Overseas Trends

Report on the 11th Micromachine Summit
The 11th Micromachine Summit was held in Dallas, Texas,
May 1-4, 2005. The Micromachine Center held the first
Micromachine Summit in Kyoto, Japan in March 1995, inviting
representatives from nine other countries active in the field ofmicromachines, including the United States, Australia, Canada,France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and theUnited Kingdom. Now, ten years later, sixty-threerepresentatives and thirty-three observers-for a total of ninetysix participants-attended the 11th Micromachine Summit in 2005.
Including the countries mentioned above, the participants camefrom a total of twenty-four countries including Mexico,Argentina, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Israel,
Belgium, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Representatives from universities and research institutes andorganizations accounted for three-fourths of the participants,
while the remainder was made up of business reapresentatives.
A total of nine people from Japan attended, including Chief
Delegate Dr. Isao Shimoyama (professor, the University ofTokyo), Delegate Toshiro Shimoyama (chairman, theMicromachine Center and supreme advisor, OlympusCorporation), Delegate Hitoshi Ogata (director, theMicromachine Center and senior executive officer, Mitsubishi
Electric Corporation), Delegate Keiichi Aoyagi (executivedirector, the Micromachine Center), Delegate Takayuki Hirano(executive advisor, the Micromachine Center), and fourobservers.
The conference proceeded in a roundtable format, with thedelegates seated around the table and the observers encircling
them. The first day of lectures consisted of country reviews, inwhich a representative from each participating country spoke
about their country's micromachine- and nanotechnologyrelated endeavors. No other event provides the opportunity tohear about the micromachines activities of twenty-four countries
under one roof. For Japan's review, Chief Delegate Shimoyama
spoke on “MEMS Market Trends in Japan.” In this report, hepredicted rapid growth in Japan's MEMS market and stressed
the importance of producing fine MEMS through thedevelopment of (1) MEMS+CMOS, (2) MEMS+MEMS, and (3)MEMS+Nanotech in order to attain and expand this rapidgrowth.

On the second day of the Summit, twenty-three lectures
were given during four sessions entitled (1) Techno-Historical,(2) Institutes and Companies, (3) Strategy, and (4) Industry
Groups. Of particular interest were the success stories relatedby the host country's Texas Instruments on Digital Mirror
Devices and Analog Device Inc. on the development ofaccelerometers. Delegate Aoyagi of Japan reported on theMicromachine Center's endeavors to date and future
developments in a lecture entitled “Toward Industrialization ofMEMS/Micromachine Technologies.” Delegate Shimoyama gave
a visual presentation entitled “Technological Challenges toward
Capsule Endoscopes,” in which he introduced through video
Olympus' activities in Capsule Endoscopes. This year, Delegate
Shimoyama was recognized by the Secretariat for the enormous
contribution he has given to the Summit over the years. Also, in
his lecture entitled “Micro and Nano Technologies at Mitsubishi
Electric Corporation,” Delegate Ogata presented Mitsubishi
Electric's work in nanotechnology centered on MEMStechnology.
On the final day, participants were taken on a tour of Texas
Instruments, Zyvex, and the University of Texas at Dallas, alllocated near the conference hall. Perhaps due to its location in thisbuoyant town of Texas, this year's Micromachine Summit had alight-hearted mood throughout. It was apparent during thisSummit that the connection of micromachines and MEMS
technology to nanotechnology is essential and that many countries
are working to use this to create and develop new industries. The
fruits of these activities are greatly anticipated. Finally, it wasdecided to append the subtitle “Micro/Nano Technology andApplications” to the original title “Micromachine Summit.”
The 12th Micromachine Summit: Micro/Nano Technology andApplications has been scheduled to be held in Beijing, China forthree days on April 27-29, 2006. Hence, as new industries for
micromachines and MEMS emerge and the number of Asianparticipants in the Summit increases, the Micromachine Summit
will be departing from its salon-type roundtable meeting ofseveral tens of people and is about to be reborn as a newconference that maximizes features different from other typicalacademic meetings on technology. The Micromachine Center
will continue to lend its support to the Micromachine Summit.

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