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This paper reports recent advances in the development of a tactile fingerprint sensor made by a CMOS compatible front side bulk micromachining technology. This device enables the measurement of a fingerprint by the way of a mechanical scanning principle of the finger roughness. While this sensing principle has shown good results on a first prototype of reduced width, we present here the design, fabrication and test of a new sensor. This sensor contains 256 pressure sensitive microbeams for a total length of 1.28 cm and is fully integrated with analog and mixed signal electronics. In this paper we will detail the general working principle of the tactile fingerprint sensor and the two prototypes that have been manufactured and tested with a special focus on the electronic architecture and the test results of the second prototype. Index Terms--CMOS compatible bulk micromachining technologies, fingerprint sensor, integrated MEMS, switch capacitor systems.

The properties of a new lyase from Sinorhizobium meliloti M5N1CS are described. It is a 20kDA monomer and converts polyglucuronates to 4,5-unsaturated oligoglucuronates. The N-terminus is not homologous to any known protein sequence and the enzyme has been classified as an endopolyglucuronate lyase.

An integrated circuit for pressure and temperature measurements in high temperature oil well applications, is described.

The nature of carbon and nitrogen sources effects the coproduction of exopolysaccharide (EPS) and poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) by the M5N1 and Su47 strains of Rhizobium melilot. Bacterial growth in nitrogen-deprived medium is limited, and facilitates EPS production rather than PHB production. Cells grown in glucose show a lag phase in EPS production, which is absent in EPS production from fructose and in PHB synthesis. The lag phase is related to the extracellular conversion of glucose to gluconic or 2-ketogluconic acids.