ChipSensors’ technology enables the surface of a chip itself to sense parameters. (Photo: ChipSensors) |
September 21, 2007 — ChipSensors Ltd., a fabless semiconductor start-up company based in Limerick, Ireland, has unveiled what it calls a breakthrough: a new offering that enables the surface of a chip itself to sense parameters such as temperature, humidity, certain gases, and pathogens. The patent-pending technology exploits the fact that the dielectric material in standard sub-micron CMOS comprises porous oxides and polymers; by selectively admitting or blocking ingress of the agent to be sensed, any resulting changes in electrical characteristics can be accurately detected and measured, ChipSensors says.
The technology was demonstrated publicly for the first time this week at RFID Europe 2007: a prototype single-chip temperature and humidity sensor, communicated via an off-chip wireless link to a laptop PC displaying real-time measurements. ChipSensors says it is now on the verge of commercializing this technology, and is engaged in negotiations with international customers, partners, and potential investors.
According to ChipSensors, most sensors are manufactured on glass or ceramic substrates, using specialist materials and manufacturing processes, and have proved difficult, if not impossible, to accommodate within mainstream foundry CMOS processes. The wafers had to be post-processed and the sensors then required testing and calibrating after packaging, which was time-consuming and expensive. ChipSensors’ technology overcomes these obstacles. It enables sensors, signal conditioning circuits — including high resolution analog-to-digital converters — and RF transceiver functions, together with the microcontroller and memory, to be integrated on a single chip, fabricated entirely from standard CMOS.
The 0.13 µm sensor chip has applications as an all-electronic replacement for the type of electromechanical thermostats and humidistats used in building management and environmental monitoring systems. ChipSensors is also developing an ultra-low-power wireless version of this sensor that integrates all the signal conditioning, microcontroller, memory and RF transceiver functions onto the same chip as the sensor itself for incorporation into passive and active ID tags.
ChipSensors CEO Tim Cummins says, “By ‘piggy-backing’ on mainstream semiconductor technology developments in this manner, we are ‘putting sensors on Moore’s Law’, opening the door to true low-cost and high volume scalability for wireless sensors.”