ePack, Inc. wins Masco Next Gen Manufacturing Award at Innovation Competition

ePack, Inc., an ECE startup, received the Masco Next Gen Manufacturing Award and $25K at the second annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, held November 15-17, 2011.

“ePack utilizes state of the art micromachining technology to provide a cost effective and high performance packaging service for micro- and milli-scale devices,” states Jay Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of the company. “High performance devices often require protection from the environment (even vacuum), and isolation from vibration and temperature fluctuations. Generally large, costly and power hungry custom assemblies are needed to achieve this. ePack technology, originally developed at the University of Michigan, provides all of these functionalities in standardized and cost effective package which is the size of a microchip.”

ePack was founded by Prof. Khalil Najafi, Dr. Jay Mitchell, Dr. Sangwoo Lee, and Joe Giachino in 2008. Prof. Najafi is Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, Dr. Mitchell received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from U-M, Dr. Lee worked at Samsung before coming to Michigan and managing a group of graduate students and starting ePack, and Mr. Giachino brings 30 years of industrial experience to the company. Each individual was a former member of the NSF Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems (now WIMS²).

Receiving an honorable mention in the student category was MEMStim, co-founded by EECS alumnus Angelique Johnson (MSE PhD EE ’07 ’11). MEMStim make customizable micro-fabricated stimulators. The company plans to sell MEMS electrode leads to medical device companies for integration into their targeted nerve stimulation devices. Ultimately, the company is committed to improving the standard of patient care in neurostimulation.