MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) for Automotive and Consumer Electronics

Abstract

MEMS sensors gained over the last two decades an impressive width of applications:(a) ESP: A car is skidding and stabilizes itself without driver intervention (b) Free-fall detection: A laptop falls to the floor and protects the hard drive by parking the read/write drive head automatically before impact. (c) Airbag: An airbag fires before the driver/occupant involved in an impending automotive crash impacts the steering wheel, thereby significantly reducing physical injury risk.MEMS sensors are sensing the environmental conditions and are giving input to electronic control systems. These crucial MEMS sensors are making system reactions to human needs more intelligent, precise, and at much faster reaction rates than humanly possible.Important prerequisites for the success of sensors are their size, functionality, power consumption, and costs. This technical progress in sensor development is realized by micro-machining. The development of these processes was the breakthrough to industrial mass-production for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). Besides leading-edge micromechanical processes, innovative and robust ASIC designs, thorough simulations of the electrical and mechanical behaviour, a deep understanding of the interactions (mainly over temperature and lifetime) of the package and the mechanical structures are needed. This was achieved over the last 20 years by intense and successful development activities combined with the experience of volume production of billions of sensors.This chapter gives an overview of current MEMS technology, its applications and the market share. The MEMS processes are described, and the challenges of MEMS, compared to standard IC fabrication, are discussed. The evolution of

A Survey of the Connected Vehicle Landscape—Architectures, Enabling Technologies, Applications, and Development Areas

“…vehicle optimization and cooperative transportation, including low-cost commoditized microelectromechanical sensors [21]. Commonly-used sensors relating to safety and enhanced motion control include wheel speed sensors, yaw rate and acceleration sensors, steering and driver input sensors, and powertrain outputs such as current gear selection and engine speed [22].…”

Introduction

“…Using semiconductor manufacturing techniques, the first surface micromachined accelerometer (ADXL50) was sold commercially by Analog Devices in 1992. This was followed in 1998 with MEMS-based gyroscopes from Bosch for commercial applications in the automotive sector (Marek et al, 2012). The availability of low cost, accurate, and reliable motion sensors has spawned a variety of applications, including those targeted at the health and wellness domains.…”

Characterization of a Laterally Oscillating Microresonator Operating in the Nonlinear Region

“…Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) have been a continually growing field thanks to the advanced microfabrication techniques, which facilitate the miniaturization of various devices. One of the major applications of MEMS technologies is for developing sensors utilized in a variety of fields [ 1 ]. Microresonators are a popular MEMS structure for sensing applications, particularly in mass, chemical, biological and motion sensing [ 2 ].…”