Category Archives: MEMS

June 24, 2011 – GlobeNewswire via COMTEX — Sensor maker Measurement Specialties Inc. (NQ:MEAS) was awarded the R&D Technology Certification along with RMB3 million funding from the Shenzhen government, to be used by Measurement Specialties (China), Ltd. on capital investments for research and development programs within the next two years.

The company designs and manufactures sensors and sensor-based systems incorporating piezo-resistive silicon sensors, application-specific integrated circuits, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), piezoelectric polymers, foil strain gauges, force balance systems, fluid capacitive devices, linear and rotational variable differential transformers, electromagnetic displacement sensors, hygroscopic capacitive sensors, ultrasonic sensors, optical sensors, negative thermal coefficient (NTC) ceramic sensors and mechanical resonators.

22 companies were granted the certification and funding, noted Alice Chen, company general manager of Asia operations. In addition to the three million RMB, Measurement Specialties will be eligible for an additional RMB2 million of funding after the two-year investment period if it achieves recertification as an ‘outstanding performer’ by the Shenzhen government, Chen added.

Measurement Specialties Inc. (MEAS) designs and manufactures sensors and sensor-based systems to measure precise ranges of physical characteristics such as pressure, temperature, position, force, vibration, humidity and photo optics.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com 

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June 23, 2011 – PRNewswire — Melexis launched its 3rd generation of contactless micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) infrared (IR) temperature sensors in the MLX90614 family. This generation boasts high accuracy for automotive, medical, industrial and consumer applications.

The new MLX90614ESF-DCH and MLX90614ESF-DCI incorporate a refractive silicon lens to achieve small fields of view (down to 5°) so small objects can also be measured from further distances. They are able to measure human body temperature with a high medical accuracy over a wide operating range. In this particular application the accuracy is ±0.2°C. The parts are available in a standard setting TO-39 footprint with integrated lens.

Melexis minimizes temperature-variation-induced errors by 2 orders of magnitude using a built-in compensation technology on the MEMS devices. A secondary sensor measures the thermal disturbances and compensates the measurement result with internal digital electronics.

The sensors are factory calibrated for plug-and-play integration. They comply with medical and automotive electronics standards.

Samples and production volume are available.  

Also read: Novel CMOS image sensor provides early warning road safety

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June 23, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) debuted a high-precision micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensor, Xtrinsic MPL3115A2, for altitude detection in advanced navigation and location-based services, such as GPS assist and e911 on smartphones. It complements the accelerometers and magnetometers in the Xtrinsic portfolio.

The Xtrinsic MPL3115A2 smart digital pressure sensor processes pressure and temperature data locally, requiring fewer computations assigned to the applications processor to reduce power usage. The pressure sensor features a first-in/first-out (FIFO) memory buffer, a standby mode of 2 micro amps and a low-power mode of 8.5 micro amps, depending on conditions and output data rates chosen.

The device provides barometric and altimetry pressure detection up to 30 cm of resolution, which enables the device to identify elevation at a granular level, and delivers a digital output in either meters or pascals, based on user preference. The MPL3115A2 sensor also includes embedded functions and user-programmable options, such as temperature compensation, with variable sampling rates up to 128 Hz.

Smart features include autonomous data acquisition with two interruptions on thresholds detection. To enhance efficiency, the device regulates auto-wake and sleep modes (to avoid unnecessary use of power) and requires zero data processing for mobile devices and medical and security applications.

WiFi triangulation, accelerometers, compasses, gyroscopes, and pressure sensors combine to make indoor navigation highly advanced, said Jérémie Bouchaud, principal analyst at IHS iSuppli, who predicts sensor-supported navigation to take off in smart phones and handsets in 2012 and 2013."

The Xtrinsic MPL3115A2 pressure sensor can be integrated into smartphones and tracking applications for business, industrial, and emergency search and rescue use. Other applications include meterology, monitoring home cooling and heating systems, respiratory equipment and health monitoring and detection system integration.

Sample quantities of the Xtrinsic MPL3115A2 pressure sensor are available now, with production volumes in Q3 2011

Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) makes embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. Learn more at www.freescale.com

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June 22, 2011 — Dolomite, microfluidic device maker, designed the Multiflux range of microfluidic connectors and interfaces. The Multiflux products create multi-way fluidic connections between pumps, valves, and other microfluidic devices, accomodating the increased sophistication of today’s fluidic systems.

Connection between two bundles of tubing: Circular Connector and Circular In-line.

Most connectors allow the connection of only one fluid tube to a microfluidic system at a time. Connecting microfluidic devices to macro-scale systems presents many challenges. Multiflux offers a flexible, cost-effective and time-efficient solution for these connection issues.

Connection to the surface of microfluidic chips: Linear Connector and Top Interface

Products include a Linear and Circular Connector, which provide several fluid input and output ports, enabling connections between microfluidic chips and tubing, as well as two bundles of tubing, without disruptions to the fluid flow.

Connection to the edge of microfluidic chips: Droplet Junction Chip with Chip Edge Interface

The Multiflux Connectors can be used together with Dolomite’s microfluidic chips and Standard Multiflux Interfaces, connecting to the edge or surface of microfluidic chips, or custom devices.

All Multiflux components operate from -15° to +150°C and up to 30bar pressure. Chemical resistance allows a range of solvents and chemicals to be used.

Dolomite offers microfluidic products including chips, pumps, valves, connectors, and custom devices. Learn more at www.dolomitemicrofluidics.com.

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June 22, 2011 — SemiProbe released a 300mm manual test probe configuration of its Probe System for Life, M-12. The M-12 is field-upgradable to 450mm and to semi-automatic operation.

The wafer probe tool includes coarse and fine stage movement, allowing precise alignment with vibration isolation. Precision Z and theta mechanisms accomodate large pin count probe cards. Load stroke brings wafers out of the prober. The system has a 360 degree platen with removable front. Contact/separation platen movement is adjustable. SemiProbe Rapid Release allows the operator to move quickly and ergonomically across the wafer without repetitive motion. A cold chamber is available.

SemiProbe offers a wafer map system for manual probers — optical encoders on the stage communicate with a SemiProbe PILOT software wafer map to indicate the current die position the stage is in for testing. Engineers can record test results to the wafer map for export data to other systems downstream. 

The Probe System for Life (PS4L) universal test platform provides a perpetual upgrade path; users can change stages or add components to allow the system to meet unique or different test requirements.

SemiProbe is a global supplier of probing and testing solutions for microelectronics, MEMS, nanotechnology, chemistry, microfluidics, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and more. Learn more at http://www.semiprobe.com/index.php

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June 21, 2011 — A 5 x 1mm dragonfly with beating wings and an ultra-sensitive microvalve were top winners at Sandia National Lab’s student design contest for micro electromechanical systesms (MEMS).

Scanning electron microscope of Texas Tech student-designed micro-dragonfly. (Image courtesy of Texas Tech University)

Texas Tech University designed the MEMS dragonfly, which could translate to real aerial surveillance technology. Smaller than today’s state-of-the-art micro flying machines, the biologically mimetic "dragonfly" wings measure about 0.5mm long and 0.1mm wide. Small, intermittent electric currents create thermal expansion and contraction, flapping the wings. The wings’ material response creates aerodynamin, efficient lift and thrust. Flapping is achieved when small intermittent electric currents cause thermal expansion and contraction in the wings. Clever engineering uses the wing material’s response to create strokes that are more aerodynamic and hence more efficient.

Competition entry for Texas Tech’s dragonfly MEMS design. (Image courtesy of Texas Tech University)

The dragonfly’s vertical flapping motion inspired the Texas Tech designers (flight is acheived via rotary and back-and-forth motion as well in nature, and via jet thrust and propellers in man-made devices). Vertical flapping maximizes wing surface area for lift, and the wings naturally cool more quickly, said Texas Tech student Sahil Oak.

The work was supervised by Tim Dallas, TTU faculty advisor.

Carnegie Mellon student design for a MEMS-based electrostatically operated microvalve (educational category winner). (Image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University)

Valve motions are typically screw-based (think garden hose) or switch-based, using a ball and flapper valve (toilets).

Carnegie Mellon University’s micro-switch-based valve heightens valve control when working with tiny amounts of liquid flow. The MEMS valve is modeled on electrostatically operated micro valves, said Vitali Brand, Carnegie Mellon student research lead. This valve requires only picoJoules of energy to switch its state. The test module can help determine characteristics that would create the most efficient and lowest leakage microvalves, benefitting biological research and medical analytics.

CMU professorial oversight was provided by Maarten de Boer.

Sandia will fabricate all student design submissions using its SUMMiT V advanced fabrication process in its MESA line, using five levels of polysilicon to build complex MEMS structures. Students can then test the fabricated MEMS parts in real form.

The student contest, open to institutional members of the Sandia-led MEMS University Alliance program, provides an arena for US student engineers to design and use real microdevices. Students explore ideas, create a computer model, and analyze the design prior to submission. Sandia’s MEMS experts and university professors judge designs. Other institutions competing at the annual event included the universities of Oklahoma and Utah, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. SPIE provided grants to bring 26 students and 5 professors to the Sandia awards ceremony.

The MEMS University Alliance is part of Sandia’s outreach to universities to improve engineering education. It is open to any US institution of higher learning, and most recently has extended an invitation to select Mexican universities to help that country develop its technological base.

The University Alliance coordinates with the Sandia-led National Institute for Nano Engineering (NINE) and the Sandia/Los Alamos Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT).

The Sandia student presentations were hosted by Tom Zipperian, group manager of MESA Microfabrication, and Keith Ortiz, manager of MEMS Technologies. For more information regarding the University Alliance and the design competition, contact Stephanie Johnson at [email protected].

Images and whitepapers describing the winning designs can be found on the web at http://mems.sandia.gov/ua/contest.html.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. 

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June 15, 2011 — A major consolidation is coming to the industrial micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) market in the next 12-18 months, predicts business consulting firm Frankfurt Partners. The industrial MEMS market is both highly attractive and highly fragmented.

Hundreds of companies, inhabiting several market segments, make up the industrial MEMS contingent, said Rene Meister, managing director, Frankfurt Partners. The majority of industrial-focused MEMS companies have less than 1% market share.

The industrial MEMS sector is "close to a tipping point," said Meister, predicting major consolidations in Europe and elsewhere in 12-18 months. Cross-industry consolidation, mostly by semiconductor companies acquiring emerging MEMS companies, has already begun.

The overall MEMS market is growing rapidly: total MEMS market size was about $8 billion in 2010, up more than 12% from last year. By 2015, it will surpass $16.5 billion, at a CAGR of 15.9%. No company has more than 10% market share. The top 10 MEMS companies, with the exception of Bosch, are consumer-market focused.

Consumer demand drives major MEMS growth. Higher-value MEMS have higher margins, however, and are increasingly integrated into automotive, defense, industrial and medical applications.

For more information about the MEMS Market, contact [email protected] or visit http://frankfurtpartners.de/

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June 15, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — The automotive sector for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) is increasing rapidly, thanks to more and more automotive makers adopting integrated safety systems in new car designs.

Nearly 100 million MEMS-based airbag, tire pressure monitor, and electronic stability (ESP) safety systems shipped globally in 2010, totalling more than 300 million MEMS chips. In 2016, about 150 million systems will be installed in vehicles, containing over 830 million MEMS chips.

Government mandates are the most important driver for automotive MEMS and safety systems. One example is mandatory tire pressure measurement systems (TPMS) on cars in the US.

"Safety systems are becoming more advanced and more complex," noted ABI Research practice director Peter Cooney, explaining that new systems contain more sensors per device than previous generations.

Several types of sensors — accelerometers, pressure sensors, and gyroscopes — are increasingly integrated on one chip; alternatively, a single MEMS can serve several safety systems. This second trend, says Cooney, will negatively impact MEMS sensor market growth.

Increasing competition will also deflate growth. Currently, only a few MEMS suppliers feed into the automotive sensors market. Despite attractive profit margins in the sector, startups face oft-insurmountable barriers in validations and costs.

"Automotive MEMS Sensors" from ABI Research is available at http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1006492. ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies.

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June 15, 2011 — Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) launched its eleventh Electronic Packaging Research Consortium (EPRC11) to address various technology challenges in advanced semiconductor packaging.

IME initiated the first EPRC in 1996. The resource and cost-sharing platform shares R&D among local enterprises and multi-national companies. This cycle of electronics packaging R&D will keep "smaller and smarter devices" in mind on 4 projects over 18 months.

The consortium will tackle:

  • Multiple Chip Embedded Wafer Level Packaging (WLP): Confronting re-construction process challenges and developing validated numerical models;
  • Through Silicon Via (TSV) Interposers: Exploring design, integration methods, package reliability testing, high aspect-ratio TSV and high density back-end-of-line (BEOL) wiring on multiple heterogeneous chips on a common package platform;
  • Fine Pitch Flip Chip with Cu Pillar: Developing a low-stress copper pillar flip-chip technology on copper low-k chips;
  • High Performance Materials for Advanced Packaging: Investigating high conductive packaging materials to develop new modelling methodologies and processes.

EPRC11 consists of 23 IDM, foundry, assembly & test, and equipment and materials companies:

  • Atotech S.E.A. Pte Ltd,
  • Advanpack Solutions Pte Ltd,
  • ASM Technology Singapore Pte Ltd,
  • Disco Hi-Tec (S) Pte Ltd,
  • Dow Corning Corporation,
  • EV Group (EVG),
  • GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte Ltd,
  • Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd,
  • Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd,
  • Hisilicon Technologies Co. Ltd,
  • Ibiden Singapore Pte Ltd,
  • Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd,
  • OM Group Inc,
  • Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd,
  • NEPES Pte Ltd,
  • NXP Semiconductors,
  • Optitune Pte. Ltd,
  • Rolls-Royce Singapore Pte Ltd,
  • Shanghai Sinyang Semiconductor Materials Co. Ltd,
  • Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd,
  • Silecs International Pte Ltd,
  • Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd
  • United Test and Assembly Center Ltd (UTAC)
  • A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC).

The Institute of Microelectronics (IME) is a research institute of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. Its key research areas are in integrated circuits design, advanced packaging, bioelectronics and medical devices, MEMS, nanoelectronics, and photonics. For more information, visit IME at http://www.ime.a-star.edu.sg. A*STAR is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven Singapore.

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June 14, 2011 – Marketwire — NanoInk’s NanoFabrication Systems Division is launching a force sensor and levelling devices at the Nanotech Conference and Expo, part of TechConnect World. NanoInk will also be presenting on Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) advances.

Force sensing with 1D levelling launched with the NanoArrayer 3000, and is also available on NanoInk’s NLP 2000. Combined with automation software, it facilitates automated pen array levelling and surface plane correction. Wizards guide users for printing micro and nano-arrays of uniform features across an entire glass slide.

For 2D levelling, proprietary sapphire ball technology enables large 2D arrays of high density pens to be levelled without contacting the substrate. This avoids cross contamination or the need for a sacrificial substrate area.

"Chips will be able to be printed with over a billion features in the 50nm to 10um size scale with densities greater than the current 55,000 2D pen array," said Tom Warwick, NanoInk GM, NanoFabrication Systems Division. Proteomics and genomics are some of the suitable applications for this "massively parallel high density printed arrays of features with low coefficients of variation," he added.

NanoInk’s NLP 2000 System is a desktop nanofabrication system that allows rapid design and custom engineering of functionalized surfaces on the micro and nanoscale, using DPN to transfer minute material quantities over a large, environmentally controlled work area. Organic, inorganic, and biological molecules can be deposited via the direct write, tip-based lithography technique. Researchers can deposit multiple materials, rapidly patterning arbitrary micro-and nanoscale features.

Jason Haaheim, Ph.D., and a senior R&D engineer at NanoInk, will present "Advances in Direct-Write Nanoscale Deposition and Patterning" on Wednesday, June 15, at 1:50 p.m. in room 103 at the Nanotech Conference and Expo. The presentation will provide additional details on both 1D and 2D levelling. NanoInk will also demonstrate the NLP 2000 at booth #1818.

NanoInk Inc. specializes in nanometer-scale manufacturing and applications development for engineering, life sciences, pharmaceutical, and education industries. More information is available at: www.nanoink.net/divisions.html#NanoFabrication.

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