Technology Articles

MEMS Enabled Products: A growing Marketing     Segment

Stephen D. Senturia, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, MIT, Cambridge, MA, Chairman and CTO, Polychromix, Inc., Wilmington, MA

Microelectromechanical Systems, now known affectionately by the MEMS acronym, have been showing up in all kinds of places: air-bag deployment, automobile suspensions, mountain-bike altimeters, cell phones, video cameras, even computer games. The canonical MEMS component is a silicon chip with some micromechanical parts designed to respond to some physical variable - pressure, acceleration, flow, sound, radiant energy. Depending on the particular device architecture, the sensing electronics may be on the same chip as the MEMS, or the MEMS may be co-packaged with a separate CMOS chip. Product volumes for such MEMS components are measured in millions of units per year. The emphasis is on achieving a low cost at acceptable levels of performance, interchangeability and reliability. Customers buy these MEMS for incorporation into larger systems, such as automobiles or video games.

Polychromix:Perspectives on Microsensor     Systems: Past, Present, and Future

Stephen D. Senturia, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, MIT, Cambridge, MA, Chairman and CTO, Polychromix, Inc., Wilmington, MA

   

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Microsensors have a bright future, both in the commodity arena and in the MEMS-enabled arena. The physical sensors, pressure, acceleration, rotation, and acoustic (microphones) continue to find new commodity-level markets, including highly popular video games. The fact that these commodities exist in the marketplace also allows new system builders to create their own MEMS-enabled products that incorporate the commodities along with specialty components, such as the polychromator. Sensors, whether commodity sensors such as the cell-phone microphone, or system sensors, such as the PHAZIRTM, are becoming smarter, more capable, and are finding new markets every day.