IEEE Awards Booklet - 2019 - 19

Ieee medAls
2019 2019
Ieee medAl
of honor

IEEE Medal of Honor
Sponsored by the IEEE Foundation

Kurt E. Petersen

For contributions to and leadership in the development and commercialization
of innovative technologies in the field of MEMS

urt E. Petersen's foundational work on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) helped unify and provide direction for the field, and his commercialization of MEMS
technologies has continued to transform the field to realize the
many applications we take for granted today. MEMS involve
miniature mechanical and electromechanical elements, such as
sensors, actuators, and other microelectronics, merged onto a
common silicon substrate along with integrated circuits. MEMSbased devices provide important functionality in today's smart
phones, medical devices, and smart automotive and smart humanmachine interface applications. It was Petersen's 1982 seminal review paper "Silicon as a Mechanical Material" that helped lay the
foundation for future MEMS research. It summarized all the mechanical properties of silicon as well as mechanical devices made
on silicon chips at that time and also anticipated future devices.
Prior to this work, MEMS research consisted of many unconnected and unrelated eﬀorts. Petersen's paper provided the diverse
group of MEMS researchers with a unified vision and a sense of
community in which to develop the MEMS industry as we know
it today. Petersen was also instrumental in establishing forums for
the MEMS academic, industrial, and government communities to
share and discuss their work. In 1984, he served as the first program chairperson for the biennial Solid-State Sensors, Actuators,
and Microsystems regional workshop. In 1987, he was the first
cochairperson of the yearly International Conference on MEMS.
Petersen has played a significant role in developing innovative MEMS tools, cofounding six companies to commercialize
his ideas. At NovaSensor (cofounded in 1985), Petersen led the
development of a disposable pressure sensor for blood pressure
monitoring during and after surgical operations. NovaSensor

was also the first to commercialize the revolutionary silicon
fusion bonding (SFB) and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)
fabrication processes. Practically all of today's MEMS high-volume products use a variation of these processes. In 1996, he
cofounded Cepheid, where he developed a totally automated
microfluidic system to test for anthrax in the U.S. mail system.
Other MEMS diagnostic tests commercialized by Cepheid have
transformed the molecular diagnostics industry using microfluidics and the polymerase chain reaction. Petersen became the
founding chief executive oﬃcer of SiTime in 2004. SiTime
commercialized MEMS devices that outperform quartz crystal
oscillators for timing applications, and its products can be found
in many consumer mobile devices. Petersen cofounded both
Profusa and Verreon in 2008. Profusa's small, flexible hydrogel
implant for glucose sensing is causing the medical industry to
change how it thinks about measuring chemicals in the body.
Projects at Verreon were focused on the development of MEMS
sensors and actuators on glass substrates instead of silicon to take
advantage of cost eﬃciencies and the potential for use in the
flat-panel display industry. In 2011, Petersen joined the Silicon
Valley Band of Angels, which is an investment group comprised
of former and current high-tech executives that funds and mentors early stage, high-tech start-up companies. Today, he spends
most of his time helping and mentoring such companies, and
he gives many invited talks around the world on MEMS and on
entrepreneurial trends.
An IEEE Life Fellow and member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Petersen is currently a member of the Silicon
Valley Band of Angels and resides in Milpitas, CA, USA.

Scope: For an exceptional contribution or an extraordinary career in the IEEE fields of interest.
19 | 2019 IEEE awards bookLET

IEEE Awards Booklet - 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2019