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MEMS industry executives at an annual MEMS Executive Congress earlier this month were buoyed by optimistic forecasts for MEMS devices such as accelerometers and multi-axis gyros, which are increasingly used in mobile handsets and video games, according to a news release issued Nov. 13 by MEMS Industry Group, a trade association representing the MEMS and microstructures industries.

Karen Lightman, managing director of the MEMS Industry Group, said the group set an attendance record at this year’s congress.

She attributed the attendance, in part, to "a technology convergence in MEMS." Specifically, she noted that sensors made for automobiles are being used for health-care devices such as heart monitors and 3-D motion tracking.

"MEMS-based energy harvesters are being utilized in consumer and industrial systems," Lightman said, "and they may one day be used in more energy-efficient, even all-electric, automobiles. And with MEMS sensors opening up greater data collection, we will one day see things we haven’t even imagined in applications such as mobile phones.”

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