Zyvex Corp. and Standard MEMS Inc. announced a two-year collaborative program to develop valuable new capabilities for the microsystems community. Zyvex's mission is to be the industry leader in adaptable, affordable molecular manufacturing. Standard MEMS offers concurrent engineering and technology solutions in all areas of MEMS production. The combined resources of the two companies will lead to MEMS component libraries and workstations for assembled microsystems and advanced custom packaging solutions. "We are extremely pleased to be working with the fastest growing and most innovative MEMS company in the world," said James R. Von Ehr, president and CEO of Zyvex. "Zyvex develops MEMS component designs and assembly technologies that only Standard MEMS' superior manufacturing technology can build. Our collaboration with Standard MEMS will enable Zyvex to produce three-dimensional assembled microsystems that were simply impossible before. These microsystems will further the Zyvex top-down nanotechnology goals of flexible, automated manufacturing at ever-decreasing sizes.” Nicholas E. Ortyl, president and CEO of Standard MEMS, said, "MEMS assembly and packaging is a challenging issue we are addressing on a number of fronts. Zyvex has some promising ideas for new classes of products that we expect our current and future customers will find attractive. Our collaboration with such an innovative company should deliver benefits across a wide range of customers, from automotive to medical to telecom." Under the agreement, MEMS components will be built with a process newly developed by Standard MEMS to combine surface and bulk silicon micromachining in one processing run. This innovation allows Zyvex to create components that can be picked off the bulk silicon wafer and assembled into complex three-dimensional systems. Zyvex will use this new process to produce component libraries of electromechanical functions and manipulation devices that will lead to increasingly complex and functional microsystems.