Report on the Transducers '05 International Conference in South Korea
Except for the keynote speeches given on theopening day, the entire format of the conference
consisted of four parallel sessions run simultaneously.
Lively discussions were heard in all sessions. The
biotechnology-related sessions particularly attracted
many listeners in every hall and in some cases were socrowded that not everyone who wanted to could attend.

The 13th International Conference on Solid-State
Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems was held inSeoul, Korea, June 5-9, 2005 at the Convention andExhibition Center (COEX). The 800 some participantsfrom twenty-seven countries (registered as of May 31)
at Transducers '05 was down from the 1,100 someparticipants at Transducers '03, held two years earlier
in Boston, but the lively feel at this year's conference
reflected the great expectations that the MEMS fieldstill commands. As the conference was held inneighboring South Korea this year, 201 of theparticipants came from Japan. This very large number
shows the high level of interest Japan holds for MEMS
in comparison with the rest of the world.
The majority of presentations at the conference
consisted of reports on sensors, actuators, and theirmaterials, production, and assembly that apply
technologies across a broad range, including thechemical, physical, mechanical, and electrical fields.
The 532 presentations included 3 keynote speakers, 15
guest speakers, 199 oral presenters, and 315 poster
presentations, while 50% of the 1,035 submitted
papers were accepted (based on a report given during
the opening ceremony).
Fig. 1 illustrates the changes over the years and thenumber of submitted papers and the percentage ofpapers that were accepted, showing a dramaticallyincreasing trend in the number of submitted papers
over the past several years. These figures support thevigorous activity in MEMS R&D in recent years. Whenexamining the number of presentations given bycountry, Japan had the most with 132, followed inorder by the U.S. with 119, South Korea with 79,
Germany with 39, and Taiwan with 33. In terms ofresearch institutes, the University of Tokyo gave themost presentations, providing evidence to the spirited
efforts put forth by Japan's research institutes.

Submitted papers

Acceptance rate

1200

800
600
400
20005

31l'ouSe

ston'0'0Bo

unich'9aiMndSe

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Acceptance rate

Submitted papers

60%
58%
56%
54%
52%
50%
48%
46%
44%
42%
40%

1000

CA session of the conference

Among the keynote speeches given on the first dayof the conference, Dr. Kurt E. Petersen of SiTime
Corporation in the U.S. talked about the history,
present state, and future of MEMS under the theme “ANew Age for MEMS.” A memorable part of this lecture
was his description of how the well-known Moore's
Law predicting the trend of technologicaladvancement in semiconductors could be adapted toMEMS technology.
Turning to the oral presentations, a report on theintegration of LSI and physical sensors, such aspressure sensors and accelerometers, attracted muchattention. Although the approaches for suchintegration differed, one came away with theimpression that the fusion of MEMS and LSI isprogressing more steadily than before. In the area ofmaterials, it appears that polymers are being
incorporated into various biotechnology MEMS. Thesefeatures were also presented in the previousconference, but it appears that new functionality andperformance, as well as practicality, has been derived
by skillfully incorporating the characteristics ofpolymers in MEMS. In terms of manufacturingmethods, the DRIE session was reestablished at thisconference, and proposals were made for several
devices and methods using silicon DRIE, one of thekeys to MEMS machining technology. It would appear
that a DRIE technology capable of meeting the needsfor device processing is nearing completion.
The next international conference, Transducers '07,
is scheduled to be held June 10-14, 2007 in Lyon, France.

Fig. Changes in the number of submitted papers andtheir acceptance rate7