05 June 2002

Fast-expanding markets for MEMS

By Jim Pinto

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) use the same fabrication methods as silicon chips to make tiny sensors and actuators. Using MEMS, products continue to shrink in size, with more functionality, increased reliability, and reduced price.

Look at this example: Five years ago, the average cell phone contained about 500 individual components. Now, the number has shrunk to about 100. Integrated components cost less to produce, making a single product with integrated subsystems cheaper. Integrated components are smaller, save wiring and board space, and reduce assembly cost. Fewer components mean fewer reliability problems.

When new third-generation cell phones arrive, the desire for multiband, multiprotocol phones with features such as GPS, inertial sensors, and biometric authentication will add a lot of new components. But interestingly, users expect the form factor (size, shape, battery life, etc.) to remain unchanged. Since some of the additional components are not small and flat, integration becomes difficult.

This is where MEMS comes into play: relays, tunable capacitors, inductors, filters, microphones, reconfigurable antennas, local oscillators, resonators, switches, and programmable phase shifters. MEMS shrink the components to be compatible with standard semiconductor processes. This lowers cost and reduces board space and power use. So, cell phones have become the next big market for MEMS.

In industrial automation, look for utilization of MEMS components and systems to bring new functionality and improved reliability at costs comparable to today's products. Soon, low-cost MEMS sensors and actuators will allow everything in the industrial automation environment to be Web connected.

Excellent MEMS Web site that updates regularly with new products.

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is founder of San Diego-based Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com, or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com.