In November 2003, ten representatives from various industry sectors including automotive, agrochemical, pharmaceutical and process chemical, under the coordination of the Intersect Faraday Partnership, undertook a DTI Global Watch Mission to review MEMS sensor technology and its commercialisation in Europe.
The schedule of visits took in the ZEMI cluster in Berlin; ETH and IBM research centre in Zurich; CSEM, Colibrys and the University of Neuchatel; and MEMSCAP, Minatec and CEA-LETI in Grenoble. In each of these locations, the objective was to understand not only the state of the art in MEMS sensor research and technology, but also the business models and organisational inter-relationships which were being applied successfully in commercialising this technology.
As a result, the team was able to identify key factors in the infrastructure and support for MEMS technology which have made its exploitation possible, as well as identifying a number of technology capabilities of interest to UK industry, and niche areas where the UK might consider focusing investment.
The UK MEMS initiatives can learn significant lessons from models in other European countries, especially by considering the best practice business models and most importantly, the key relationships between organisations in successful clusters, the best examples being those focused around CSEM (Switzerland) and LETI (France).
Incubators are a key factor in the development of new MEMS enterprises to take technology from the laboratory to the market. Each of the successful clusters has a support package for new ventures which enables them to access facilities and suitable private investment, and is highly active in generating spin-out companies to exploit the technology they are developing. In these cases there exists a balance between technology push and market pull, the most successful businesses being those which are creating products with embedded MEMS technology, as opposed to commercialising MEMS devices.
The MEMS technology infrastructure in Europe is mature, and the UK would benefit significantly from greater international partnership, due to the diversity and complexity of the range of technologies and markets for MEMS devices. Similarly, in niches such as microfluidics and fabrication on substrates other than silicon (eg plastics, glass), there is a role for the UK to generate business from Europe as well as at a national level.
It is concluded that significant and rapid strategic activity is required in order to position the UK technology base to exploit the future global and all-pervasive MEMS market.