The XXI century as the century of microsystem technologies

This paper reports on the history of microelectromechanical devices and microsystem technologies. In the list of mostly important advantages of the XX century the appearance of new direction of technology have stayed almost unnoticed. In American literature, "the MEMS is the way making things" (Maluf, 2000). The "things" can be quite various. They can perceive the information (to make sensing) to proceed it and to have an effort on physical parameters of the macro system (to make actuation). The Microsystem technology have, at least, three main advantages, they are: 1) the technology of mass production of more and more complex systems with simultaneous decreasing of the cost and increasing the reliability; 2) the interdisciplinary technology which allows to generalize in the single chip or system the various fields of science and technology; and 3) the third and main advantage consists in the fact that the microsystem technology provides the production of samples. In this paper, the main attention will be devoted to actuators.