> I am
> trying to educate myself about the state of the art.   I
> wondered if there is
> a good source of technical information (in layman's terms)
> and  publications
> that keep up with both research and commercial activities.

For a technical book more geared to general audiences, see
Nadim Maluf, "An Introdution to Microelectromechanical Systems
Engineering," Artech House, 2000.