MICRO SYSTEMS Current Status and Future Perspectives

Microsystems and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) hold an important role in smart systems' design; they allow the deployment of intelligence in everyday objects including the information and the communication capabilities. The potentialities of micro system technology (MST) disclose a new technology era with considerable industrial and social impact. The MST allows the microelectronic technology and more in general the information and communication technologies (lCT) to spread further. Applications are growing rapidly almost in every field. MST is inherently a multidisciplinary technology; multidisciplinarity however represents both the powerful point and the limiting factor. Basic processing steps, that represent the fundamentals of the technology, are described and illustrated either with some block diagrams and microphotographs, in order to give an accurate idea of key aspects of the technology. Some advanced research achievement (e.g. the "smartdust") and some techno-economical issues are then illustrated to depict a possible "future technology scenario".