Microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS) devices have matured into commodity market components whose use is growing in many familiar applications, such as consumer, automotive, medical, and environmental electronics.
Yet many MEMS device manufacturers now face the next challenge: tackling what lies beyond these present applications to enable MEMS usage in newer, more complex systems. For many of these companies, the next step is smart systems integration that includes not only the use of nano-sized devices, but also many different functions that involve many different materials.
Much of this was evident from a number of technical presentations and panel session discussions at November’s MEMS Industry Group (MIG) MEMS Executive Congress Meeting. Attendees and speakers explored and debated how to cost-effectively achieve greater levels of system integration to capture these potential applications.
The “systems” in MEMS is taking on a new meaning, emphasizing the device and its supporting circuitry and how they are applied, not just the device itself. The challenge is to “think outside the chip,” as Roger Grace of Roger Grace Associates noted at the conference, and work more closely with the end customer. This includes getting involved with chip(s) partitioning, signal-conditioning, software and firmware development, packaging, and testing issues, each of which may be unique to a particular application.
This systems-level approach will be the theme of the Smart Systems Integration 2010 Conference this March in Italy (see “Smart Systems Integration 2010”). It takes into consideration not just MEMS devices, but also nano-scale devices (sometimes called nanoMEMS or NEMS), different types of materials, various signal sources, and the entire package needed to house a cost-effective product solution.
NEMS could be the next big thing in semiconductors, said Raj Jammy, vice president of emerging technologies at the Sematech Manufacturing Consortium. And speaking at the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Dennis Pola, who manages NEMS research at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said that his agency considers NEMS “the next revolution in miniaturization.” Jammy, however, decries the fact that few people are investigating how to integrate NEMS with CMOS technology.
The consensus at the MIG MEMS Executive Congress Meeting was that a systems-level approach is needed to enable many new applications. Even the consumer electronics sector, which widely uses commodity item MEMS motion sensors, is open to innovations.
Consider the approach that Hillcrest Labs took while it was developing its low-cost Loop pointer in-air user interface for Internet entertainment (Fig. 1). “The key to our product’s development is largely in the software we developed. This is the foundation for a broadband interactive user interface,” said Chad Lucien, vice president for free-space products at Hillcrest Labs. “Software development constituted most of the cost.”
Hewlett-Packard Labs has developed a small, ultrasensitive inertial MEMS accelerometer platform that’s 1000 times more sensitive than high-volume commercial accelerometers yet is low in cost (Fig. 2). It leverages HP’s own MEMS fluidic technology and is part of the company’s grand future vision, which it calls Central Nervous System for the Earth (CENSE). HP is not selling this sensor as a commodity component, though.
“We plan to piggyback this sensor with other sensing elements and electronics and partner with others to devise a wireless sensing system solution,” said Grant Pease, business development manager at HP’s Technology Development Organization.
“A major application for our sensor is roadway monitoring as part of the Intelligent Transportation System laid out by the U.S. Government’s Department of Transportation that can provide large energy savings on roads and freeways. We can easily modify this sensor’s performance to fit specific application needs, like a greater number of axes, more bandwidth, etc.,” Pease said.
SOARING bioMEMS GROWTH
MEMS and nano devices, coupled with wireless communications technology, will propel the market for medical devices. Some estimates put that worldwide market at several hundred billion dollars within a few years.
Implantable medical devices are a hot area. MEMS and nano devices will be increasingly implanted in hips, spinal cords, brains, and other areas of the body for more sophisticated and improved diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications. Such smart implants will target diseases including cancer, as well as a host of neurological disorders like lupus and fibromyalgia.
In its report, “2020: A New Drug Delivery Landscape,” Cambridge Consultants provides a snapshot of current and future drug-delivery scenarios. Andrew Diston, global medtech practice leader at Cambridge Consultants, sees vast growth in the drug-delivery world.
“The world of pharmaceutical delivery is poised to realize many of the benefits of technological advances from other industries, where standards are reaching towards the requirements for medical applications,” Diston said. “Reliable microelectronics platforms may provide significant additional functionality and connectivity for new delivery devices, presenting great opportunities for innovative pharmaceutical companies and startups to play a part in this healthcare revolution.”
A team led by Jeffery T. Bornstein at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory is working on one such promising drug-delivery development to treat a common form of hearing loss that affects more than 250 million individuals worldwide. Funded by the U.S. Institutes of Health, the micro-scale system is flexible enough to be implanted under a patient’s earlobe (Fig. 3).
The system delivers tiny amounts of a liquid drug to a very delicate region of the ear, allowing sensory hearing cells to regrow, ultimately restoring the patient’s hearing. A polymer material is used due to its flexibility.