[Technology Report]
MEMS The Word... In Consumer Electronics
A maturing technology with a multitude of low-cost functions pushes MEMS into a growing number of electronic products.
Demand for devices that can sense motion, orientation, and location is surging, and it runs the gamut from the hottest video games to critical medical technology. With accelerometers and gyroscopes based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) rapidly maturing, that demand is being met.
Many of the latest consumer products include one or more MEMS IC functions that measure and control factors like movement, position, force, and even temperature. As a result, MEMS ICs not only play a key role in accelerometers and gyroscopes, but also pressure sensors, microphones, timing devices, filters, switches, microdisplays, infrared temperature sensors, and micromotors.
“MEMS are now becoming quite popular in numerous consumer applications. As a result of the rapidly decreasing costs of MEMS components over the past few years, products that could have used MEMS functionality in the past are now rapidly adopting MEMS,” says Roger Grace, marketing consultant and president of Roger Grace Associates.
“This increases the user’s ease of operation and provides enhanced functionality, which results in creating the necessary differentiation for their products in a very competitive and quick-changing market,” says Grace.
“If you go back about five years, there were no market drivers for MEMS ICs in consumer electronics products. Today, consumer electronics MEMS IC makers are competing against each other for feature differentiation, and this is fueling the need for MEMS ICs, such as the Wii and iPhone, which in turn are driving the volumes and reducing unit prices for MEMS,” says Steven Nasiri, CEO and founder of Invensense.
“To meet these new market needs, all new-generation MEMS products with disruptive solutions are required,” Nasiri explains. “Also, there is a growing need for MEMS foundry services to support a host of new venture-backed fabless MEMS companies.”
Large-volume unit prices for MEMS ICs used in consumer electronics products hover in the $1.00 to $1.50 level. Key drivers include motion sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, and microphones. For instance, three-axis accelerometers used in the Nintendo Wii video game system and the Apple iPhone are reportedly priced at the $1 level, if not lower. The accelerometers come from STMicroelectronics and Analog Devices.
MEMS-based products with location and motion awareness give users greater interaction with their surroundings, extending their reach beyond that provided by PCs and Web-enabled handsets. Personal navigation devices (PNDs), free-space pointers, indoor navigation, and vibration cancellation for hard-disk drives are just some of the products that take advantage of this technology.
For example, Analog Devices’ dualaxis ADXL 320 iMEMS accelerometers and SA601 SigmaDSP system-on-a-chip (SoC) audio processor form the core of the Hot Hand motion controller for guitar motion effects from Source Audio LLC. ADXL 330 iMEMS three-axis accelerometers also are in the Motion Enabled Prototype Phone from Keynetic for single-hand menu navigation, two-handed gaming, automatic screen rotation, and more. In Garmin’s Forerunner 50 sport watch, you’ll find the ADXL dual-axis iMEMS accelerometers for running, cycling, and motion fitness activities.
The popular Guitar Hero video game uses Freescale Semiconductor’s three-axis motion-sensing MMA7360L accelerometers (Fig. 1). The MMA7361L/68L/41L/31L are designed for a wide range of consumer applications.
Sensor Platforms is another company targeting the MEMS market. “We’re not just addressing sensor interface issues, but also sensor applications. We will combine our expertise in sensor control algorithms, advanced heuristics, and precision analog/mixed-signal CMOS designs with ‘commodity’ sensors on the market,” says Bill Eichen, CEO of Sensor Platforms.
ACCELEROMETER MARKET ASCENDS Sales of MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes have been rapidly increasing over the last couple of years, particularly accelerometers. This rate is expected to gather more steam over the next few years, forming the largest share of the inertial sensing market, according to several projections.
MEMS accelerometer ICs now offer lower cost, higher sensitivity, better temperature offsetting, faster response times, lower power consumption, and smaller packages. The LIS331 family of low-power three-axis MEMS “nano” linear accelerometers from STMicroelectronics targets low-g applications and can withstand up to 10,000 g of shock, all in a 3- by 3- by 0.9-mm plastic package (Fig. 2).
Reprints
