Bruker's compact, fully automated and fast toxin identification system, pTD, or portable Toxin Detector, is intended for smaller, field, and mobile laboratories for use by non-expert operators in homeland security applications.

Apple's iPad and the Android-based tablets, along with other media tablets, make up the fastest growing MEMS sector in the consumer electronics and mobile segments, says IHS iSuppi research. MEMS sales for tablet use is predicted to increase nearly 400% YOY. Cell phones remain the largest sector for MEMS adoption, however.

Researchers at Imec proposed a portable, lab-on-a-chip system for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection in DNA at IEDM 2010. Maaike Op de Beeck, program manager Human++, Heterogeneous Integrated Microsystems Department, Imec, provides background on the research.

With the iPhone 4 paving the way, global demand for MEMS devices in cell phones will rise robustly during the coming years, helping the total MEMS market to expand in healthy measure at least through 2014, according to IHS iSuppli. Also pushing growth: BRIC countries and new applications, such as healthcare products.

Research by engineers and cancer biologists at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) indicate that using specific silicon microdevices might provide a new way to screen breast cancer cells' ability to metastasize.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) and bTendo Ltd. will jointly develop the world's smallest pico projector for smart phones and other portable consumer-electronics devices, based on bTendo's Scanning Laser Projection engine technology and ST's MEMS, video processing, and semiconductor process technology expertise.

Capitalizing on their design wins in Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4 and iPad, semiconductor suppliers STMicroelectronics and TriQuint in 2010 achieved industry-leading growth in the global market for MEMS in consumer electronics and mobile devices, new IHS iSuppli research indicates.

SPTS completed the acquisition of deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) technology and certain related assets from Tegal Corporation. In addition, the deal includes the transfer to SPTS of the capital stock and operations of Tegal France SAS.

Sand 9, Inc. is planning volume launch of its MEMS oscillator technology for wireless applications. The company appointed Skyworks EVP Greg Waters to their Board of Directors, using his experience in wireless communications to help Sand 9 manage the transition from development to volume production.

The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business announced that eight teams have advanced to the semi-finals of this year's Michigan Business Challenge, including MEMStim, an ODM that sells MEMS electrode leads for medical devices.