What’s Your MEMS Story?

Often, when someone asks me, “Why MEMS?” I will mention impressive stats about performance, reliability, robustness, cost, scalability, and the like. But this week, I found myself starting the answer with, “Because MEMS make a real difference for people I know -- including me.”

As I wrote two years ago, my youngest daughter sustained a serious concussion while skiing. In my search to understand why the concussion hadn’t been diagnosed sooner, I quickly appreciated the potential of MEMS accelerometers being used in automobile collision assessment and prevention. I am excited by the work of companies such as 2014 MEMS Executive Congress Elevator Pitch Finalist Force Impact Technologies FitGuard. It offers the first “head-injury awareness mouth guard” designed to detect potentially concussive hits to the head.

The Bluetooth-compatible accelerometer-enabled mouth guard can measure and visually display the force of an impact via color-coded illuminated LEDs. The LEDs provide instant visual indication to coaches and officials when a player has sustained a “concussion-worthy hit” and needs to come off the field to be properly evaluated. That could make a world of difference for the millions of athletes who sustain sports-related concussions every year. How disappointing that the NFL has decided to wait yet another year to employ these life-enhancing technologies, especially when you read about players making the choice not to play professional football because the reward is just not worth the risk of multiple concussions.

Force Impact Technologies’ FitGuard detects potentially concussive head impacts for athletes.

I am not alone in my perspective on the importance that MEMS make in our lives. MEMS Industry Group’s (MIG) newest hire found MIG because of her search for information about cancer treatment for a member of her family and she read about the use of MEMS-enabled microfluidics for early cancer detection. And just last week, another MIG staff member was stunned to discover that MIG member Draper Laboratory is working on a MEMS and microfluidics project to improve the hospital equipment that could possibly have saved her infant son’s life. The Lung Assist project oxygenates blood using stacked microarrays and significantly less blood volume.

Draper Laboratory’s Lung Assist project uses MEMS and microfluidics to help oxygenate patients’ blood.

In fact, everyone has a MEMS story. For most of us it’s probably the airbag that saved our lives or the life of a loved one. Perhaps it’s the tire pressure sensor that alerted us about deflation before we were stranded alone on a dark muddy road. We probably know someone using a blood pressure monitor or a pacemaker enabled by MEMS. MEMS devices are now so ubiquitous that we hardly notice them and yet could scarcely get by without them.

I’ve spent the last 15 years of my career believing in MEMS and the people who make them, singing from the rooftops the virtues of choosing MEMS as a product solution. My day is often filled with market projections and news of M&As in the maturing MEMS and sensor industry. MIG is working with its members to address the remaining technical issues to MEMS and sensors commercialization, enabling them to get to market faster. But sometimes, I come across something to truly remind me of the good that MEMS devices are doing every day and how they affect real people.

What’s your MEMS story? I would really like to know.

Karen Lightman is executive director of MEMS Industry Group (MIG), the trade association comprising more than 160 companies advancing MEMS and sensors across global markets. Click here for more information.

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