection of the laserlight is analysed by a mixed-signal cir-cuit generating a logic signal. This log-ic signal is interpreted by the micro-controller, which, in case of an obsta-cle, sends out the warning signal. Be-sides, the microcontroller monitorsthe functioning of the system, e.g. theaccumulators, the voltage supplies,laser pulse, etc. The user is warned bya vibrational signal, similar to the vi-brational alarm in mobile phones, butmuch stronger.

The warningdistance is indi-vidually adjust-ed to the sizeand cane tech-nique of the us-er by simplepush buttons.

The two-fold laser optics consists of astandard collimator and a microlens-array serving as a line generator. Theeasiest solution for a line generator –a cylindrical lens – could not be used,because these lenses create a Gaussianintensity profile. But it is essential todetect especially obstacles at the up-per end of the line, i.e. at the heightof the user’s head. For the same rea-son no off-the-shelf lens for the detec-tor could be used. The boundary con-ditions for the detector optics were: 1. high sensitivity at large detectionangles, 2. focus of large angles ontothe small diameter of the high-speed-photodiode (photosensitive area0.25mm2), 3. small distance betweenthe lens and the photodiode. The bestresult could be achieved by usingmeniscus lense slightly off focus. The

efficiency for off-axis light was in-creased and the distance betweenlens and APD could be kept as small as6mm while focusing light from an an-gle of 35° onto the 0.5mm diameterof the APD. Fig. 2 shows the interiorof the Laser Long Cane handle.

The two AA batteries are enclosed inthe rear end of the AL-tube, whereasthe front end holds the end of thelong cane.

The Laser Long Cane may not be liter-ally a micro-nano device, but it is oneof the – if not the – smallest, lightestand least power consuming lidar sys-tems. Future development will con-centrate on further integration andminiaturisation to minimise size,weight and power consumption.

ContactDr. Lutz König Vistac GmbHWarthestr. 2114513 Teltow, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]: +49 3328 35 37 21

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Autonomous livingThere is a growing concern over thespeed and scale of global ageingworldwide and ageing society is oneof the largest preoccupations for in-dustrial countries. Statistics about the demographic evo-lution of the EU population (about374 million) gives a good illustrationof this matter. It appears that in 200320% of the population was over 60and forecasts show an increasing

trend to reach 25% in 2020 and 33%in 2050.In addition, demographic trends showas well that an increasing proportionof elderly persons in most Westerncountries are living alone, often in ur-ban regions, and this propensity in-creases with age, especially for wom-en in very old age. The likelihood ofliving in a nursing facility increaseswith age but most elderly peoplewish to live independently as long aspossible.A German study, conducted by“Deutsches Zentrum für Altern-forschung” in 2001, shows the follow-ing results:About 93.5% of Germans over 65years of age live in private house-holds, while 1.6% in special housingfor the aged (e.g., assisted living), and5.3% in nursing homes.

Elderly Remote Video Monitoring: Latest Technological Developments for a Greater Autonomy and Intimacy Preservation Virginie Carniel

Older people consider the fact ofbeing able to manage their ownhome as central to their indepen-dence. To facilitate remote moni-toring of elderly people, EMITALLSurveillance has developed ad-vanced solutions providing imageaccess and automatic alarm notifi-cation via remote devices in mobileenvironment (e.g. mobile phones,smart phones, etc.) and Internetenvironment (e.g. PC’s, laptops,PDA’s, etc.). The system performsautomatic event detection relyingon one or more cameras, and even-tually other sensors such as micro-phones, smoke or motion detec-tors. The scene under surveillance iscontinuously recorded and can beconsulted either in real-time or off-line. By analyzing the signals fromsensors, and using advanced signal

Figure 2: Interior of the Laser Long Cane handle

processing algorithms, the systemdetects alarm situations and noti-fies appropriate recipients. An au-tomatic scrambling of regions cor-responding to people enables rela-tives, caregivers, and authorizedthird parties to remotely verify thesituation of elderly persons whilepreserving their intimacy.

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Of the 9.6 million private householdswith one or more persons over 65years of age, 52.4% are single-personhouseholds, 42.1% are two-personhouseholds, and 5.5% are three-or-more-person households. Those aged 60 to 64 years old spend19 hours per day at home, whereasthose over 70 years of age spend 20.5hours per day at home, which corre-sponds to ca. 80% of the day.It is clear then that among various so-cio-economical factors, housing condi-tions and autonomous living can beconsidered as some of the most im-portant elements for the quality oflife of older people. According to theSwiss National Research Program NRP32 “Ageing” (François Höpflinger andAstrid Stuckelberger), they have acentral effect on social integration. The wish to stay in one’s own homerequires measures (e.g. forms of hous-ing suitable for people with disabili-ties, remote monitoring systems) thatenable autonomous living to remainpredominant as long as possible. Lat-est developments of household tech-nologies are the type of actions that

contribute to improving elderly peo-ple’s autonomy.The rapid development of micro-sys-temic sensors, micro-electronic instru-ments and telecommunication-basedsupport services is opening up newpossibilities for older and elderly people.

Remote video monitoring system The feeling of greater security can re-lieve the burden on social relation-ships, especially on relatives.

Thanks to remote-controlled appli-ances, elderly people feel more se-cure. Their autonomy is increased aselderly people decide themselves ifthey need assistance and help canquickly be called in emergency situa-tions (e.g. after a fall).

EMITALL Surveillance has developedEasyEye Elderly monitoring system, asolution providing peace of mind forrelatives and autonomous living forseniors. Relatives, friends, caregivers,

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Figure 1: EasyEye system

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The Growing Burden of Elderly Careand the Paradigm Shift in HealthcareDeliveryWith an aging population, hyperten-sion and cardiovascular diseases(CVD) are major epidemics that sig-nificantly reduce quality of life andlife expectancy, afflicting more halfof all people older than 60. Hyperten-sion is the main cause of cardiovascu-lar disease which is today the #1 killerin the Western world. This is the

cause of an ever-growing burden onnational healthcare systems, which al-ready suffer from increasing costsand chronic shortage of resources. As healthcare providers and nationalgovernments have been searching forcheaper and more responsive ways ofdelivering services, this has broughtabout a significant growth in tele-health and homecare services thatenable people with chronic condi-tions to take greater control of theirown health, and to be treated athome rather than keeping them inthe hospital. The result is a significant

Innovative Mobile-Health Solutions Promise to Improve Elderly Care and Save CostsOfer Atzmon

The growth of the aging popula-tion increases the pressure on tradi-tional healthcare systems that suf-fer from increased costs and short-age of resources. Recent advancesin biosensor and wireless communi-cations technologies enable the de-sign of advanced mobile wearabletelehealth monitoring solutions forelderly care. These solutionspromise to improve the level ofcare and quality of life for the el-derly population, and to expeditethe trend of shifting healthcare de-livery from hospitals to the commu-

and other authorized parties can veri-fy if the situation of a monitored per-son is normal using remote devices inmobile environment (e.g. mobilephones, smart phones, etc.) and Inter-net environment (PC’s, laptops, PDA’s,etc.). The solution generates automat-ic detection of alarm situation (e.g.slip and fall detection) and automaticalert notification to remote devices si-multaneously in mobile and Internetenvironment.Main Functionalities offered by Easy-Eye from EMITALL Surveillance are (asshown in Fig. 1):

PULL SERVICES• Remote command of the home se-

curity systemUser can start or stop the systemany time using a remote device(mobile or Internet environment).

• The user can request any time animage of the scene under surveil-lanceMobile environment: MultimediaMessage Service (MMS)Internet environment: Internet im-age formats such as JPEG

• The user can request any time a

live video view of the scene undersurveillance Video streaming for 3G mobile en-vironment or Internet

• The user can request a view ofrecorded videoVideo streaming for 3G mobile en-vironment or Internet, andMMS for mobile environment

PUSH SERVICES• Automatic alert notification to re-

mote devices simultaneously inmobile and Internet environmentUser receives an alert notification(e.g. slip and fall detection) on re-mote device in mobile and Internetenvironment.User can verify the nature of thealarm, visualize the scene undersurveillance, and take appropriateaction if necessary

Intimacy and personal dignityMonitoring systems bring the ethicalquestion linked to electronic supervi-sion with regard to restriction of per-sonal dignity. In the USA for example,the long-term care industry has large-ly managed to block the use of

“granny cams,” video-surveillancecameras that families sometimes useto watch over elderly or disabled resi-dents in nursing homes or other facili-ties. There are no laws against suchcameras, but many nursing-homeowners, as well as employees and in-surers, discourage their use, on thegrounds that they are an invasion ofprivacy.

EMITALL Surveillance therefore hasdeveloped an advanced technologyproviding privacy protection in pri-vate or public elderly monitoring. Thesystem performs automatic scram-bling of regions corresponding topeople, and their goods, thus allow-ing to preserve their privacy. Fig. 2shows the result of the process.

EasyEye Elderly monitoring systemruns on basic home infrastructuresuch as a PC and webcams, and can beenhanced by other types of microsen-sors such as smoke, temperature andmotion detectors. This way microtech-nologies and vision technology to-gether can help elderly to stay safeand secure in their own home.

Contact:Virginie CarnielEMITALL Surveillance (CEO)Rue du Théâtre 51820 Montreux, SwitzerlandPhone: +41 79 476 14 86E-Mail: [email protected]

Figure 2: Scrambling / authorized unscrambling process

nity. Some of these new innova-tions are described in this article.

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paradigm shift in the healthcare in-dustry that is taking place on a globalscale. After centuries of deliveringhealth care in hospitals, healthcareproviders are now shifting towardstreating patients in their homes andcommunities.

Innovative Wireless Solutions HoldPromise for the FutureRecent advances in biosensor minia-turization and mobile wireless com-munications technologies hold thekey to this change and enable the in-troduction of highly usable mobile-health devices to enhance elderlycare.

Tadiran LifeCare, a new business unitof Israeli-based wireless communica-tions company Tadiran SpectralinkLtd. (www.tadspec.com/lifecare), re-cently unveiled a series of new andexciting products addressing thesetrends. These cellular-based wrist-wearable mobile monitoring devicesenable the transmission of real-timedata, such as medical information,environmental data, location or dis-tress alarm, to a remote monitoringcenter. All of these products incorpo-rate a built-in Wireless Module bySiemens Communications(www.siemens.com/communications),enabling users to be monitored con-tinuously and effortlessly from any-where, at anytime.

MDKeeper™ - "Mini Hospital" on the WristMDKeeper™ - which was recently un-veiled by Siemens Communicationsand Tadiran Spectralink Ltd. at the In-novations Day on CommunicationNetworks 2005 - is a portable “mini-hospital” which is designed to makelife easier for at-risk patients, chroni-

cally ill and people requiring nursingcare. The device lets patients monitortheir health and get help when thereis no doctor around. MDKeeper™ is worn on the wrist likea watch and enables continuousmonitoring of patients' vital signs,such as pulse rate, Electrocardiogram(ECG) and blood oxygen saturationlevel (SpO2). Patient at risk with car-diac or circulatory diseases, seniorsand people with chronic illnesses canenjoy constant monitoring and sup-port without having to visit their doc-tor. The information is stored, ana-lyzed and transmitted in real time, oras needed, by an embedded SiemensMC55 GSM/GPRS radio module, to aremote medical center, where it is re-ceived and further analyzed. A special medical monitoring station,called RemoteKeeper™, enables

medical professionals to view, ana-lyze and react on the information oralerts received from patients at re-mote locations. It also has a databaseand can be integrated with otherhospital information systems, allow-ing exchange of data for better in-formed medical decision-making.In addition, the device can sendemergency calls or place mobile callsto predefined people or call center.With its integrated cellular module,the device works almost everywherein the world on all GSM/GPRS net-works. Above all, MDKeeper™ is verylightweight and easy to operate, re-quiring very little intervention fromthe user. Additionally, it can providevalue added services, such as remind-ing the user when to take his/hermedication or go to his/her doctor'sappointment.

Figure 1: MDKeeper™MDKeeper™ enables elderly users to be continuously monitored for their health by remote medical professionals, trigger an alarm, talk to a doctor, re-ceive calls from anyone, and stay in touch with relatives or caregivers, from anywhere at anytime.

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First product tests are currently beingconducted in Israel and in Sweden(with Karolinska hospital and Telia-Sonera telecom operator), with re-sults expected later this year. MD-Keeper™ will be commercially avail-able early next year, with futuremodels to be introduced later, thatmay include additional innovations,such as blood pressure measure-ments; real-time video encounters;

and GPS location findingto enable the dispatchof specific medical emer-gency help when andwhere it is needed.

SKeeper™ - Cellular Dis-tress Alarm for those inNeedAnother new device in-tended for elderly orchronically ill, or evenfor children, is SKeep-er™, a wrist-wearablepersonal locator and cel-lular communicator withdistress alarm. SKeep-er™ is not a medical de-vice but is designed to

provide peace of mind to users, theirrelatives and their caregivers. It canbe used for example to assist peoplewith Alzheimer. SKeeper™ enablesusers to place cellular calls to pre-de-fined numbers (such as to relatives orfamily doctor), location finding via aWeb interface or another mobilephone, and a distress alarm in case ofneed, so help or medical advice is al-ways just a pushbutton away.

ConclusionsThe practical implementation of newwireless technologies offers elderlypeople and their caregivers enhancedquality of life, peace of mind and costsavings. Although healthcare systemsare quite conservative, many expertsbelieve that eventually the huge ben-efits of telehealth will overcome thebureaucratic and regulatory barriersand will become the foundation forfuture healthcare and social care sys-tems. With innovative mobile-healthsolutions such as MDKeeper™ andSKeeper™ coming into the marketsoon, it is likely that these benefitswill become a reality even faster thanmight be expected.

ContactOfer AtzmonBusiness Development ManagerTadiran LifeCare Div.Tadiran Spectralink Ltd.Kiryat Shmona 11015, IsraelPhone: +972 3 9229550Mobile: +972 52 2451771Fax: +972 3 9217714 E-Mail: [email protected]/lifecare

Figure 2: SKeeper™With SKeeper™ worn on their wrist or neck, elderly people cantrigger a distress alarm, talk to a doctor or a relative using speeddialling, receive calls from anyone, stay in touch and be located byrelatives or caregivers, from anywhere at anytime.

Yole Développement, the leader in market research and strategy consulting in MEMS, is publishing a free monthly magazine, named Micronews.With more than 10,000 suscribers (more than 25,000 readers) worldwide, Micronews is dedicated to giving you

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Issue 43 - January 2006 The market of MEMS for Mobile Applications

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Yole Développement top 5 reports:1 - Silicon Microphone Market 2005: From Si microphone to acoustic modules

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E V E N T S

PCs, mobile devices and electronic de-vices that are being used in an everwidening range of applications in in-dustry, transportation and medicinehave one thing in common: They aresteadily shrinking in size – and withthem, the electronics components andassemblies that comprise them. Ac-cording to estimates from the "Inter-national Technology Roadmap forSemiconductors 2004," the width ofthe structures used in DRAMs will bereduced to 45 nanometers in fiveyears, and by 2016, they will dropdown to just 22 nanometers. Tech-nologies that are used for processessuch as those used to create ultra-thintransistor structures will be shown atProductronica 2005 from 15 through18 November in Munich, Germany.

Making the Move into the NanoscaleRangeThe exhibitor micro resist technologyof Berlin, Germany, for example, isforming the foundation for an inex-pensive alternative to lithographicprocesses with its thermoplastic poly-mers: The nanoimprint technologyshown at MicroNanoWorld promisesto enable the creation of structuresthat can even go below the scale of 10nanometers. So far, it has been possi-ble to print these structures on waferswith diameters of up to 20 centime-ters. As a manufacturer of reticules,graticules and microstructures, thecompany IMT Masken und TeilungenAG of Greifensee, Switzerland, has ad-ditional complex microlithographic so-lutions in its exhibition portfolio.Visions for the advancement of pro-duction technology down into the

nanoscale range are being made pos-sible by the Fraunhofer Institute forReliability and Microintegration (IZM)of Berlin, Germany. With what is re-ferred to as a "nanolawn," IZM ismaking it possible to take a look at aconnection technology of the future:Following the principle used withhook-and-loop fasteners, it could be-come possible in the future to connectelectronics components without ther-mal side effects.

Microproduction Technology in ActionAt MicroNanoWorld, the TechnicalUniversity of Munich's Institute forMachine Tools and Industrial Manage-ment (iwb) is demonstrating a telepre-sent microassembly plant. With thisplant, it will be possible to convenient-ly put together microsystems from aworkstation with a computer screen.This can be done by remote controlusing a force feedback control lever –which the trade public can try out in alive demo at the trade show. A demoplant for contactless wafer handlingon the basis of ultrasound as well as acomponent mounting systemequipped with air cushion grippers

that also works without mechanicalcontact represent additional innova-tions from the iwb for microscale han-dling.

As additional exhibitors for micropro-duction technology, participants in-clude such companies as Etchform pre-cision etching, Netherlands; HäckerAutomation of Schwarzhausen, Ger-many or QUASYS AG, Switzerland.Other participating companies includepiezosystem jena of Jena, Germany;Carl Zeiss SMT NanoTechnology, Ger-many; Trumpf Laser GmbH, Germany;or Tecan Components Ltd., UK.

MicroNanoWorld – The Unique Plat-form for a Growth SegmentA total of 115 companies will presentproducts related to MicroNanoWorld.Within this area the "MicroSystemsTechnology" User Forum will featureindustry presentations and livedemonstrations with a microproduc-tion line. The focus is on all areas ofmicrotechnical production includingthe packaging of integrated circuits,materials, production, componentmounting, assembly and handling sys-tems as well as measurement and test-ing systems. Here, the microproduc-tion technology being presented isnot only related to the manufacturingof electronics, but also to other fieldssuch as mold and die making; micro-processing and ultraprecision produc-tion; measurement, testing, and adap-tation technology as well as nanotech-nology/ nanoproduction.

Fields that are related from a technicalperspective, such as materials process-ing and back-end equipment for semi-conductor manufacturing, are repre-sented in the same hall. Thus, the en-tire hall will be dedicated to exhibit-ing microproduction.

Contact:Angela Präg, Deputy Head of Marketingand Communications New Technologies Messe München International, Munich,GermanyPhone: +49 89 949 20670 Fax: +49 89 949 97 20670 E-Mail: [email protected]

Advanced Technology for Production in Miniature Formats at Productronica 2005Angela Präg

The entire hall B5 with more than160 exhibitors will be dedicated tomicro-manufacturing at Produc-tronica 2005. The companies willpresent solutions for micromachin-ing, ultra precision manufacturingand micro assembly. This makesProductronica the world's most im-portant trade show for this growthsegment. The MicroSystemsTech-nology User Forum and live demon-strations will round off the exhibitsin this sector.

Figure 1 / 2: BIT 100 / 600 Nanolawn:"Nanolawn," consisting of gold wire with a di-ameter of 100 / 600 nm (source: Fraunhofer IZM)

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