Overseas Trends

Transducers '03
By country, American speakers made the largest number ofpresentations (192), followed by Japanese (89), then German(32). The number of Korean presentations was the next highest,
and the increased number of presentations by speakers from
China, Taiwan, and other Asian countries and regions reflected thewidespread expansion of MEMS research worldwide. By field, alarge proportion of presentations concerned fluid technology.
Many of the presentations on medical treatment, biotechnology,
and chemistry subjects also overlapped into fluid technology,
indicating the remarkable progress being made in this field.
Throughout the conference overall, there was also an extremely
large number of presentations concerning product development, atrend that has manifested in recent years. This trend wasadvanced even further at Transducers '03, with a noticeable
increase in the number of presentations addressing problems, andmeasures for resolving these, faced in the practical application of
MEMS technology to commercial production.
The conference venue, Boston, was also host to the first
Transducers conference in 1981; in coming full circle over these 22years, it feels as though we have reached a landmark. During thisperiod, research focus has shifted from element research toproduct development-related research, and the number of papers
presented by businesses has also increased. This conference
clearly demonstrated how the industrial world and the world atlarge are moving significantly towards the industrialization ofMEMS.

Transducers '03(The 12th International Conference on SolidState Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems)was held from June 9(Mon.) to 12 (Thurs.), 2003 at Boston Marriott Copley Place inBoston, Massachusetts, USA. With approximately 1,100participants, attendance was slightly less than the 1,200
participants at Transducers '01 two years ago; nevertheless, withattendance exceeding 1,000, the conference was an overall
success. The SARS scare, which broke just prior to the conference,is believed to have been one of the factors behind the drop inattendance.
A total of 486 papers were presented: 4 plenary presentations,
12 invited presentations, 199 oral presentations, and 271 posterpresentations. Altogether 960 papers were submitted, making theselection rate 48%. At Transducers '01, a total of 401 papers from856 submissions were presented, with a selection rate of 47%.
Thus, as the number of papers submitted for Transducers '03
increased over those for Transducers '01, the number ofpresentations also increased. Moreover, the number of papers
submitted for Transducers conferences has consistently increased(1997: 641, 1999: 826, 2001: 854), a trend that is indicative of thegrowing intensification of research in the MEMS field. Except forthe plenary session held on the first day, the conference consistedof parallel sessions (four sessions conducted simultaneously), eachof which was filled almost to capacity. Sessions on technologies
close to commercial application were particularly popular, withstanding room only for sessions on packaging and RF-MEMS.

European Foundries(Places Visited)• Colibrys (Foundry)• Institute of Microtechnology, Neuchatel University(R&D)• Yole Development (Marketing)• CEA-LETI (R&D)• Tronics (Foundry)• MST-Design (Design House)

Between July 7 and 11, 2003, a study tour of leading
foundry services in Europe was conducted in order to promote
the development and expansion of a foundry service network
in Japan.
The study tour consisted of visits and discussions in orderto obtain information and hear workers opinions directly.
While focusing on foundries, the tour also visited researchinstitutions, design houses, and marketing consultants, taking
a multidimensional approach that revealed through thesevarious perspectives the true workings of European network
services.
The study tour found that several overseas foundries havebeen established as spin-offs of public research institutions
and have continuing strong partnerships with their parentinstitutions. We also discovered that the places we visited had
several features in common. For example, with superior IP, theenterprises tended to choose business strategies that involved
using their high added value in pursuing small to medium
niche markets, and they actively welcomed investment from avariety of sources, with business already being begun along
innovative themes. For tour participants, the freshness of andenthusiasm for new industries were palpable.
Furthermore, those whom we spoke to showed a highdegree of interest in foundry services in Japan, expressing
great expectations for the concept of a network service for thefuture.

Visiting CEA-LETI (Grenoble, France)

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