Microfluidic devices take multiple shapes. The applications are diverse, with diagnostics, life sciences, drug delivery, and manufacturing being the main ones. Players performing well in this market are mainly the big companies, not generally expert in microfluidics but IVD systems. Almost 91% of the market (in value) is held by 20 players. COVID-19 has boosted the global microfluidics market from US$9.9 billion in 2019 to US$18.1 billion in 2021 (a growth of 45%). This dynamic can be explained by the widespread adoption of point-of-care (POC) solutions and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies.

Sustainability in applications and industries has been steadily increasing in importance over the last decade, and this growth will only accelerate in the foreseeable future. Sustainable packaging, locomotion, construction, manufacturing, and food, to name a few, is a value in itself for a large portion of consumers in any market segment. Salcon International has been working with TactoTek in Finland since 2015 to change the world of electronic production in a very disruptive way.

The pandemic has changed business life: Business trips and trade shows are being selected and planned much more carefully than we were used to before. The beneficiaries of this are the trade fair venues, which are always really worthwhile for exhibitors and visitors. The medical technology supply fair MD&M West is certainly one of them. I would like to share my impressions and experiences with you here.

Immer kleiner, präziser, smarter und personalisierbar: Moderne Medizintechnik hat in den vergangenen Jahren massiv von den technologischen Innovationen aus der Mikrotechnik profitieren können! Die Möglichkeiten der schönen neuen Medizintechnikwelt scheinen unendlich und werden durch Megatrends wie Künstliche Intelligenz oder Quantentechnologie noch weiter wachsen. Aber ist auch wirklich alles sinnvoll was technisch machbar ist?

How sustainable is microtechnology in 2022? What are the expectations to the new German government? And what are the biggest uncertainty factors facing the branch? These questions were the focus of the IVAM survey 2022. As in previous years, the survey was conducted among several thousand European companies and institutes in the fields of microtechnology, MEMS, nanotechnology, advanced materials and related key enabling technologies.

Microfluidics got very popular within the last decade and is utilized for a vast number of biological, medical, biophysical, biochemical or pharmaceutical applications. In this field the term “microreactor” is increasingly encountered. What is a microreactor, what is it good for? For instance, when talking about synthesis of nanomaterials, it can refer to the whole microfluidic device, that is the microfluidic chip.

Wieso schätzen Unternehmen ihr individuelles Risiko, Opfer eines Cyberangriffs zu werden, eigentlich oft völlig falsch ein? In der dritten Folge des IVAM-Podcasts geht es um die Kosten-Nutzen-Relation von Cybersicherheit, um technische und organisatorische Maßnahmen zur Prävention und um die Frage, was zu tun ist, wenn das eigene Unternehmen zum Opfer einer Cyberattacke geworden ist.

Nach mehr als einem (Corona-) Jahr Ausbildung bei IVAM konnte ich im November 2021 meine erste Live-Messeerfahrung auf der Medizintechnikmesse COMPAMED in Düsseldorf sammeln. Aber wie ist es eigentlich, eine Großveranstaltung selbstständig zu planen und umzusetzen? Unsere Klasse hat sich entschieden, im Frühjahr 2022 ein Street-Food-Festival als Praxisprojekt zu organisieren.

Building a circular economy is one of the biggest aims to achieve sustainability and fight climate change. But what if cycles cannot be closed easily? Then it’s time to apply rougher measures and – literally – smash everything to pieces. Some material cycles can be closed relatively easily, and appropriate systems have been in place for years: Glass, steel, but also certain types of plastics as long as they are homogeneous. But what about the giant amounts of municipal waste containing mixed and often soiled plastics?

Climate change and the increasing shortage of raw materials require urgent adjustments to society‘s way of working and living. Micro- and nanotechnology and technologies based on this, such as microfluidics, photonics or sensor technology, offer enormous potential in the development of solutions to these global problems.