-17 August 2005 -

IME and EV Group develop Lab-on-a-Chip

EV Group has announced its Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) research highlights achieved at their Singapore customer, Institute of Microelectronics.

IME is currently set on developing a fully integrated Lab-on-a-Chip, also known as Micro Total Analysis System (µTAS), which will perform the three functions of DNA/ RNA analysis - extraction, amplification (or multiplication) and detection in one chip. This is expected to be ready for commercial production in two to three years' time.

Throughout the past years, EV Group has supplied IME several wafer processing tools, an EVG620 Mask Aligner and EVG501 Bonder for 150mm wafer processing.

The new equipment for bonding silicon MEMS wafers to glass wafers are part of IME's new fully operational 200mm silicon MEMS wafer process line, completed last year. This increases the yield of the large DNA chips by 3 times, compared to the previous production process.

"Having IME as our longtime customer, we are exited to see their advances in the commercialization of devices for the biomedical field", says Erich Thallner, CEO and founder of EV Group.

MEMS are increasingly being applied in the biomedical field as miniaturisation makes its impact, in minimally invasive surgery, in-vivo monitoring, in-vitro testing and smart implants. MEMS technology and microfluidics serve as the functional basis for many of these devices and research tools.