Another dimension

The ability to manufacture increasingly complex microengineered components has been given a boost with the launch next month of a joint research project based at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University.

Microengineered components are perhaps more pervasive than people think, taking in airbags and tyre pressure sensors. While typically produced using traditional 2D semiconductor manufacturing processes these components have found applications far beyond the semiconductor industry.

One recent example is the design of microgenerators for heart pacemakers. To an extent, though, the development of microengineered technology has reached an impasse; it is felt that conventional design and manufacturing cannot support the further evolution of this technology and there is a risk that such devices will remain at the ‘crafted prototype stage’.

This barrier is the lack of technology or ideas in development to make the move away from the 2D layer-by-layer manufacturing approach used in semiconductor production and towards full 3D design and manufacture.