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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading Edge Engineering from the 1996 NAE Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Microelectromechanical Systems
Pages 47-56

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From page 49...
... More than anything else, MEMS is a fabrication approach that conveys the advantages of miniaturization, multiple components, and microelectronics to the design and construction of integrated electromechanical systems. Potential applications include miniature inertial measurement units for competent munitions and personal navigation; distributed unattended sensors for asset tracking and environmental/security surveillance; mass data storage devices; miniature analytical instruments; a range of embedded pressure sensors for passenger car, truck, and aircraft tires; noninvasive biomedical sensors; fiberoptic components and networks; distributed aerodynamic controls; and on-demand structural strength sensors.
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From page 50...
... Wafer-to-wafer bonding, a versatile fabrication technique that yields high quality interfaces and bonds, is commonly employed to get around the restrictions in the type of structures that can be fabricated using bulk micromachining. Because anisotropic etching, by definition, only removes material, bonding of wafers allows for the addition of material to the bulk micromachining reper
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From page 51...
... These include: · inertial navigational units on a chip for munitions guidance and personal navigation; · distributed unattended sensors for asset tracking, border control, environmental monitoring, security surveillance, and process control; · integrated fluidic systems for miniature chemical/biological analysis instrumentation, hydraulic and pneumatic systems, propellant and combustion control, and printing technology; · weapons sating, arming, and fuzing to replace current warhead systems (to improve safety and reliability) ; · low-power, high-resolution, small-area displays for tactical and personal information systems; · embedded sensors and actuators for condition-based maintenance of machines and vehicles, and for on-demand amplified structural strength in lower-weight weapons systems/platforms and disaster-resistant buildings;
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From page 52...
... Both MEMS-enhanced conventional magnetic disk drives and future atomic-resolution data storage systems fabricated on silicon substrates and integrated with signal processing electronics substantially will decrease the size, weight, power requirements, latency of access, failure rate, and cost of data storage. Advanced tunneling-based write-once, read-many-times (WORM)
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From page 53...
... Infrastructure development activities will increase and broaden the pool of MEMS designers; will enable rapid, timely, and affordable access to MEMS technologies for evolving needs; and will create a national mechanism for cost-effective MEMS prototyping and low-volume production. An ongoing project supported by DARPA offers regular, shared access to a single common MEMS fabrication process, which already has been employed by over 300 users at service/federal laboratories, domestic companies, and universities.
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From page 54...
... are the principal MEMS products produced today, no single product or application area is set to dominate the MEMS industry for the foreseeable future, since the MEMS market is growing both in the currently dominant sensor sector and in the actuator-enabled sectors. Furthermore, because MEMS products will be embedded in larger non-MEMS systems (e.g., automobiles, printers, displays, instruments, and controllers)
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From page 55...
... future MEMS , integration levels / 1 1 1 1 1 10° 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 T/M=1 o-2 T/M=1 0~4 Number of Mechanical Components FIGURE 2 MEMS technology trends and roadmap. Log-log plot of number of transistors merged with number of mechanical components for MEMS devices and systems.
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From page 56...
... Scientific American 273(3)
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Key Terms

  • data storage
  • mems fabrication
  • bulk micromachining
  • mechanical components
  • mass data

  • shared fabrication
  • mems products
  • using bulk
  • mems technology
  • unattended sensors

  • asset tracking
  • analytical instruments
  • fabrication processes
  • distributed unattended
  • structural strength

  • storage devices
  • mems market
  • bulk micromachined
  • fabrication services
  • surface micromachined

  • semiconductor fabrication
  • distributed aerodynamic
  • integrated mems
  • buckling theory
  • log plot

  • geometry using
  • fiberoptic components
  • embedded pressure
  • broaden mems
  • getting closer


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