Integrated Microsystems (and Integrated Nanosystems) are engineered systems and devices that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. By taking the technology developed in the semiconductor industry, modifying it and combining it with technologies from other industries (such as medicine, biology, manufacturing, physical sciences), we can begin to build sophisticated new devices that are smaller than the tip of a pencil. These new devices can perform much more than computation. They can modulate and control light, they can perform chemical analyses, they can assist surgeons, they can identify DNA, and they can perform activity in the micro-scale world. Because they are so tiny (and batch fabricated), they can eventually be made so cheaply that they can be ubiquitous and disposable.
Biomedical engineering and biotechnology can benefit dramatically from integrated microsystem technology development. New microfluidic chip technology will soon replace the clinical laboratory, allowing scores of blood or saliva tests to be performed at the "point of care" (for example, in the doctor's office, in the emergency room, or in the field), using small disposable "analysis cards" that cost only a few dollars, and complete an analysis in minutes. Miniaturized experimental systems will allow drug companies to test thousands of drug ideas per day, while dramatically reducing the consumption of reagents and significantly lowering cost of drug discovery. Tiny surgical devices and implants will allow surgeons to perform faster, less invasive surgery, and allow advanced functions to be added to implantable devices.
Immediate applications for this kind of technology may also be realized in optical and wireless telecommunications. Developments in "optical integration" will allow expensive and complex alignment to be done quickly and cheaply, advances in "micro-packaging" will replace bulky and expensive microwave connections, new RF micro-switch devices will enable highly efficient, adaptable antennas to be built.
These kinds of advances can be made possible through the development of new types of technology based on "integrated micro-systems engineering". Integrated microsystems are "engineered" in the sense that they consist of several microscopic subcomponents (materials, components, functions, technologies) designed to work together to perform a specific application. (In this way they can be distinguished from entities such as "nanostructures" which have very small feature sizes, but are usually made of a single material, and may not actually perform any specific application.) This subfield of "nanotechnology" is of critical importance to the emerging technologies of industries such as telecommunications and biotechnology. The development of true micro systems that integrate technologies beyond semiconductors can have significant impact on all technology-driven industries, and dramatically impact our every day lives.
Integrated microsystems engineering requires a new type of engineer and a new type of research paradigm. The task of performing research in the field of integrated microsystems requires a full exploitation of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Integration of many different technologies, functions, materials, techniques requires the skills and insights afforded scientists and engineers from many different, varying backgrounds. In a way, integrated microsystems technology research requires engineers to become "Renaissance Men and Women"-- something of a paradoxical twist in this day of high tech specialization!