The newly launched European initiative for the standardization and manufacturability of complex micro-fluidic (MF) devices, the MFManufacturing project (Dordrecht, The Netherlands), announced the establishment of an advisory board with industrial and academic members from Europe, the USA, and China. The Advisory board’s first task will be to discuss and comment on the recent Microfluidic Survey. This survey was sent to a large number of microfluidic experts and provided the project partners with a wealth of information about the needs of the microfluidics market. The survey results confirmed the diversity of the technology and its applications, but it also showed that there are technological needs that are shared between a large part of the user's community. This fact underpins the importance of manufacturing standards.
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MFManufacturing is the European initiative for the standardization and manufacturability of complex microfluidic (MF) devices. The MFManufacturing project has been accepted by the ENIAC Joint Undertaking (JU), a public-private partnership focusing on nanoelectronics that brings together ENIAC Member/Dutch, French and United Kingdom States, the European Commission, and AENEAS (an association representing European R&D actors in this field).
The objective of the MFManufacturing project is to bring the manufacturing of microfluidic devices to the same level of maturity and industrialisation of electronic devices, enabling them to address more widely the industrial needs. The first goal of the MFManufacturing project is to propose standards for interconnections and process integration in order to enhance interoperability and the uptake of microfluidic technology in the industry. The second goal is to organize the European network of Microfluidic SME and RTO manufacturers in a Distributed Pilot Line (DPL) with distributed manufacturing resources from different manufacturers in order to provide complex but still affordable microfluidic devices.
The MFManufacturing project is led by the Dutch company Micronit. The other partners are CEA-Leti (FR), APIX (FR), Axxicon (NL), Dolomite (UK), enablingMNT (NL), Eveon (FR), Fluigent (FR), Fogale (FR), Medimetrics (NL), Microfluidic Chipshop (DE), NPL (UK), Philips (NL), Phoenix (NL), PMB (FR), StiPlastics (FR), TNO (NL), Toppan (FR), Tronics (FR), University Twente (NL). More information is available at http://mf-manufacturing.eu.
SOURCE: MFManufacturing; http://mf-manufacturing.eu/press-release-installation-mfmanufacturing-advisory-board-october-2014/