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(November 15, 2010) — Jay Esfandyari, Roberto De Nuccio, Gang Xu, STMicroelectronics, introduce how MEMS gyroscopes work and their applications, the main parameters of a MEMS gyroscope with analog or digital outputs, practical MEMS gyroscope calibration techniques, and how to test the MEMS gyroscope performance in terms of angular displacement.

The significant size reduction of multi-axis MEMS gyroscope structures and their integration with digital interface into a single package of a few square millimeters of area at an affordable cost have accelerated the penetration of MEMS gyroscopes into hand-held devices.

MEMS gyroscopes have enabled exciting applications in portable devices including optical image stabilization for camera performance improvement, user interface for additional features and ease of use, and gaming for more exciting entertainment. Further applications such as dead reckoning and GPS assistance that require high sensitivity, low noise, and low drift over temperature and time are on the horizon.

Here, we discuss the methods and techniques of quickly getting meaningful information from a MEMS gyroscope in terms of angular velocity and angular displacement measurements.

MEMS gyroscope introduction

MEMS gyroscopes are making significant progress towards high performance and low power consumption. They are mass produced at low cost with small form factor to suit the consumer electronics market.
MEMS gyroscopes use the Coriolis Effect to measure the angular rate, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Coriolis effect.

When a mass (m) is moving in direction v→ and angular rotation velocity Ω→ is applied, then the mass will experience a force in the direction of the arrow as a result of the Coriolis force. And the resulting physical displacement caused by the Coriolis force is then read from a capacitive sensing structure.

Most available MEMS gyroscopes use a tuning fork configuration. Two masses oscillate and move constantly in opposite directions (Figure 2). When angular velocity is applied, the Coriolis force on each mass also acts in opposite directions, which result in capacitance change. This differential value in capacitance is proportional to the angular velocity Ω > and is then converted into output voltage for analog gyroscopes or LSBs for digital gyroscopes.

When linear acceleration is applied to two masses, they move in the same direction. Therefore, there will be no capacitance difference detected. The gyroscope will output zero-rate level of voltage or LSBs, which shows that the MEMS gyroscopes are not sensitive to linear acceleration such as tilt, shock, or vibration.

Figure 2. When angular velocity is applied.

MEMS gyroscope applications

MEMS gyroscopes can measure angular velocity. Digital cameras use gyroscopes to detect hand rotation for image stabilization. A yaw rate gyroscope can be used in cars to activate the electronic stability control (ESC) brake system to prevent accidents from happening when the car is making a sharp turn. And a roll gyroscope can be used to activate airbags when a rollover condition happens.

A yaw rate gyroscope can be used in cars to measure the orientation to keep the car moving on a digital map when GPS signal is lost. This is called car dead-reckoning backup system.

The yaw rate gyroscope can also be used for indoor robot control.

Multiple inertial measurement units (IMUs) can be mounted on arms and legs for body tracking and monitoring.

The IMU can also be used for air mouse application, motion gaming platforms and personal navigation devices with the integration of magnetometer and GPS receiver.

Understanding the major parameters of MEMS gyroscopes

Power supply (Volts): This parameter defines the gyroscope operating DC power supply voltage range.

Power supply current (mA): This parameter defines the typical current consumption in operation mode.

Power supply current in sleep mode (mA): This parameter defines the current consumption when the gyroscope is in sleep mode.
 
Power supply current in power-down mode (uA): This parameter defines the current consumption when the gyroscope is powered down.

Full scale range (dps): This parameter defines the gyroscope measurement range.

Zero-rate level (Volts or LSBs): This parameter defines the zero rate level when there is no angular velocity applied to the gyroscope.

Sensitivity (mV/dps or dps/LSB): Sensitivity in mV/dps defines the relationship between 1dps and the analog gyroscope’s output voltage change over the zero-rate level. For digital gyroscopes, the sensitivity (dps/LSB) is the relationship between 1LSB and dps.

Sensitivity change vs. temperature (%/°C): This parameter defines when temperature changes from 25°C room temperature, how the sensitivity will change in percentage per °C.

Zero-rate level change vs. temperature (dps/°C): This parameter defines, when temperature changes from 25°C, how the zero-rate level will change per °C.

Non linearity (% FS): This parameter defines the maximum error between the gyroscope’s outputs and the best fit straight line in percentage with respect to full scale (FS) range.

System bandwidth (Hz): This parameter defines the angular velocity signal frequency from DC to the built-in bandwidth (BW) that the analog gyroscopes can measure.

Rate noise density (dps/√Hz): This parameter defines the standard resolution for both analog and digital gyroscopes that one can get from the gyroscopes’ outputs together with the BW parameter.

Self-test (mV or dps): This feature can be used to verify if the gyroscope is working properly or not without physically rotating the printed circuit board (PCB) after the gyroscope is mounted on the PCB.

Calibrating a MEMS gyroscope

Gyroscopes are usually factory tested and calibrated in terms of zero-rate level and sensitivity. However, after the gyroscope is assembled on the PCB, due to the stress, the zero-rate level and sensitivity may change slightly from the factory trimmed values.

For applications such as gaming and remote controllers, one can simply use the typical zero-rate level and sensitivity values in the datasheet to convert gyroscope measurement to angular velocities.

For more demanding applications the gyroscope needs to be calibrated for new zero-rate level and sensitivity values and other important parameters such as:

  • Misalignment (or cross-axis sensitivity)
  • Linear acceleration sensitivity or g-sensitivity
  • Long term in-run bias stability
  • Turn-on to turn-on bias stability
  • Bias and sensitivity drift over temperature
  • Getting rid of zero-rate instability

The gyroscope output can be expressed as Equation 1.

Rt = SC × (Rm – R0)     (1)

Where,
 Rt (dps): true angular rate
 Rm  (LSBs): gyroscope measurement
 R0 (LSBs): zero-rate level
 SC (dps/LSB): sensitivity

In order to compensate for turn-on to turn-on bias instability, after the gyroscope is powered on, one can collect 50 to 100 samples and then average these samples as the turn-on zero-rate level R0, assuming that the gyroscope is stationary.

Due to temperature change and measurement noise, the gyroscope readings will vary slightly when the gyroscope is stationary. It is necessary to set a threshold Rth to zero the gyroscope readings if the absolute value is within the threshold as shown in Equation 2. This will get rid of the zero-rate noise so that the angular displacement will not accumulate when the gyroscope is stationary.  

ΔR = (Rm – R0) = 0 if |(Rm – R0)| < Rth      (2)

Every time the gyroscope is stationary, one can sample 50 to 100 gyroscope datum and then average these samples as new zero-rate level R0. This will eliminate the zero rate in-run bias and small temperature change.

After the zero-rate instability has been taken care of from the above steps, then Equation (1) becomes

Rt = SC × (Rm – R0) = SC × ΔR      (3)

So the next step will be to determine the sensitivity SC in Equation 3 by using a reference system.

It should be emphasized that the MEMS gyroscope sensitivity usually is very stable over time and temperature and this calibration is needed only for high-sensitivity applications as mentioned above.

Using a rate table to determine gyroscope sensitivity

Because gyroscopes can measure the angular rate directly, the rate table is a perfect reference to calibrate the gyroscope sensitivity.

An accurate rate table includes a built-in temperature chamber and sits on a vibration isolation platform so that the rate table is not sensitive to environment vibration during calibration.

One can mount the hand-held device in an orthogonal aluminum cube or plastic box and then mount the whole system on the rate table for calibration. Control the rate table to spin at two different angular rates clockwise and counterclockwise. For multi-axis gyroscopes, put the orthogonal box at different orientation on the rate table and repeat the above process. After collecting the gyroscope raw data in different situations, the zero-rate level, sensitivity, misalignment matrix and g-sensitivity values can be determined.

Another option is a step motor spin table to calibrate the gyroscope. The spin table can be programmed and controlled by a PC. 

Using a digital compass to determine gyroscope sensitivity

The other option is to use a digital compass to calibrate the gyroscope if there is no rate table available.

Before gyroscope calibration, the digital compass needs to be calibrated for tilt compensation and operate on a table without surrounding magnetic interference field. Then combining digital compass relative heading information and gyroscope output data at constant sampling time interval, the gyroscope sensitivity can be calibrated as shown in Equation 4.

H(n) = H(1) + h × SC × n/∑/i-1 ΔR(i)      (4)

Where,
 n: samples collected
 h: sampling time interval.
 H(1): initial electronic compass heading
 H(n): the new compass heading at nth sample
 SC (dps/LSB): gyroscope sensitivity
 ΔR(i): gyroscope output data after removal of zero-rate level and dead zone at ith sample

Equation 4 can be rewritten as:

H = SC × G      (5)

Where,

Then from Equation 5, one can get the SC based on Least Square method.

SC = [GT × G]-1 × GT × H      (6)

Figure 3 shows the plot of compass relative heading change in degrees and the gyroscope angular displacement after integration in degrees.

Figure 3. Compass relative heading and gyroscope angular displacement

In Figure 3, one can see that the compass relative Heading change (red) and the gyroscope angular displacement (blue) have perfect linear relationship. By applying Equation 6, one can obtain the gyroscope sensitivity calibration parameter.

Testing a MEMS gyroscope

After gyroscope calibration, the last step is to test the performance of the gyroscope to understand how to obtain meaningful angular displacement information from the gyroscope raw data.

Test 1: When gyroscope is stationary. When gyroscope is not rotating, the gyroscope output raw data should be around the zero-rate level and the gyroscope heading after integration should be always 0°.

Test 2: When gyroscope is rotating full round clockwise. After sampling 30 to 50 samples of the gyroscope raw data as the new zero-rate level offset, rotate the gyroscope clockwise 90°, and then another 90°, till full round 360°. The plot is shown in Figure 4. The peak of each 90° rotation gyroscope raw data is different showing that the angular velocity is slower or faster. But the error of the final angular displacement is only about 0.6°.

Figure 4. Single axis gyroscope rotating full round clockwise.

Test 3: When gyroscope is rotating full round counterclockwise. After sampling 30 to 50 samples of the gyroscope raw data as the new zero-rate level offset, rotate the gyroscope counterclockwise 90°, and then another 90°, till full round 360°. In this case the angular velocity polarity is positive other than negative in Figure 4.

Conclusion

Advances in MEMS technology and processes have led to low-cost, high-performance MEMS gyroscopes with lower power consumption and smaller size, enabling new exciting applications in handheld devices.

MEMS gyroscopes are calibrated during the characterization and qualification process. They do not require re-calibration for most applications. However, for complex and demanding applications such as navigation and dead reckoning, re-calibrate the zero-rate level and sensitivity after the gyroscope is mounted on the PCB is recommended.

References
1. STMicroelectronics MEMS gyroscopes Presentation, http://www.st.com/stonline/domains/support/epresentations/memsgyroscopes/gyros.htm

2. STMicroelectronics MEMS gyroscope Portfolio: LY330ALH, L3G4200D, http://www.st.com/stonline/products/families/sensors/gyroscopes.htm

Jay Esfandyari received his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in EE from the University of Technology in Vienna and is MEMS product marketing manager at STMicroelectronics, 750 Canyon Dr., Coppell, TX, 75019; (972) 971-4969; [email protected].

Roberto De Nuccio received his Master’s degree in Telecommunication engineering in Milan / Italy and is business development manager at STMicroelectronics.

Gang Xu received his Ph. D from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and senior application engineer at STMicroelectronics.

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(November 12, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Arrayit Corporation (OTCBB: ARYC) sold a third advanced microarray manufacturing system to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The NanoPrint LM60 Microarrayer equipped with Arrayit’s Patented Microarray Manufacturing Technology is a computer-driven robotic microarray manufacturing system that enables the screening of 1.5 million lead therapeutic compounds per run, and the NanoPrint LM210 enables more than 5 million.

UT Southwestern will use the NanoPrint LM60 to screen large libraries of potential therapeutic small molecules involved in cancer and heart disease. These small molecules have advantageous stability and biological activity, are suitable for drug delivery, and are easily manufactured in large, diverse libraries, making them attractive for therapeutic use. Read more about nanotechnology in medicine in our Life Sciences and Medical Technology center.

The use of Arrayit’s technology and UT Southwestern’s systematic approach has already led to the discovery of specific compounds known to be involved in cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Once an Arrayit manufacturing platform is installed, UT Southwestern can purchase an ongoing supply of proprietary consumable products for applications in small-molecule high-throughput screening, gene expression, multiplexed immunoassays, cytogenetics and more.

The company’s proprietary microarray manufacturing technology has been installed at more than 3,800 institutions worldwide, including 27 in Texas.

Arrayit Corporation supplies proprietary life science technologies and consumables for disease prevention, treatment and cure to genetic, research, pharmaceutical, and diagnostic sectors. Please visit www.arrayit.com for more information.

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(November 11, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — EuroNanoMed, a European funding initiative under the ERA-Net scheme of the European Commission aimed at advancing transnational research in nanotechnology for medicine, announced the projects that will be funded following its 2nd joint transnational call for collaborative research projects.

The transnational call for proposals was launched by ERA-Net EuroNanoMed to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research in nanomedicine. The call focused on the three main subfields of nanotech in medicine: diagnostics, targeted delivery systems and regenerative medicine.

Eight projects, involving 46 partners from 10 countries, will be funded with €8 million provided by EuroNanoMed partners. The research projects were chosen from 33 applications involving 178 applicant groups from 19 EU members and associated states/regions. The applications were reviewed by external referees, taking into account the scientific, technical, clinical and commercial merit of the projects, followed by evaluation of an international peer review panel. The 8 funded projects encompass all three subfields of Nanomedicine covering diverse medical issues such as cancer, inflammatory diseases, bone regeneration, muscular dystrophy, immunology and vaccines.

Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine and healthcare. The field takes advantage of the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials at the nanometer scale to be used for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of diseases. Given the immense potential impact of Nanomedicine on public wellbeing and on economic growth, the field is of considerable strategic importance for Europe. Dr. Virginie Sivan, coordinator and chair of the Executive Board of ERA-Net EuroNanoMed said, "Nanomedicine is the medicine of the future. It has the potential of revolutionizing every aspect of health care, including diagnostics, imaging, drug delivery and sophisticated therapies. As evident by the excellent projects selected by ERA-Net EuroNanoMed, Europe is a central player in biological nano-research. I am convinced that the quality and diversity of the selected projects will help advance Nanomedicine research. The EuroNanoMed partners hope to get the support of the European Commission to be able to continue the successful work in the next years."

EuroNanoMed will launch a 3rd joint transnational call for innovative research projects in Nanomedicine in January 2011.

EuroNanoMed supports European nanomedicine through transnational collaborative and multidisciplinary research and technology development projects with participants from academia, clinical/public health communities, and industry. The ERA-Net EuroNanoMed was created to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial and clinical applications. Additional information is available at http://www.euronanomed.net

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(November 11, 2010 – PRNewswire) — WaferGen Biosystems Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: WGBS) has been awarded a $244,500 grant under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project program established under Section 48D of the Internal Revenue Code. The grant will aid the company in advancing its SmartChip genomic analysis platform for molecular identification of disease states and therapy selection.

Using the SmartChip system, researchers can better identify patient response, speeding the critical path for introducing new therapies and reducing U.S. health cares costs of both research and standard of care. The WaferGen SmartChip system identifies and validates gene expression patterns — biomarkers — for multiple diseases. It uses quantitative real-time PCR in a high-density, nano-scale format. The SmartChip system enables the discovery and validation of higher quality biomarkers for improved genomics analysis in clinical analysis in clinical care settings, in addition to clinical trial patient stratification applications.

WaferGen’s SmartChip biomarker discovery and validation capabilities can reduce long-term healthcare costs by improving the rate and cost-efficiency of therapeutic discovery and development, and by detecting optimal therapy selection for fewer adverse effects and expensive hospital visits. In identifying cancer therapies, researchers will need to understand causes at a molecular level, identify accurate/reliable biomarker signatures, and detect optimal therapeutic selection. The SmartChip system enables cost-effective genome-wide scans and focused oncology pathway and microRNA panels to address each of these critical needs.

The Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project is targeted at therapeutic discovery projects that show a reasonable potential to result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need or prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions; reduce the long-term growth of health care costs in the United States; or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years.

WaferGen Biosystems Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells state-of-the-art systems for genomic analysis for the life science and pharmaceutical industries. For additional information, please see http://www.wafergen.com.

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(November 10, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — InvenSense Inc. released its MPU-6000 product family. The MPU-6000 MEMS motion sensing technology integrates a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer on the same silicon die together with an onboard Digital Motion Processor (DMP) capable of processing complex 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms.

The MPU-6000 family of MotionProcessors eliminates the challenges associated with selection and integration of many different motion sensors that could require signal conditioning, sensor fusion and factory calibration. It features integrated 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms that utilize an external magnetometer output through its master I2C bus to provide dead reckoning functionality. The MPU-6000 is offered in the same 4 x 4 x 0.9mm QFN package and the same pinout as the current MPU-3000 product family of integrated 3-axis gyroscopes. It also offers ease of integration and interface to various application processors through an I2C or SPI bus and its standard MotionProcessing Library (MPL) and APIs.

With increasing popularity of motion sensors in everyday consumer electronics, motion processing is quickly expanding into smart phones, tablets, TV remotes, handheld gaming devices and gaming consoles, digital still and video cameras and many other consumer products. Adoption of motion processing functions in smartphones, tablets and many other portable consumer electronic devices is promising to bring a host of new and enhanced functionalities and benefits to consumers including: precise sensing of hand jitter to improve image quality and video stability; GPS dead reckoning for vehicles and indoor pedestrian navigation and new motion-based user interfaces, augmented reality and more immersive gaming experiences to name a few. However, market adoption has been slow primarily due to a lack of available off-the-shelf solutions that could be adopted quickly and easily by OEMs. Today, developing an integrated motion sensor solution requires using various components offered by many different suppliers, adding signal conditioning, developing proprietary sensor fusion algorithms, processing overhead and resource allocation and understanding the complex IP challenges in this space, all of which adds cost and delays in adoption by end customers. 

Other recent consumer MEMS announcements

Kionix extends reach in inertial MEMS sensors, debuts gyros for consumer apps, new accelerometers

VTI expands into consumer gyros and timing devices

Although integrated 3-axis accelerometers have been around since early 2000 in consumer electronics devices and have been offered by a variety of companies, high performance consumer grade gyroscopes have presented many more technical challenges. InvenSense introduced integrated 3-axis gyroscopes last year. A key benefit of an integrated 6-axis solution on the same chip is the perfect alignment of all axes between the gyroscope and accelerometer that will eliminate costly factory calibrations that are currently required. Further, it has eliminated the need for a separate, standalone 3-axis accelerometer and is offered in the same exact package and footprint as the current 3-axis gyroscope from InvenSense. Last, the addition of a master I2C port for inputting the 3-axis compass output can allow a complete 9-axis sensor fusion using the InvenSense proprietary and patent pending DMP and MPL solution. The InvenSense MPL is a software layer that makes the integration and interfaces to an application processor a very easy task without requiring expertise in the field of motion processing.

"InvenSense, with the development of the Nasiri-Fabrication process and the building of a flexible manufacturing infrastructure, has established an enabling platform to support the integration of multiple axis of motion detection in a single chip," said JC Eloy, CEO of Yole Développement. "InvenSense is developing in parallel of the silicon device, software functions and applications software that will simplify the integration of motion processors into modules and systems, paving the way towards a larger market and wide diffusion of motion processors into consumer electronics."

InvenSense leverages its Nasiri-Fabrication platform for the product, allowing direct integration of MEMS mechanical structures and CMOS electronics at the wafer level, making it a typical fabless semiconductor supply chain. The MPU product family leverages 8" fabrication lines from world class foundries and in-house high volume test and calibration facilities in Taiwan to support the high volume requirements of the consumer marketplace. The MPU-6000 will include the company’s proprietary and patent pending DMP engine, enabling 9-axis sensor fusion and MPL APIs to deliver the only complete solution available in the market today.

The MPU-6000 includes a range of dynamic full scale capabilities at ±250dps, ±500dps, ±1000dps, and a top range of ±2,000dps for angular rate sensing and ±2g, ±4g, ±8g and ±16g for linear acceleration sensing. This permits the use of a single MotionProcessing solution to perform every possible motion application from slow motion menu selection to very fast hand gestures, all with 16-bit resolution. Rate noise performance sets the industry standard at 0.005 degrees/sec/√Hz, providing the highest-quality user experience for image stabilization, pointing and gaming applications. High-accuracy factory calibration targeting ±1% initial sensitivity reduces customer calibration requirements. The gyroscope operates at a resonant frequency above 27kHz making the MPU-6000 immune to interference from audible frequencies (20-20,000Hz) such as music, phone ringers, crowds or white noise, which becomes critical for noise sensitive applications such as image stabilization. Other industry-leading features include the 4 x 4 x 0.9mm plastic 24-pin QFN package, on-chip 16-bit ADCs, programmable digital filters, a precision clock with 2% accuracy over -40°C to +85°C, an embedded temperature sensor, programmable interrupts, and a low 5.5mA current consumption. Parts are available with I2C and SPI serial interfaces, a VDD operating range of 2.5 to 3.6V, and a VLOGIC interface voltage from 1.71 to 3.6V.

The MPU-6000 is available for immediate selected customer sampling.

InvenSense provides motion processors for the consumer electronics market. For more information visit InvenSense at http://www.invensense.com.

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(November 10, 2010) — The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials (AMAT), is the Tech Museum’s annual tribute to a select group of people working around the world to help those in need. Environment, economic development, education, equality, and health efforts are recognized. The Tech Awards attracted 1,011 nominations with laureate projects for this year’s event representing work done in 54 countries — up from 44 last year. The Tech Awards laureates 2010 represent regions as diverse as Brazil, India, United Kingdom, Philippines and the United States.

To recap the laureates singled out to receive the various sponsored awards: The Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award went to A Single Drop for Clean Water. The Intel Environment Award went to Peer Water Exchange. The B. D. Biosciences Award went to Alexis T. Belonio. The Microsoft Education Award went to BBC World Service Trust/BBC Janala Bangladesh. And the Nokia Health Award when to Micronutrient Initiative.

The Tech Awards laureates 2010 were recognized for creating new technological solutions or innovative ways to use existing technologies to significantly improve the lives of people in nearly every corner of the world. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, was this year’s James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award recipient, which was presented by Mike Splinter, chairman & CEO of Applied Materials. Her Majesty Queen Rania is known for her work to focus global attention on education, equality, and empowerment of girls and women, as well as health and economic development issues. Among the Queen’s many accomplishments is establishing Jordan’s first interactive children’s museum and launching 1GOAL — a campaign to promote global education. Her Majesty’s non-governmental organization, the Jordan River Foundation, brings resources and energy to citizens in need.

After receiving the Global Humanitarian Award, Her Majesty Queen Rania appealed to the creative minds in Silicon Valley, saying that, to solve the world’s problems, “We need technology ideas from you.” Her Majesty’s most impassioned statements addressed the educational needs of children the world over. “Education is a human right for every child, and a tool for climbing out of poverty, a defense against disease, a loudspeaker for the voiceless. Classrooms should be synonymous with creativity — it not only improves lives, it saves lives…CQ [creativity quotient] trumps IQ.” To continue her work, the Her Majesty told gala attendees that early next year, she will launch a new foundation.

Interviews with laureates
ElectroIQ senior technical editor Debra Vogler spoke with several of the Tech Award laureates.

Working in conjunction with PATH, PharmaJet developed a needle-free, single-use jet injection system. Sixteen billion needle injections are used every year, costing $5-6 billion. Additionally, an estimated $2 billion is spent annually for follow-up care for health-care workers who become infected from contact with contaminated needles. PharmaJet founder Kathleen Callender explains how the design allows every drop of expensive drugs and vaccines to be used, reducing the amount of vaccine needed, in some cases up to 80%. Jet injectors use air pressure rather than a needle to deliver pharmaceuticals intramuscularly or subcutaneously. Syringes can be filled in the field using a simple universal adapter. Because it is a single-use and auto-disable injector, cross-contamination and needle-stick injuries are eliminated. Callender discusses the details of the single-use jet injection system and describes Homeland Security’s use of the system in evaluating flu pandemic response.

Listen to PharmaJet’s Kathleen Callender: Download or Play Now

ToughStuff has developed a modular set of solar power products that combines product design with innovations in distribution, helping to lift people out of poverty and improve lives. In the developing world, 1.5 billion people lack electricity. Instead, they use smoky kerosene-burning lamps and candles for lighting, consume huge numbers of polluting dry-cell batteries for their radios, and spend significant time and money charging mobile phones. Adriaan Mol, Operations Director at ToughStuff, quantifies the cost savings per day that can be realized using the company’s products. Using a lightweight, robust, portable, photovoltaic (PV) solar system designed for personal use, ToughStuff’s affordable product set includes a lamp, radio connectors, and a mobile-phone charger. In eight months of operation, more than 200,000 units have been sold, providing solar power for the first time to people who still rely on polluting, archaic technology.

Listen to ToughStuff’s Adriaan Mol: Download or Play Now

Peer Water Exchange (PWX), a project of Blue Planet Network, is a global online network that has created a clearinghouse to share water solutions and approaches, connecting project implementers, funders and third-party observers in an open peer-review process. According to the organization, successful solutions to unsafe water problems incorporate community organization, appropriate technology, hygiene, sanitation, transfer of ownership, change in behavior, and long-term maintenance. To date, more than 60 agencies around the world have used Peer Water Exchange to peer review, receive funding, and implement small-scale water and sanitation projects, impacting more than 300,000 people in local communities. Founder and chairman of Blue Planet Network Jin Zidell describes how the organization brings donors and recipients together. A special athletic event, designed to draw attention to the project, is Blue Planet Run: 20 runners, each taking turns, circumnavigated the globe to log 15,200 miles.

Listen to Peer Water Exchange’s Jin Zidell: Download or Play Now

Alexis T. Belonio, project director at the Center for Rice Husk Energy Technology, has developed a cooking stove and continuous-flow industrial burner, both of which use a finely tuned gasification process to produce a clean-burning fuel that is almost indistinguishable in appearance and emissions from liquid propane. The impetus for the project is that huge piles of inedible rice husks are often found rotting beside roads or smoldering in fields, producing smoke emission in rural household and industries. This adds up to about 2 million metric tons of potential energy going to waste each year.

Listen to Center for Rice Husk Energy Technology’s Alexis T. Belonio: Download or Play Now

Husk Power Systems has developed a gasification technology that filters the released gas from rice husks to power generators that make electricity. Hundreds of millions of people in the Indian countryside remain off the grid; however, rice husks, a waste product of rice milling, are plentiful in the villages and traditionally have been removed and discarded before rice is transported. Husk Power Systems designs, operates and installs 35- to 100-kW mini-power plants that convert rice husks into electricity. More than 50,000 rural Indians are now receiving power in a financially sustainable, scalable, environmentally friendly, and profitable manner. Co-founder and COO Ratnesh Yadav describes the obstacles that had to be overcome as the company implements its technology.

Listen to Husk Power Systems’ Ratnesh Yadav: Download or Play Now

International Development Enterprises India (IDEI) manufactures and distributes a variety of foot-operated, water-lifting devices that can irrigate small plots of land in regions that have high water tables. Much of India experiences extreme variation in rainfall, with heavy rains during the monsoon season and drought-like conditions during other months. Farmers cannot afford expensive conventional irrigation technologies and are restricted to rain-fed farming, resulting in poor food and income security. Costing between $12 and $40, IDEI’s Treadle Pump is simple in design and easily manageable. The pump has enabled more than 800,000 farmers to shift from rain-dependent cultivation to year-round cultivation of high-value crops. Their additional net annual income, averaging $400, is then spent on housing and education. COO Suresh Subramanian, notes that the organization has helped over a million farmers in India to date.

Listen to International Development Enterprises India’s Suresh Subramanian: Download or Play Now

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(November 9, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Kionix Inc. announced a portfolio of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors featuring 3 new accelerometers that set company benchmarks for low power, performance over temperature, and user programmability. Kionix also released its first two gyroscopes for mass-market consumer applications.

Just one year after its acquisition by the multi-billion dollar semiconductor supplier, ROHM Co., Ltd., Kionix is broadening its offerings for developers of consumer applications in which motion sensing, gesture recognition, drop detection, performance monitoring and location awareness are essential attributes. Congruent with Kionix’s existing portfolio, the new products support the industry’s most diverse selection of embedded algorithms and application software. They satisfy technical requirements, ease the design process for OEMs and ODMs, and leverage the company’s in-house manufacturing capabilities for volume production.

Kionix announced a pair of new gyros aimed at the consumer devices market — the dual-axis KGY12 and the tri-axis KGY13. Kionix introduced its first gyro in 2003. This new generation of gyroscopes balances current consumption and noise with excellent bias stability over temperature. "MEMS gyroscopes are making consumer-electronics history with their rapidly growing integration into a wide range of products. For Kionix, having had widespread success with accelerometers, producing gyroscopes optimized for mass-produced consumer applications was a logical next step, said Greg Galvin, president and CEO of Kionix. VTI also recently moved into the consumer gyro market.

Kionix gyros are packaged in a 5 x 5 x 0.9mm 24-pin land grid array (LGA). They feature low power consumption and 16-bit digital outputs (I2C and SPI) over a measurement range of ±2048°/sec. Analog outputs are also available in user-selectable ranges of ±128°/sec, ±256°/sec, ±512°/sec, ±1024°/sec and ±2048°/sec. Both gyros offer user-definable bandwidth and embedded temperature sensors. Targeting a global market for MEMS in consumer electronics and mobile handsets, Kionix’s portfolio of MEMS inertial sensors adds intelligence through embedded algorithms and application software, speeding the implementation of popular functions such as tap/double-tap touch, directional shake and gesture recognition in portable devices.

The Kionix accelerometer product portfolio debut includes:

  • KXTH9: A multiplexed analog tri-axis accelerometer packaged in a 3x3x0.9mm 10-pin LGA featuring:
    Analog output featuring an integrated 4-channel multiplexer that reduces system microcontroller unit (MCU) requirements to only one analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and two digital I/O’s and achieves very high data sampling rates; Factory-programmable low pass filter with option for user-defined external capacitors; Ultra-low noise density at 150 µg/√Hz typical; and low power consumption
  • KXTG9: A digital (I2C/SPI) tri-axis accelerometer packaged in a 3x3x0.9mm 10-pin LGA featuring:
    High-speed digital interface with SPI (40 MHz, 3 or 4 wire) and I2C for easy system integration, eliminating analog-to-digital converter requirements and providing direct communication with system micro-controllers; Two intelligent user-programmable application interrupts, motion and/or freefall, that can use High Pass Filtered (HPF) or Low Pass Filtered (LPF) output; Calibrated temperature measurement that can be read via the digital communication; and low power consumption
  • KXTI9: A digital (I2C) tri-axis accelerometer packaged in a 3x3x0.9mm 10-pin LGA featuring:
    Non-volatile buffer memory for acceleration signals; Enhanced integrated user-programmable orientation, tap/double-tap, and activity-monitoring algorithms; User-selectable g-range (2g, 4g, 8g) and user-selectable Output Data Rate (ODR) that can use HPF or LPF output; and low power consumption 

The KGY12 dual-axis gyro is currently sampling, as are the KXTH9, KXTG9 and KXTI9 accelerometers. Samples of the tri-axis gyro will be available next month.

Kionix Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ROHM Co. Ltd. of Japan. The Company pioneered high-aspect ratio silicon micromachining based on research originally conducted at Cornell University and offers MEMS product design, process engineering and quality manufacturing. For more information on Kionix, visit http://www.kionix.com. For additional information on ROHM, visit http://www.rohm.com.

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(November 9, 2010) — A nest for nanotubes may help magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) become better than ever at finding evidence of disease. Scientists at Rice University and other Texas Medical Center institutions and colleagues in Colorado, Italy and Switzerland have discovered a way to trap contrast agents inside a silicon particle that, when injected into a patient’s bloodstream, would make them up to 50x more effective.

Contrast agents "light up" damaged tissue in the body in images produced by MRI instruments. In 2007, 28 million MRI scans were performed in the United States, and contrast agents were used in nearly 45% of them. Read more about nanotechnology in medical sciences here.

Figure. A discoidal silicon microparticle, or SiMP, one micrometer across may dramatically improve the effectiveness of MRI scans. SiMPs hold nanotube-based contrast agents in their pores, delivering them to targets of interest, where they aggregate for up to 24 hours before the particles harmlessly dissolve. (Lesa Tran/Rice University)

"Making MRIs better is no small matter," said Lon Wilson, professor of chemistry at Rice and one of three senior co-authors of the research paper published online in Nature Nanotechnology. "MRI is one of the most powerful medical tools for imaging, if not the most powerful," he said. "It’s not invasive, it’s not ionizing harmful radiation and the resolution is the best you can get in medical imaging. The sensitivity, however, is poor. So anything you can do to improve performance and increase sensitivity is a big deal — and that’s what this does."

A nano-sized slice of silicon shaped like a hockey puck served as a delivery device for contrast agents in the study. Pores that were nanometers long and wide were created in the discs, called silicon microparticles (SiMPs).

Three types of contrast agents were drawn into the pores. Magnevist, a common contrast agent used worldwide, was one; the others were gadofullerenes and gadonanotubes, both pioneered by Wilson’s Rice lab. All three chemically sequester the toxic element gadolinium to make it safe for injection.

MRIs work by manipulating hydrogen atoms in water, which interact and align with the applied magnetic field from the instrument. The hydrogen atoms are then allowed to return to their original magnetic state, a process called relaxation. In the presence of the paramagnetic gadolinium ion, the atoms’ relaxation time is shortened, making these regions brighter against the background under MRI.

SiMPs are small — about a micrometer across — but when they trap both water molecules and bundles of nanotubes containing gadolinium, the protons appear much brighter in an MR image. Because SiMPs keep their form for up to 24 hours before dissolving into harmless silicic acid, the molecules can be imaged for a long time.

The trick is getting them to places in the body that doctors and technicians want to see. Wilson said SiMPs are designed to escape the bloodstream, where they leak and aggregate at the sites of tumors and lesions. "Spherical particles, at least in mathematical models, flow down the center of the vasculature," he said. "These particles are designed to hug the wall. When they encounter a leaky area like a cancer tumor, they can easily get out."

The encapsulation within SiMPs enhanced the performance of all three contrast agents, but SiMPs with gadonanotubes (carbon nanotubes that contain bundles of gadolinium ions) showed the best results. "The performance was enhanced beyond what we had imagined," he said.

SiMPs may also be functionalized with peptides that target cancer and other cells. SiMPs that contain contrast agents and medications could potentially be tracked as they home in on disease sites, where medications will be released as the silicon dissolves. Also read: A slow road to big impact: Small tech in medicine

The work is a collaboration with the labs of Mauro Ferrari and Paolo Decuzzi, who reported their success in creating mesoporous silicon particles in 2008. Ferrari, now president and CEO of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, worked on the project while serving as a professor and chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center, with appointments at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and as an adjunct professor at Rice.

Decuzzi is a researcher with appointments at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston and the University of Magna Graecia in Italy.

Ferrari and Decuzzi are the other two senior co-authors of the paper with Wilson. Co-authors of the paper include former Rice graduate student Jeyarama Ananta and current graduate students Richa Sethi and Ramkumar Krishnamurthy; Biana Godin, Xuewu Liu and Rita Serda of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Loick Moriggi and Lothar Helm of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland; Raja Muthupillai of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital; and Robert Bolskar of TDA Research Inc., Wheat Ridge, CO.

The work was supported by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center-United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity through the Alliance for Nano Health and grants from the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative at Rice University, the Swiss National Science Foundation, European Cooperation in Science and Technology and TDA Research Inc.

Read the abstract at http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v5/n11/full/nnano.2010.203.html

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(November 5, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Arradiance shipped their first of multiple orders of the GEMStar Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system to the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University. With its capability to process up to 6" wafers using up to 8 precursors, GEMStar has the flexibility to deposit atomically thin layers of material on virtually any substrate and was designed with the most challenging high aspect ratio and through-pore deposition applications in mind.

"From our work with sensitive, high aspect ratio microchannel structures we became acutely aware of the need for a system that could repeatably and uniformly deposit complex nanolaminate films efficiently," explains David Beaulieu, COO of Arradiance."To meet the needs of the Research community, the tool needed to be small, but powerful and be flexible enough to handle the wide range of applications, substrates and materials commonly found in lab environments."

Dr. John F. Conley, OSU Professor states, "The GEMStar has everything our lab environment should need in an ALD tool. It is small, flexible and can handle up to 6" wafers. We also like the 1" height of the chamber that accommodates small, three dimensional objects and the port we can use for in-situ metrology. The design appears to be rugged and easy to service."

Our experience in materials science, charged particle physics and systems design have been combined to make a robust Research system for engineers, says Ken Stenton, Arradiance CEO. "Because of the importance of materials research in emerging growth industries such as biomedical, solar, space science, environmental and semiconductor, we saw the need for a research tool with production performance and reliability. We’re confident the GEMStar will meet this need."

Arradiance functional film technologies enhance the performance of imaging and detection systems, providing resolution, gain and lifetime improvements. Learn more at www.arradiance.com.

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(November 4, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Post-doctor Yen-Hsun Su of Research Center for Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, a former student of Department of Physics at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) supervised by Prof. Wei-Min Zhang of Department of Physics and Assistant Prof. Shih-Hui Chang of Institute of Electro-Optical Science and Engineering, has discovered that gold nanoparticles can induce luminescence in leaves.

As this discovery has captured the attention of Royal Society of Chemistry, the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences, the paper Dr. Yen-Hsun Wu has written has been accepted for publication in the journal Nanoscale and he has also been interviewed by the academic magazine Chemistry World.

When senior executive VP Da-Hsuan Feng is informed of this incident, he has found time to meet Dr. Yen-Hsun Wu, encouraged him to continue his research on the related fields and made a suggestion that Department of Physics and Department of Materials Science and Engineering should jointly organize workshops for the students to have a deeper understanding and knowledge of nanotechnology and bioluminescent science.

Assistant Prof. Shih-Hui Chang said, "Light emitting diode (LED) has replaced traditional light source in many display panels and street lights on the road. A lot of light emitting diode, especially white light emitting diode, uses phosphor powder to stimulate light of different wavelengths. However, phosphor powder is highly toxic and its price is expensive. As a result, Dr. Yen-Hsun Wu had the idea to discover a method that is less toxic to replace phosphor powder. This is a major motivation for him to engage in the research at the first place."

In his research, by implanting the gold nanoparticles into Bacopa caroliniana plants, Dr. Yen-Hsun Su was able to induce the chlorophyll in the leaves to produce a red emission. Under high wavelength of ultraviolet, the gold nanoparticles can produce a blue-violet fluorescence to trigger a red emission of the surrounding chlorophyll.

"In the future, bio-LED could be used to make roadside trees luminescent at night. This will save energy and absorb CO2 as the bio-LED luminescence will cause the chloroplast to conduct photosynthesis," said Dr. Yen-Hsun Su in the interview with Chemistry World.

Prof. Wei-Min Zhang, Assistant Prof. Shih-Hui Chang and Dr. Yen-Hsun Su have emphasized that the technologies and bioluminescence efficiency need to be improved for the trees to replace street lights in the future and reach the goal of energy saving and environmental protection.

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences, has a global membership of over 46,000 and the longest continuous tradition of any chemical society in the world. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international publishing business, its activities span education, conferences, science policy and the promotion of chemistry to the public.

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