Ken Westra

PRESENTATION: Available tools and resources for design, simulation, analysis and fabrication of MEMS devices in Canada

This presentation will address the present and past resources available to University based MEMS researchers. Due to lack of access to a full suite of microfabrication tools, Canadian University researchers have not pursued "traditional" MEMS devices, but rather concentrated on areas in which they had access to the processing tools. Two major fields in MEMS, microfluidics and CMOS compatible MEMS, were pioneered by Canadian researchers, in response to this lack of processing capability. The presentation will also discuss the University of Alberta MicroFab, a open access micro and nano fabrication facility, which provides access to the micro and nano fabrication tools to researchers from Canadian Universities and industry.

Biography:

Dr. Ken Westra is the Director of the University of Alberta's MicroFab. The MicroFab is an open access micro and nano fabrication facility. The facility is presently used by over 40 research groups from University of Alberta, other Canadian Universities and industry. He has over 15 years experience in MEMS fabrication, thin films, and microfabrication in both industry and academia.

He is also co-founder of BigBangwidth, an optical MEMS company based in Edmonton Alberta. Founded in 2000, BigBangwidth presently has 12 employees. BigBangwidth's largest shareholder is Bombardier Trust, Bombardier's employees pension fund, via TechnoCap (www.TechnoCap.com), a venture capital company that is in the business of starting and building massively scalable technology companies.