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INDUSTRY NEWS

MicroBUILDER consortium member HSG-IMIT routinely works on IVD products such as this lab-on-a-disc. Microfluidic channels carry out specific assay process steps when the disc is rotated within a compatible device.

A consortium of nine European companies offers cost-effective access to microsystems development, prototyping, and manufacturing. Areas of expertise for EU-funded microBUILDER include biomedical devices, IVD products, valves and pumps, and gas and flow sensors. HSG-IMIT (Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany) brings its knowledge of microtechnology in medical applications to the group. Its head of microfluidics, Stephan Messner, recently spoke about the project with EMDM.

“HSG-IMIT is a research institute, and we have worked on a number of medical projects such as drug-delivery and lab-on-a-chip systems,” says Messner. “Within the consortium, we team up with one, two, or more companies, depending on customer requirements and the range of expertise needed to successfully complete a project,” says Messner. “Sometimes we work alone,” he adds.

What microBUILDER brings to a project—which individual member companies may not be able to—are the resources to support customers from the initial idea to manufacture of the finished product. Small to medium-sized companies, as well as academic research groups, are the target customers. Although the group has an array of capabilities, it cites mixed-technology devices made from a combination of silicon, glass, and plastics with functional surface layers as a specialty.

In addition to HSG-IMIT, microBUILDER counts among its members microfluidics company thinXXS, also from Germany; MEMS software maker Coventor, which has its European headquarters in Paris; Norway-based research institute SINTEF and sensors supplier Infineon Technologies SensoNor; and the French contract manufacturer of MEMS components Tronics Microsystems. Institutional members of the consortium are Vestfold University in Norway, the department of electronics technology at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and COREP, an association in Italy devoted to research and continuing education.

To learn more about the consortium, go to www.microbuilder.org, or contact HSG-IMIT, Wilhelm-Schickard-Str. 10, D-78052 Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany; phone: +49 7721 943243; fax: +49 7721 943210; e-mail: stephan.messner@hsg-imit.de.