Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture (PATENT-DfMM) Network of Excellence (NoE) launched
European Commission to invest 6.2 M into Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture Initiative over 4 Years. A Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture (PATENT-DfMM) Network of Excellence (NoE) has been launched in January 2004 and will be funded by the European Commissions Information Society Technologies programme (IST - unit C2) for 4 years. The project, based on the excellence of its 24 mostly academic partners, aims to address the underlying engineering science to ensure that problems affecting the manufacture and reliability of products based on micro & nano technologies (M&NT) can be addressed before prototype and pre-production. PATENT-DfMM is guided by an Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) to ensure the orientation towards applicability in industry. "Today most microsystems are designed without proper considerations for final testing, reliability and manufacturability", said Benedetto Vigna, MEMS Business Unit Director, STMicroelectronics Italy and chairman of the IAB. "These issues are tackled on a contingency basis only once a problem arises. Internal communication among different teams is important in order to implement a design methodology that will increase the rate of success and shorten time-to-market for future micro & nano technology based products." The project plans to integrate what are currently isolated and dispersed groups with valuable skills, create critical mass in the field of Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture in Europe and provide researchers with access to state-of-the-art equipment and technology. "PATENT-DfMM will provide direct services to industry with an emphasis on small and medium-sized companies, in the form of a one-stop shop", explains project co-ordinator Andrew Richardson, Director of the Centre for Microsystems Engineering, Lancaster University, UK. "These services will be based on the combined skills and resources of the new technical community formed by the project." PATENT-DfMM is an initiative that will build on specific industrial needs, which have been defined by key commercial players over the past several years and studied by the NEXUS Methodology Working Group "Design Modelling Simulation" workshops. The project is planning to work closely with other European projects and also with initiatives worldwide like the MEMS Industry Group in the US. More information: http://www.patent-dfmm.org
Keywords
MEMS, Microsystems, MicroNanoTechnology, MNT