Microengineering and Advanced Manufacturing

What are Microengineering and Advanced Manufacturing ?

Microengineering, or the “science of miniaturization”, is searching to increase the ratio between the number of functions over a finite volume in a product or a system. To achieve this, design and manufacturing need to be considered together. Advanced Manufacturing encompasses innovative product manufacturing technologies and methods that can improve quality, address shortages, speed time-to-market, and provide locally manufactured products. Microengineering combined with Advanced Manufacturing opens the way for breakthroughs in product development with new embedded functions and distribution methods.

To contribute to the development of these domains, key for the economic development of nations and for the well-being of their citizens, the focus of our research laboratory is on additive technologies for the manufacturing of microsystems and medical devices (including physical sensors, disposable precise biosensors, paper-based microfluidic systems, wireless Internet of Things and sensor networks, energy harvesting, and micro-batteries). Additive processes alone, or combined with other manufacturing processes, opens the way to decentralized or distributed manufacturing with innovative value channels. It can decrease the investments needed for small to medium scale production, democratizes production, as well as increases supply chains resilience, availability of useful products, and sustainability.