Abstract:
With the increasing usage of MEMS sensors in mature application segments such as mobile devices & wearables, there is a trend in the recent years of reduction in die size, power consumption and price. As a result, sensor industry is always looking for technology innovation that can result in smaller size of component and system, lower cost, power and improved performance of sensors.
In this presentation, we will review some of the disruptive technology approaches that are setting new bar in terms of miniaturization of MEMS sensors. We will discuss challenges encountered and lessons learnt.
Integration of multiple sensors in a single chip or in a multi-chip module (MCM) is also a growing trend. Adding processor capability on a same chip/package as sensor is becoming increasingly important for some applications including IoT. While developing sensor technology platform or combos, it is important to keep future scalability and integration in mind. System level integration on thin substrate such as chip on substrate, chip-on-board(COB) or chip on flex also offers exciting capabilities for many upcoming applications.
Smaller size sensors also put demand on the whole supply chain including automatic test equipment, which needs to have capability of supporting very high volume product at high through-put and be able to handle smaller sizes.
Progress in development of miniaturized low power sensors has also opened up several new possibilities of sensor integration and new sensor applications. While many of the applications can broadly fall under the category of IoT, there are many niche applications which can benefit from the evolution of existing & newly emerging sensors and will be discussed in this presentation.