MEF2015 Program Concept

In the near future, wearable health monitoring systems equipped with MEMS will be widely used for your health management in conjunction with cloud systems. Also, low-cost disposable sensors will be used for medical diagnostics or patient screening at bed sides, at home, in infected areas etc. In such ways, MEMS play key roles to improve the quality of life (QOL) in super-aging society as well as to save medical expenses. MEF features biosensors, medical devices and related new businesses.

The application field of robotics will expand from closed manufacturing sites, i.e. factories, to open human society, where the daily assistance of elderly and handicapped persons by robots is expected, for example. New concepts of robot such as drones will also find practical applications soon. These kinds of advanced robots must be equipped with a variety of sensors to communicate with human, recognize surrounding situations and escape from any risks in real time. Some advanced humanoids have been already developed, but installed sensors are too expensive to widely use such robots for practical applications. Thus, the drastic cost reduction of robot sensors is also a big challenge for MEMS technology. In MEF, the development of robot sensors, the application of new types of robot and the potential of related businesses will be discussed.

Safety, energy saving and comfort are almost endlessly pursued by automobile industry and create further added values of cars. MEMS-based sensors have been widely used in cars and are continuously key devices. For example, active safety and automatic drive technology, which is being intensively studied recently, require the drastic improvement and even new development of sensors and other devices for commercialization. In addition, future cars such as electric vehicles, fuel-cell-powered vehicles and personal vehicles, and new traffic systems also should require a lot of new MEMS-based sensors. In MEF, new technology toward higher performance of automotive MEMS, new ideas of car applications of MEMS and the reliability of MEMS will be shared.

MEMS industry is rapidly growing up worldwide. The research and development of MEMS are very active, while a lot of new needs to challenge are emerging every day. Thus, MEF timely picks up emerging MEMS technologies, which may stimulate the intellectual curiosity of attendees, regardless of the above three topics, and promotes the attendees to find new ideas of research and business. MEF also provides the chances of academic-industry collaboration and international partnership, and eventually activates the R&D and business related to MEMS.