Growth Companies

Integrated Sensing Systems, Inc. (ISSYS) was born of the University of Michigan in 1995 but now calls Ypsilanti its home, where it has been quietly creating jobs.

Ypsilanti-based Issys harnesses the power of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for medical and scientific sensing applications. In everyday English that translates to using micro fluids for research in things like fuel cells.

Working with microelectronic integrated circuits (ICs), which can be thought of as the "brain", MEMS adds "arms" and "eyes" to the IC's decision-making capability.
This creates complete systems on a chip that can sense and control its environment. 

The company recently expanded to 30 employees and hopes to add another six before the end of the year.

ISSYS believes that the greatest challenge for MEMS-based manufacturing is consistency and repeatability. The company has invested millions of dollars and significant time in establishing its comprehensive facility which can produce millions of MEMS devices per year and can easily quadruple its capacity.

The firm has also formed strategic partnerships so it can branch out into new industries, like fuel cells and petro chemicals.

Founders Dr. Nader Najafi, Dr. Ken Wise, and Dr. Khalil Najafi established ISSYS in January 1995 to design, develop, manufacture and commercialize innovative products based on their leading edge work at the University of Michigan  Their core technology is called the Dissolved Wafer Process (DWP) and they are now in the final stages of developing specific products for market launch.