MEMS: On the Defensive

by Sarah Fister Gale, Contributing Editor

The military is a hot new client for innovative MEMS and nanotech product manufacturers. From tiny explosive devices, to sensors for navigation, or video cameras that can survive dessert heat and torrential rains, security and defense applications offer a brave new marketplace for developers – if they can find ways to produce customizable, highly-regulated, extremely sensitive low cost devices to meet the critical eye of military shoppers.

“There is a lot of potential for MEMS in this segment,” says Bob Scannel, business development manager for Analog Devices Incorporated the global manufacturer of accelerometers and gyroscopes, headquartered in Norwood, MA. He points out that there are many potential applications for core MEMS technology in defense and homeland security devices, particularly in motion sensing for security, quality assurance, and predictive maintenance. Because MEMS solutions are smaller, lighter weight, more precise, and more durable than conventional technology, they deliver greater flexibility in the design of defense solutions which is appealing to the military buyer.

“MEMS Sensors can help detect early changes in vibration on air craft to avoid catastrophic failure; they can give gunners better feedback to improve their aim; and they can shut down or destroy valuable equipment in the field if it is tampered with,” he says. “They offer a lot of potential added value to existing solutions.”

However, the military is not an easy sell, warns Mike Elconin, client manager for the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT) a consortium in San Diego, Calif., that helps developers speed the commercialization process for technologies dedicated to military, homeland security, and first responder operations. Elconin has worked with several MEMS developers who found a niche in the world of defense applications. “A lot of technology developers and small companies have a hard time finding their way into the military and homeland defense,” he says.

At the same time however, Elconin points out that most technology used by the government is not designed in government labs. “The government doesn’t build, it buys,” he says. That means the companies that can find their way through the bureaucratic red tape have an opportunity to establish lucrative military relationships.

Customization and Scale

While the military’s needs are vast, there are some consistent goals it strives for when it invests in new technology. Namely that it be small, cheap, sensitive and customizable, which can all be accomplished with MEMS technology, says Richard Waters, founder and chief technology officer for Lumedyne, a MEMS sensor designer in San Diego. “When you make things smaller the speed goes up and the power consumption goes down.”

CCAT is currently working with Lumedyne Technologies on development of a lower cost optical MEMS displacement sensing technology for use in accelerometers for aerial navigation. The Lumedyne accelerometer measures displacements as small as 10 Femto-meters (.000,000,000,000,010 meters). Waters notes that the sensor technology can “fill the gap between GPS updates,” or when satellite signals are jammed or lost.

Elconin has found that companies, such as Lumedyne that design MEMS sensors have had particular luck in meeting the military’s ongoing needs. “Their navigation systems demand high levels of sensitivity which requires exquisitely sensitive accelerometers,” he says. “If you are tracking an anti aircraft missile traveling at Mach 3, even the slightest adjustment in vertical acceleration could lead to significant divergence in where it ends up, and GPS systems are not fast enough or accurate enough to account for that.”

But the process to develop such a technology for commercial military applications is tricky. “It’s a long way from having a technology that theoretically works in the lab to one that works on missiles,” Elconin says. “You have to build your proof of concept and go from there.”

Elconin also notes that many of the ‘MEMS for military’ success stories begin with a product designed for an entirely different industry. The technology has to have a commercial scale market to be cost effective, and it’s not always going to find that solely in military applications. “If you have to design a special tool that will only be used on a few hundred fighter jets it’s going to be really expensive,” he says. “But if you can develop a product that has large scale commercial applications and get that product into production mode first, then you can find your way back to the military.”

Waters agrees. “Dual use is always important,” he says, noting that the military likes to take advantage of reductions in start up costs by implementing technologies designed for other purposes. “MEMS development is heavy on the front end. It’s cost prohibitive without commercial applications to ramp it up.”

MEMS-based accelerometers, for example, are already a well-established technology for automotive safety systems for vehicle stability control and automobile navigation, and are produced on a mass scale, giving developers the chance to tweak an existing technology for new defense applications.

But the tweaking is not a small affair. Military applications are highly customized and developers need to meet exacting requirements to make the sale. Waters notes that proof of reliability for military components is the “number one hurdle” for any developer trying to sway skeptical military buyers. “You have to be able to provide reliability data, and that’s not always easy to prove,” he says.

Scannel adds that most military buyers want precalibrated systems that have been factory tested. “They don’t want to invest in calibration testing. They want that done for them,” he says, noting that developers who can precalibrate products may have a competitive edge in the sales process.

Partnerships Take Many Forms

All of this takes a lot of up front investment on the part of developers which can create burdensome obstacles. Some companies turn to groups like CCAT, which helps innovative companies transform ideas into commercial products through guidance and grant programs.

Other smaller companies have found success by merging with or selling themselves to more established companies that have the deep pockets and connections to get their technology through the door. Raytheon Company for example, recently acquired the robotics technologies and capabilities of Sarcos, a Salt Lake City-based company that researches and develops MEMS technology. Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems provides solutions to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Homeland Security.

“Joining with Raytheon will help to move our technology from research and development to execution,” said Dr. Stephen Jacobsen, president of Sarcos, of the sale.

While other developers partner directly with military groups to achieve commercial success. A team of scientists from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for example, is working with the Indian Head Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center to develop highly-uniform copper structures that can be incorporated into integrated circuits then chemically converted into nano-scale explosives for military munitions.

The tiny copper structures, which have pores at both the nanometer and micron size scales, could play a key role in the next generation of detonators used to improve the reliability, reduce the size and lower the cost of certain military munitions.

Key to the design, says Jason Nadler, GTRI team member and research engineer, is that it creates a stable foundation for explosives. “The explosive material is so volatile it’s too dangerous to study under a microscope so we have to understand the precursor material first,” he says. “If we can control that we can better understand the rest of the processes.”

The copper structure, a precursor material for explosive compounds used in military detonators, is being used to improve U.S. Navy detonator devices. (Source: Georgia Tech Research Institute)

Nadler uses a variety of templates, including microspheres and woven fabrics, to create regular patterns in copper oxide paste whose viscosity is controlled by the addition of polymers. He then thermochemically removes the template and converts the resulting copper oxide structures to pure metal, retaining the patterns imparted by the template. The size of the pores can be controlled by using different templates and by varying the processing conditions. Based on feedback from the Navy scientists, Nadler can tweak the structures to help optimize the overall device – known as a fuze – which controls when and where a munition will explode.

“Practical implementation of this technology will enable the military to reduce the quantity of sensitive primary explosives in each weapon by at least two orders of magnitude,” said Gerald R. Laib, senior explosives applications scientist at Indian Head and inventor of the MEMS Fuze concept. “This development will also vastly reduce the use of toxic heavy metals and waste products, and increase the safety of weapon production by removing the need for handling bulk quantities of sensitive primary explosives.”

The next step will be for Indian Head to integrate all the components of the fuze into the smallest possible package – and then begin producing the device in large quantities. As with the other successful military applications of MEMS, the copper materials can be mass-produced like computer chips with several hundred copper reservoirs produced on a single wafer.

And while Nadler believes the team will find other commercial applications for the copper material outside the military, he prefers working in the world of defense. “The nice thing about developing technology for military projects is that they are more exotic. You get to start without preconceived notions or requirements and explore ideas that no-one has explored before,” he says. But, he adds that the military won’t come looking for these solutions. “It’s up to the MEMS industry to prove that with the right support and resources we can do anything they need us to do.”

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