Worldwide Micromechanics Forum Coming to Madison

Read more about Henry Guckel's micromechanics research.

An international gathering of more than 150 scientists in Madison this Friday and Saturday will explore the latest in the quest to fabricate the world’s tiniest machines.

The 1997 worldwide forum on microsystems technology is sponsored locally by micromechanics pioneer Henry Guckel, a UW–Madison electrical and computer engineering professor. Presentations and poster sessions will be held all day Friday at the Concourse Hotel, 1 West Dayton St., while a visit to the Synchrotron Radiation Center is planned Saturday.

“This conference will look like a who’s who in the microsystems field,” said Guckel. “We have researchers attending from Germany, China and Japan, and people from industry will be looking for future applications.”

Micro-machined devices offer big benefits for manufacturers of computers, medical instruments, automobiles and other products that rely on extremely precise controls. These researchers work at the micron scale (a human hair is about 75 microns wide), and use X-ray lithography and microelectronics processing to create devices of metal, silicon and other materials.

Some recent applications discussed at the meeting will include a tiny medical pump, which fits inside intravenous tubes, that can precisely regulate drug dosage. Other researchers are building actuators, which convert electronic energy to mechanical energy, and could dramatically increase the storage capacity of computer disks.

Guckel heads the Wisconsin Center for Applied Microelectronics. For more information about the conference, contact Guckel at (608) 263-4723; or research assistant John Klein at (608) 263-1676.