By Scott Rauscher, Chief Innovation Officer, Rogue Valley Microdevices
October 7, 2026
I recorded a talk for the Photonics Spectra Sensing Technologies Summit, a free online event on October 7, 2026. It covers how a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) foundry gets a sensing device from a design that worked in the lab to a process it can repeat on every wafer. The talk is titled “From Proven Design to Volume Fabrication: A MEMS Foundry Perspective on Sensing Devices,” and like the rest of the program it is available on demand after the premiere.
Watch the talk on the summit site (free registration).
What the Foundry Takes On
The foundry defines the process flow and the materials, fabricates the wafers, and measures them to confirm that the structures match the design. The customer takes the wafers into device characterization and application testing. When a device result points back to a film or a dimension, the question comes back to the foundry, and the measurements recorded during fabrication help both teams find the cause.
Schedule slips often trace to an item each side assumed the other one owned. A short list agreed before fabrication starts helps avoid that. It names the critical dimensions and film properties, the tolerance on each, the instrument that measures it, and who reviews the result.
Three Points From the Talk
Start from the actual evidence and the simplest compatible flow. A device that worked once shows that the physics works. The foundry also needs to know how it was made, which steps can transfer, and the simplest flow that still meets the requirements.
Use each development run to resolve risks. Plan every run around the questions whose answers change the next one, with splits on the most sensitive variables, monitor structures on the mask, and direct comparisons of candidate materials. Each run should narrow the next experiment.
Keep monitors, device results and lot identity connected. Each wafer should travel with its lot and wafer identity, its mask and process revision, and its measurements. A device result from a known die location can then be traced to the fabrication record behind it.
More on Each Topic
Over the next few months we will post a short series on parts of the talk. It covers where MEMS projects start, why a standout prototype die usually needs a foundry-built successor, how to simplify a fabrication flow, how to plan a first foundry run, which test structures belong on the mask, and what volume means in a high-mix foundry.
Moving a sensing device out of the lab?
Our engineers can review your process flow and plan the first foundry build with you, through our MEMS design services or directly with our MEMS foundry team.
roguevalleymicrodevices.com/request-a-quote
Rogue Valley Microdevices is a U.S.-based MEMS and thin-film foundry headquartered in Medford, Oregon, and registered under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). We offer design services, foundry fabrication and wafer processing on 50mm to 200mm wafers, and we are building a second site in Palm Bay, Florida, that will add 200mm and 300mm capacity.