Micro Devices Drive a $38 Billion Opportunity
5/26/17 Do you remember the movie Fantastic Voyage from 1966 where a submarine crew was shrunk to a micro size and drove around inside of a body to repair brain damage? This technology is no longer the topic of Hollywood fantasies. We are using this cutting edge micro technology today! It’s called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It uses tiny transponders, or tags, to find and track objects. Each micro tag has an antenna that transmits and receives radio waves from an RFID transceiver.
Research and Markets estimates that the global market for RFID and related technologies should reach $38 billion by 2021 from $16.2 billion in 2016, for a compound annual growth rate from 2016 to 2021 of 18.6%.
It has been said that “miniaturized, wireless tracking devices for medicine, retail, manufacturing, and a wide range of other industries are one of the hottest investment trends you can find”.
Doctors use RFID sub-dermal implants in patients to monitor their whereabouts, bio-functions and medical history. Pharmaceutical firms use them to track millions of proprietary drug compounds in their product libraries. Laboratories use them to track tissue or fluid samples.
RFID tags also are used in retail stores, at tollbooths, at gas pumps, on automaker factory floors, and in livestock on farms. As Linda points out:
Technology specialists at Breakthrough Tech Profits emphasize that wireless tracking systems such as RFID represent an exploding, multi-year investing bonanza, especially as they are integrated into the Internet of Things:
“By the end of 2020, the installed base of ‘things’ could top 200 billion worldwide, including some 30 billion installed autonomous things, largely driven by intelligent systems that will be collecting data across both enterprise and consumer applications, according to research firm IDC.
All processor-based systems (think handsets, wearables, GPS devices, RFID tags, automobiles, airplanes, medical devices, HVAC controllers and smart meters) continuously generate machine data, both structured and unstructured.”
The growth stock winners of the future will be the companies offering software platforms that enable organizations to gain operational intelligence by sorting through all of this data. As well as companies that specialize in miniaturization devices.
Micro Component Devices for Testing Diabetes
5/11/17 People with diabetes have traditionally self-monitored their glucose levels by pricking their finger and putting a drop of blood onto a glucose monitor. Although this is an easy way to test your levels, most diabetics want a less painful testing method. A blood sample has been the common approach to this, but glucose is present in many biological fluids, begging the question of what other bodily fluids can we use to self-test our glucose levels?
One of most successful ways has been using continuous glucose monitors that consist of a wearable sensor and a receiver. The sensor consists of a microneedle which sits just under the skin and records glucose levels at regular intervals and transmits these to the reader via Bluetooth or NFC technology. Sensors last an average of 6 days, and currently require regular calibration with blood based biosensors. Because of these limitations, researchers are looking into the potential for glucose testing in sweat, tears and saliva. These long-term monitoring solutions will enable the creation of an artificial pancreas- a device that can monitor glucose levels and administer controlled doses of insulin accordingly- leading to fully automated diabetes control. The first such device received regulatory approval in late 2016 and is expected for release soon. Both insulin pens and pumps are using new sensor and communication technologies to enable new features, developing new platforms to monitor insulin dosing and other vital information.
With almost 30 million people having diabetes, the focus on less invasive, more comfortable monitoring devices has been in the forefront of the medical industry. Exciting new advances are being tested as we speak!
Micro Moldings Most Important Component
5/3/17 What is micro moldings most important component? Is it the mold? Is it the material? Watch our video with Donna Bibber here to find out!