Foreword

MCC Strategic Technology Tour to Europe: MEMS and Microsystems in Europe (March 1999)

The benchmarking team that conducted the MCC/WTEC Strategic Technology Tour (STT) to Europe in MEMS and Microsystems assembled in late 1998 and undertook preliminary planning over the period January to March 1999. The STT team made site visits March 20 – 31, 1999 in Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This was the twelfth strategic technology tour (STT) organized by MCC Global Technology Services, and the first executed in collaboration with the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC).

Objectives of the Strategic Technology Tour to Europe

The major objectives of this Strategic Technology Tour to Europe were as follows:

To engage leading European research groups in discussion on key trends and issues in MEMS and microsystems
To identify and assess the state-of-the-art and the state-of-the-practice in MEMS and microsystems domains of high interest to MCC members and U.S. industry
To record and report STT findings to MCC and WTEC audiences
To establish individual contacts within European organizations that provide basis for future engagement

As is true of all MCC strategic technology tours, the STT in Europe was conducted as a team effort. Staff members from MCC Global Technology Services and the MCC technical staff were joined by representatives from MCC members Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, HRL Laboratories, Honeywell Technology Center, Nortel Networks, and Texas Instruments. For a full list of the team members, with detail on their backgrounds, see Appendix 1 of this report.

Financial support for the conduct of the STT to Europe in MEMS and Microsystems was provided by the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC) at Loyola College with NSF funding, as well as by participating MCC member firms.

Structure of the MCC Strategic Technology Tour Program

The MCC Strategic Technology Tour Program is coordinated by MCC Global Technology Services. As an R&D consortium operating in microelectronics and software, the core business activity at MCC is the organization and conduct of consortial R&D projects. To complement this R&D program, MCC Global Technology Services works to infuse the MCC R&D program with an international awareness, as well as to inform our North American member companies of key developments in R&D and emerging technology markets offshore. In this context, we use the strategic technology tour as a mechanism to bring the expertise of managers and technical staff in our member companies to bear in the process of exploring and analyzing global developments in information technology.

Strategic technology tours, which MCC Global Technology Services initiated in late 1993, are multi-firm data gathering and consortial benchmarking activities in which small groups of researchers and technical managers from North American member companies in the MCC consortium conduct an intensive series of site visits to leading R&D organizations in Europe or Asia. MCC Global Technology Services currently organizes several Strategic Technology Tours per year, with the target technology domains identified in consultation with MCC member firms and MCC management.

To compose a strategic technology tour team, MCC Global Technology Services recruits a group of 5-10 researchers, technical managers, and strategic planners from MCC member firms who share a compelling interest in the target technology. Global Technology Services then arranges a 7-10 day series of site visits with private-sector firms, national laboratories, and sometimes universities that are conducting leading-edge work in the target domain in Europe or Asia.

The general purposes of an MCC strategic technology tour are:

To develop an overall picture of R&D activity in the target technology domain in the region visited;
To secure a detailed understanding of the capabilities and activities of the host companies visited, through a set of mutual presentations and discussion;
To establish human contacts within the host organizations which may lead to continuing dialog, as well as to joint R&D or business activities;
To discuss with other team members the significance of STT findings, to generate a formal report of findings, and to explore possibilities for follow-on consortial work.

While by its structure, the strategic technology tour has a clear emphasis on identifying the state-of-the-art and the state-of-the-practice overseas in the target technology domain, we find that considerable value emerges from the focused opportunity that team members have to discuss technical issues and opportunities within the team itself.

Over the last five years, MCC Global Technology Services has led twelve of these strategic technology tours on topics as diverse as low-voltage device technology (Japan); software engineering and software process improvement (both Japan and Europe, in separate tours); mobile telecommunications and nomadic computing (again, two tours, one to Japan/Hong Kong, and one to Europe); and software outsourcing and contract software development (India). The March 1999 MCC/WTEC Strategic Technology Tour to Europe in MEMS and Microsystems was the most recent in this series of STTs.

For further information about the MCC Strategic Technology Tour Program, contact Howard Curtis (Tel. 512-338-3792; Fax 512-338-3898; E-mail: curtis@mcc.com). Information about upcoming tours may be found on the MCC Web site (http://www.mcc.com), under Global Technology Services. Further information on WTEC is available on the Web at http://itri.loyola.edu.

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