14th World Micromachine Summit (April 30 - May 3)
The
14 t hWorld
Micromachine Summit washeld for four days fromThursday, April 30 throughSaturday, May 3, 2008 at
the Hotel Riviera (DynastyHall) in Daejeon, Korea.
Since
thefirst
Micromachine Summit washeld in 1995 in Kyoto, thesummit has been held eachyear in a different country
chosen from among thosewishing to act as host. This
year’s 14th summit featured
the addition of the Iberian
region and Romania, making
a total of 18 countries orregions (Australia, theBenelux countries, Canada,
China, the EC, France,
Germany, the Iberianregion, India, Japan, Korea,
the Mediterranean region, the Nordic region, Romania,
Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UnitedStates). 56 representatives and 43 observers from 26of these nations and regions attended for a total of 99
participants.
This year’s summit began with a review of thesituation in each country or region, presented by thechief representative from that country/region. Thiswas followed by presentations from 32 representatives
on the status of activities in each region and future
prospects. The presentations were divided into fivecategories:(1) Technical overview(2) Cutting-edge technologies(3) Market standardization and industrialization trends(4) Education and technology platforms(5) Foundry and cluster networks
The chief delegate from Japan was Professor Isao
Shimoyama of the University of Tokyo. There were 10
participants in all including observers. Threepresentations were made by the Japanese delegation.
In the country/region review, Professor Shimoyama
of Tokyo University gave a presentation covering theposition of MEMS in Japan’s science and technology
policy, a technical strategy map for the MEMS
industry, a roadmap for standardization, the role andactivities of the MEMS Industry Forum, MemsONE,Fine MEMS, BEANS and other aspects of the status ofnational project promotion in Japan. Kazuo Kyuma,senior managing officer at Mitsubishi ElectricCorporation, presented an overview of the nextgeneration BEANS project. Koichi Karaki, executive
officer at Olympus Corporation, presented anintroduction of MEMS technologies.

At this year’s summit, the presentations from eachcountry regarding the current state of MEMS
technology covered such matters as the constructionof a new 8” line and accelerated mass production thatincludes CMOS MEMS. With regard to next-generation
MEMS technologies, the presentations focused on thecreation of new processes and devices throughnanotechnology, biotechnology and the fusing ofdifferent fields. It was clear from the presentations
that countries around the world are moving in roughly
the same direction in their pursuit of
micro/nanotechnology research and development.
Moreover, the emergence of MEMS developing nations
and regions such as India, Iberia and China thanks toactive support by national and local governments inthese nations and regions was also noteworthy.
Technical tours were conducted on the first andfourth days of the summit, before and after the twoday conference. Tour participants visited LG
Electronics Institute of Technology, Samsung ElectroMechanics, the Korea Institute of Machinery &Materials(KIMM),
theElectronicsandTelecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), theKorea Research Institute of Bioscience andBiotechnology (KRIBB), and National Nanofab.
Next year’s summit will be held in Edmunton,
Canada May 5 - 8, 2009.
The World Micromachine Summit is expected tocontinue to grow in influence as a forum forinternational interchange relating to MEMS andnanotechnology. The Micromachine Center hopes that
this summit will continue to prove valuable to people
around the world.

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