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The paper introduces a SU-8 dielectric µ-bridge based polymer MEMS Pirani gauge which can be employed for hermetic characterization of packaged electronic sensors. The µ-bridge structure is adopted due to its simplicity in fabrication and lower footprint, which makes it feasible for heterogeneous integration. Further, the integration of SU-8 polymer with the active thermistor offers superior thermal isolation from the substrate and extends the dynamic range. Before fabricating the actual device, the SU-8 based µ-bridge is optimized for stress-free release. A stress engineering is performed and thermal processing of SU-8 is optimized. The measurement results reveal that the removal of quenching from the baking steps leads to the successful fabrication of freely suspended µ-bridge with SU-8 polymer as a structural layer. A quantitative comparison of the proposed gauge is established by comparing the gauge performance with conventional dielectric materials like silicon dioxide (SiO2), silicon nitride (Si3N4), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3). The fabricated SU-8 polymer-based MEMS Pirani gauge with a 40 µm × 7 µm footprint can be used for hermetic characterization from 30 Pa to 105 Pa and is an ideal candidate for heterogeneous integration.

We demonstrate microelectromechanical system-based flash memory (MEM-FLASH) for multinary bit storage. The MEMS switch integrated with the transistor provides the precise control of the charges on the floating gate. This maneuvering of the charges to 8 different levels provides 3-bit operation even at an elevated temperature of ∼300 °C. The key challenge in the realization of such a memory is the know-how the amount of charge to be transferred to the floating gate to alter the bit state. The charge estimation on the floating gate cannot be performed by direct probing of the device, as this will disturb the original charge values of the floating gate and thus the threshold value. Ergo, an indirect read approach is developed. Furthermore, the cantilever switch is fabricated and tested in a vacuum environment for experimental validation of the approach. The percentage variation from the theoretical to experimental approach is in the adoptable limit of 2%.