Preface
It is our pleasure to welcome you all to Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe for the first joint 4M/ICOMM conference organised by the teams behind the USA based International Conference on Micro Manufacturing (ICOMM) and the International Conference on Multi-Material Micro-Manufacture (4M) which has its roots in Europe.
Both conferences recognised several years ago that manufacturing at the micro-scale (a few microns to a few millimetres) would be key in bridging the gap between the nano- and the macro-worlds. Consequently both have provided a forum where the latest research on the processes, equipment, and systems for fabricating miniature parts with micro-scale features have been presented, with an ultimate goal of broadening the range of microsystems-based products by the integration of new materials and processing technologies for their production. There has been a good crossover between the two conferences in the past, with speakers from 4M being invited to ICOMM and vice versa. This joint conference, first discussed in 2007, was therefore the logical next step in the relationship.
4M has naturally attracted an audience largely from Europe, whereas ICOMM’s audience is drawn principally from the USA and Asia. This first joint conference has succeeded in bringing together high calibre participants from both groups, with papers received from USA, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India, Singapore and all across Europe. An impressive list of Keynote Speakers is also assembled and they will highlight some important aspects of their latest research in micro-manufacturing and we look forward to their presentations.
4M/ICOMM 2009 also incorporates two invited sessions organised by projects that feature many members of the 4M community amongst their consortia and have their origins in the 4M Network of Excellence (www.4m-net.org), namely MultiLayer and COTECH. A further session features another project as well as another approach to the emerging micro and nano technologies born out of the 4M Network. Called EUMINAfab, it is a new European Research Infrastructure for multi-material micro and nano fabrication of functional structures and devices. EUMINAfab offers free access for industrial and academic users to its 36 state-of-the-art micro and nano installations.
As conference chairs we wish to thank the 4M Association office for its coordination and promotion of this first joint event. The 4M Association is a membership based organisation, set up by former members of the 4M Network of Excellence, whose aim is to support and serve the 4M community for the future, by developing further the links and contacts established amongst the members of the Network, and widening the community by opening up membership to all.
We would also like to thank those at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe who have taken responsibility for the local organisation and logistics, without whose help the conference would have not been possible to organise.
Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank all authors, speakers and the Conference Committee for their participation in the review process, without which it would have been impossible to implement a policy of full peer review for all papers prior to acceptance for presentation at the conference.
| Volker Saile FZK Conference Chairman |
Kornel Ehmann Northwestern University Conference Co-Chairman |
Stefan Dimov Cardiff University Conference Co-Chairman |