Enabling Manufacturing Technologies - Implications of Emerging Micro-and Nanotechnologies - page 152

of a number of separate fabrication sites organized in a fabrication network and
made available to the community through a central organization, the MEMS
Exchange, was organized. An important and unique element is that designers can
have the process sequence for their devices conducted at multiple fabrication
sites. This approach affords designers with an enormous range of choices in
processing techniques and materials as well as the ability to fully customize the
processing sequence.
Figure 4-11 shows the rapid growth in user accounts for the MEMS Ex-
change. Furthermore, over the past 3 years, distributed, multiple-site MEMS
device fabrication has been shown not only to be feasible but also to produce
advanced and complex prototype devices with distinct advantages over those
made at a single foundry. In the last 2 years, nearly 400 process sequence runs
were successfully performed in the MEMS Exchange network for designers
around the country, each run being different and customized for a particular
application. Most of the process sequences delivered by the MEMS Exchange
were performed at two sites, with a surprising number of runs having had pro-
cessing work performed at three or more sites. The designers accessing the MEMS
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FIGURE 4-11 Cumulative user accounts for the MEMS exchange. Courtesy of the
MEMS Exchange.