Market oriented development and production of microdevices

The unparalleled success of microelectronics has shown miniaturization to offer a variety of advantages ranging from saving of material, space and energy over cost reduction by use of cost efficient batch fabrication technologies to the dramatic increase of performance by integration of functional elements. Microtechnology or microsystem technology is commonly regarded as a general strategy of success by the consequent application of miniaturization, not only for electronic components and systems but also for a huge variety of mechanical, optical, acoustic, thermal, fluidic, chemical or biochemical functional units. The promising perspectives of microtechnology have led to a considerable raise of public funds and to a broad public attention often generating confusion by mixing up visions with the state of the art in microfabrication. It is a common impression that microsystems most probably will be successful in a few years but did not find any commercial application field yet. However, upon comparing science fiction to reality one finds that microsystems nowadays are a multi billion $ business with huge yearly growth rates: today products are found in the field of communication technology, automotive systems, consumer products and in medical applications. The scope of this article is giving a survey on the state of market orientation in microtechnology: fabrication technologies, application fields and examples as well as prospects for the future.