Publications

Disruptive technologies are scientific discoveries that break through the usual product technology capabilities and provide a basis for a new competitive paradigm as described by Anderson and Tushman [1990], Tushman and Rosenkopf [1992], and Bower and Christensen [1995]. Discontinuous innovations are products/processes/services that provide exponential improvements in the value received by the customer much in the same vein as Walsh [1996], Lynn, Morone and Paulson [1996], and Veryzer [1998]. For more on definitions of disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations, see Walsh and Linton [1999] who provide a number of definitions for disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations. Disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations present a unique challenge and opportunity for R and D organizations seeking to build their commercialization efforts and to reinvent the corporation. These technologies do not have a proven path from scientific discovery to mass production and therefore require novel approaches. These critically important technologies are the wellspring of wealth creation and new competency generation but are not readily accepted by the corporate community. They are alternatively embraced and eschewed by the commercial community. They are finally accepted when the technology has already affected the industry or when the technological horse has already flown out of the hanger. Many firms, especially larger firms, seem reluctant to familiarize themselves with these technologies quickly. The trend seems to be that these firms prefer to react to a proven disruptive technology that has changed the product market paradigm. If true, then there is cause for concern. This paper will review the literature on disruptive technologies presenting a model of the progression from scientific idea to mass production for disruptive technologies contrasted to the more copious incremental technologies. The paper will then describe Sandia National Laboratories' involvement in one of the disruptive technology areas, namely micro-electromechanical systems (sometimes referred to as Microsystems or MEMS) and will survey a number of companies that have investigated Sandia's technological discoveries for potential use in an industrial capacity. The survey will focus on the movement of the research findings from the laboratory into the marketplace and all of the problem areas that disruptive technologies face in this arena. The paper will then state several hypotheses that will be tested. The data will be described with results and conclusions reported.

Intelligent, integrated microsystems combine some or all of the functions of sensing, processing information, actuation, and communication within a single integrated package, and preferably upon a single silicon chip. As the elements of these highly integrated solutions interact strongly with each other, the microsystem can be neither designed nor fabricated piecemeal, in contrast to the more familiar assembled products. Driven by technological imperatives, microsystems will best be developed by multi-disciplinary teams, most likely within the flatter, less hierarchical organizations. Standardization of design and process tools around a single, dominant technology will expedite economically viable operation under a common production infrastructure. The production base for intelligent, integrated microsystems has elements in common with the mathematical theory of chaos. Similar to chaos theory, the development of microsystems technology will be strongly dependent on, and optimized to, the initial product requirements that will drive standardization--thereby further rewarding early entrants to integrated microsystem technology.