Microcosm Technologies Announces Design Tools for Biochips Development; Biotech Industry's First Integrated CAD Solution Announced.RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1998--Microcosm Technologies Inc. today announced a new product and technology roadmap The context of product management The existence of product managers in the product software industry indicates that software is becoming more and more commercialized as a standard product. addressing the needs of the micro-Total Analysis System (m-TAS) or "biochip biochip Small-scale device, analogous to an integrated circuit, constructed of or used to analyze organic molecules associated with living organisms. One type of theoretical biochip is a small device constructed of large organic molecules, such as proteins, and capable of " industry. Leveraging the strengths of Microcosm's existing MEMCAD design environment for MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) Tiny mechanical devices that are built onto semiconductor chips and are measured in micrometers. In the research labs since the 1980s, MEMS devices began to materialize as commercial products in the mid-1990s. (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) design, Microcosm has extended its current offering into many new areas of microfluidics and microchemistry microchemistry /mi·cro·chem·is·try/ (-kem´is-tre) chemistry concerned with exceedingly small quantities of chemical substances. mi·cro·chem·is·try n. important to the lab on a chip market segment. This new product has been designated FlumeCAD(TM) (Fluid-molecular CAD) for the biochip industry. It represents the industry's first integrated CAD system targeting these emerging requirements. The purpose of FlumeCAD(TM) is to enable the general design of integrated chemical and biochemical analysis or synthesis systems. With its introduction, Microcosm now offers a powerful set of CAD tools at a time when microfabricated chemical transport systems is becoming an important emerging technology. FlumeCAD(TM) is available today and currently supports 3D simulation of chemical transport in electrophoretic, electroosmotic, and pressure driven systems. FlumeCAD(TM) includes tools for the design and analysis of DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. separation and PCR PCR polymerase chain reaction. PCR abbr. polymerase chain reaction Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification systems on a chip. It is the first integrated CAD solution on the market and offers designers key design benefits. This includes 3D device physics modeling of fluidic flu·id·ic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a fluid. 2. Relating to or controlled by fluidics. microcomponents; performing flow, chemical transport, and containment analysis; enabling analysis of complex fluidic networks; and calibrating microchemical mi·cro·chem·is·try n. Chemistry that deals with minute quantities of materials, frequently less than one milligram in mass or one milliliter in volume. mi flows with valid simulations. The FlumeCAD(TM) software leverages the common code base originally developed for MEMCAD 4.0 and inherits the ability to work with state of the art MEMS device modeling tools, including automatic construction of models from layout and process, standardized access to MEMS simulation tools in other domains, and high quality 3D scientific visualization of models and results. "We are seeing a surge of complex on-chip and hand-held biochemical systems under development" said Dr. John Gilbert, Microcosm's CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. . "Our partners are pressing us to deliver the same level of CAD support to the biochip industry that the IC industry can now take for granted. FlumeCAD(TM) will enable this industry to create systems of hundreds to thousands of components and process steps, while meeting demanding time-to-market and reliability requirements." Biochips or lab on a chip for microchemical systems include a broad array of devices used for such things as ultra-high throughput screening for pharmaceutical drug discovery, biomedical research, clinical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring. Typically, these devices deal with chemical/biochemical analysis or syntheses systems that operate in liquid phase. All of these systems have some common features such as introducing samples (injection), moving samples around (transport), and executing operations on the samples (processing). In many cases, these applications require increasingly high levels of on-chip (system) complexity, similar to those encountered in LSI LSI: see integrated circuit. (Large Scale Integration) Between 3,000 and 100,000 transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, VLSI and ULSI. microelectronics. Reasonable metrics for these complexities require performing hundreds to thousands of process steps, requiring tens to thousands of fluidic components. The wide application potential for these new classes of devices and the complexity involved has created a need for CAD modeling and analysis alternatives. The base line FlumeCAD(TM) product offering was originally developed through the NetFlow project in DARPA/ETO Composite CAD initiative. NetFlow is a funded collaboration with Perkin-Elmer and Stanford University, and remains an on-going project. In addition, Microcosm, Caliper caliper Instrument that consists of two adjustable legs or jaws for measuring the dimensions of material parts. Spring calipers have an adjusting screw and nut; firm-joint calipers use friction at the joint to hold the legs unmoving. Technologies and the University of Washington are participating in a second DARPA/ETO Composite CAD program which will extend FlumeCAD(TM) into many new application areas. This includes time domain, system level simulation capabilities for microfluidics, design optimization, and design differentiation between architectural alternatives. Further, it will facilitate co-design and co-simulation of microfluidic systems with components from both the IC and MEMS domain. Pricing and Availability The base FlumeCAD(TM) system starts at $95,000. Present MEMCAD users can also upgrade existing MEMCAD seats with FlumeCAD(TM) functionality. For further information about Microcosm Technologies, visit our web site at http://www.memcad.com or contact David Cook, VP of Sales & Marketing, at 919/854-7500, ext. 105, davec@memcad.com. Company Background Microcosm Technologies Inc. was established in 1995 to develop and market MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) CAD software, which addresses device design, manufacturing analysis, and system integration. The company also offers value-added MEMS engineering and modeling services. The company has licensed core technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, (MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) and has engaged in $4.5 million of collaborative development efforts with industry, academia and DARPA DARPA: see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) The name given to the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency during the 1980s. It was later renamed back to ARPA. . FlumeCAD(TM) leverages the software code base from MEMCAD 4.0 and targets the rapidly emerging requirements for flow, chemical transport, and containment analysis of complex fluidic microfluidics networks for the lab on a chip market. Microcosm has offices and support staff in Cambridge, MA; San Mateo, CA; Amsterdam, Netherlands and its headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. Microcosm is privately held. Microcosm's web site can be found at http://www.memcad.com
CONTACT: Microcosm Technologies Inc., Raleigh
Dave Cook, 919/854-7500 ext. 105 (VP Sales/Marketing)
davec@memcad.com
or
Roger Grace Associates
Roger Grace, 415/436-9101 (President)
rgrace@value.net
|
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion