... for granting one of us (Korvink) sabbaticalleave. To Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu, Japan, and especially toProf. Dr. Osamu Tabata, who hosted one of us (Korvink) while on sabbat-ical and ... become increasingly important because of their potentiallylow manufacturing cost, and the large base of materials available. In Japan, it is typical to refer to the whole field of microsystems asMicromachines, ... materialsthat need additional nonstandard technological treatment. This is not tosay that semiconductors other than silicon are unimportant, and there aremany beautiful applications. But most of...