International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 3, Issue 11, November-2012 1

ISSN 2229-5518

MICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM
(MEMS) SENSOR
Azharuddin Allamin Shaikh is currently pursuing degree program in electronics and telecommunication engineering in
SHIVAJI University, India , E-mail: shaikhazar52@[Link]
Dattatraya Shashikant Shitole is currently pursuing degree program in electronics and telecommunication engineering in
SHIVAJI University, India, E-mail:[Link]@[Link]

Abstract − There are many new emerging technologies in electronics and telecommunication but this paper focuses particularly about “MICRO-
ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM (MEMS) SENSOR
Purpose – To describe the development of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor technology, to consider its current use in sensing
technology and to identify and discuss future technological trends and directions in today’s life of technology.
Design/methodology/approach- We are poised in a revolution of microelectronics, which has dramatically reduced the cost and increased the capability
of electronics because of its technology of very small devices. This has given much potential to prosper in the area of micro mechanics encompassing
MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems). MEMS promises to revolutionize nearly every product category by bringing together silicon based
microelectronics with micro machining technology, making possible the realization of complete systems on a chip. Commercial applications are inertial
sensors, Power MEMS and RF switches. This technology is also used in industrial, consumer and auto motive marketing.
Findings – This paper illustrates the greatly differing impacts sensing by MEMS technology. More recent developments are discussed which
suggest strong market prospects for MEMS device and how important role the plays in today’s technology.
Originality/value – This paper provides a technical and commercial insight into the applications of MEMS technology to physical and molecular sensors
from the present day. It also identifies high growth areas for innovative developments in recent technologies

Index Terms—Automotive Sensor, Bulk micromachining, Biological Sensor, Chemical sensor, Electro Mechanical, High aspect ratio (HAR)
silicon micromachining, Micro Sensor, sensor, surface micromachining

[Link] improvements to silicon processing led to pressure sensors

with non-planar diaphragm geometries which yielded

M icro electromechanical systems (MEMS) is a

superior performance These were arguably the first true
MEMS sensors.

technology of miniaturization that has been largely adopted 1.2 Present: Early polls indicate the automotive market
from the integrated circuit (IC) industry and applied to for MEMS sensors and actuators grew nearly 16 percent in
the miniaturization of all systems not only electrical 2011 – great news considering the decline in sales due to
the 2008 and 2009 recession.
systems but also mechanical, optical, fluid, magnetic, etc.

1.1 Past: The origins of what we now know as micro- 1.3 Future: The success of the American auto industry is a
contributing factor in the predictions that the market is
electromechanical system (MEMS) technology can arguably
expected to enter a fast growth phase that could top $3
be traced back to 1 April 1954, when a paper by Smith billion and stretch into [Link] of the significant
(1954), then at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, was impact that MEMS can have on the commercial and defense
published in Physical Review. This described for the first markets, industry and the federal government have both
time certain stress-sensitive effects in silicon and taken a special interest in their development.
germanium termed piezo resistance. During the

mid-1950s, researchers were starting to investigate whether

the same technologies that had yielded the transistor,
which subsequently revolutionized the fledgling electronics
industry, could be applied to sensors .These were crude by
today’s standards (Figure 1) but in the early 1970s
developments in micromachining, as it was then called and

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Consumer 3% Medical 11%

Industrial 22%
Automotive 17%

Communictions
21%
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are small
Computer 26%
integrated devices or systems that combine electrical and
mechanical components. They range in size from the sub
micrometer (or sub micron) level to the millimeter level,
and there can be any number, from a few to millions, in a
Predicted Contribution of MEMS technology in various particular system. MEMS extend the fabrication techniques
field in 2013 developed for the integrated circuit industry to add
mechanical elements such as beams, gears, diaphragms,
and springs to devices.
2 WHAT IS SENSOR:-
A device used to measure a physical quantity (such as These systems can sense, control, and activate mechanical
processes on the micro scale, and function individually or
temperature) and convert it into an electronic signal of
in arrays to generate effects on the macro scale. The micro
some kind (e.g a voltage), without modifying the
fabrication technology enables fabrication of large arrays of
environment. A sensor is a device which receives and devices, which individually perform simple tasks, but in
responds to a signal. A sensor's sensitivity indicates how combination can accomplish complicated [Link]-
much the sensor's output changes when the measured Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, is a technology that
quantity changes .Sensors are used in everyday objects such in its most general form can be defined as miniaturized
as touch-sensitive elevator buttons (tactile sensor) and mechanical and electro-mechanical elements (i.e., devices
and structures) that are made using the techniques of micro
lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base. There
fabrication. The critical physical dimensions of MEMS
are also innumerable applications for sensors of which most
devices can vary from well below one micron on the lower
people are never aware. Applications include cars, end of the dimensional spectrum, all the way to several
machines, aerospace, medicine, manufacturing and millimeters. Likewise, the types of MEMS devices can vary
robotics. from relatively simple structures having no moving
elements, to extremely complex electromechanical systems
with multiple moving elements under the control of
integrated microelectronics. The one main criterion of
3 WHAT IS MEMS?: MEMS is that there are at least some elements having some
sort of mechanical functionality whether or not these
MEMS or Micro Electro Mechanical Systems is a technique elements can move. The term used to define MEMS varies
of combining Electrical and Mechanical components in different parts of the world. In the United States they are
together on a chip, to produce a system of miniature predominantly called MEMS; while in some other parts of
dimensions .. By miniature, we mean dimensions less than the world they are called “Microsystems Technology” or
the thickness of human hair. “micro-machined devices”.

4 MEMS SENSORS

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The history of Si pressure sensors is widely recognized as computers, and the intersection with the huge requirement
being representative of micro-sensor evolution. A micro in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors, has
sensor is a sensor that has at least one physical dimension propelled MEMS sensors into the mainstream. The key
at the sub-millimeter level, and today can be used to MEMS sensors today are accelerometers, gyroscopes, and
measure or describe an environment or physical condition pressure sensors.
such as acceleration, altitude, force, pressure, or
temperature. Micromachining techniques have also enabled
the development of micro actuators, which are devices that 5 FABRICATION:
accept a data signal as an input, and then perform an action
based on that signal as an output. Examples include micro 5.1 Materials:
valves for control of gas and liquid flows, optical switches
and mirrors to redirect or modulate light beams, and micro Silicon
pumps to develop positive fluid pressures.
Sensors made are better than their using MEMS Silicon is the material used to create most integrated
conventional counterparts because they are: circuits used in consumer electronics in the modern world.
The economies of scale, ready availability of cheap high-
 Smaller in size quality materials and ability to incorporate electronic
 Have lower power consumption functionality make silicon attractive for a wide variety of
 More sensitive to input variations MEMS applications. Silicon also has significant advantages
 Cheaper due to mass production engendered through its material properties. In single
 Less invasive than larger devices. crystal form, silicon is an almost perfect Hooke an material,
meaning that when it is flexed there is virtually no
Advances in IC technology and MEMS fabrication hysteresis and hence almost no energy dissipation. As well
processes have enabled commercial MEMS devices that as making for highly repeatable motion, this also makes
integrate micro sensors, micro actuators and silicon very reliable as it suffers very little fatigue and can
microelectronic ICs, to deliver perception and control of the have service lifetimes in the range of billions to trillions of
physical environment. These devices, also known as cycles without breaking.
'Microsystems' or 'smart sensors', are able to gather
information from the environment by measuring 5.2 Polymers
mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical, optical, or
magnetic phenomena. The IC then processes this
Even though the electronics industry provides an economy
information and directs the actuator(s) to respond by
of scale for the silicon industry, crystalline silicon is still a
moving, positioning, regulating, pumping, or filtering. Any
complex and relatively expensive material to produce.
device or system can be deemed a MEMS device if it
Polymers on the other hand can be produced in huge
incorporates some form of MEMS-manufactured
volumes, with a great variety of material characteristics.
component. And there can be any number of MEMS
MEMS devices can be made from polymers by processes
devices within a particular Microsystem - ranging from just
such as injection molding, embossing or stereo lithography
a few, to several million.
and are especially well suited to micro fluidic applications
such as disposable blood testing cartridges.

5.3 Metals

Metals can also be used to create MEMS elements. While

metals do not have some of the advantages displayed by
silicon in terms of mechanical properties, when used within
their limitations, metals can exhibit very high degrees of
Demand for MEMS devices was initially driven by the reliability. Metals can be deposited by electroplating,
government and military/defense sectors. More recently, a evaporation, and sputtering processes. Commonly used
maturing of the semiconductor manufacturing processes metals include gold, nickel, aluminum, copper, chromium,
associated with the microchips used within personal titanium, tungsten, platinum, and silver.

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5.4 Ceramics transferred to the material exposed, as the property of the

exposed and unexposed regions differs.
The nitrides of silicon, aluminum and titanium as well as
silicon carbide and other ceramics are increasingly applied 6.3 Etching processes
in MEMS fabrication due to advantageous combinations of
material properties. AlN crystallizes in the wurtzite There are two basic categories of etching processes: wet
structure and thus shows piezoelectric and piezoelectric etching and dry etching. In the former, the material is
properties enabling sensors, for instance, with sensitivity to dissolved when immersed in a chemical solution. In the
normal and shear forces.[ Tin, on the other hand, exhibits a latter, the material is sputtered or dissolved using reactive
high electrical conductivity and large elastic modulus ions or a vapor phase etchant. for a somewhat dated
allowing to realize electrostatic MEMS actuation schemes overview of MEMS etching technologies.
with ultrathin membranes .Moreover, the high resistance of
Tin against bio corrosion qualifies the material for
7 MEMS MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES:
applications in biogenic environments and in biosensors.
7.1 Bulk micromachining:

Bulk micromachining is the oldest paradigm of silicon

6 MEMS BASIC PROCESSES: based MEMS. The whole thickness of a silicon wafer is used
for building the micro-mechanical structures. Silicon is
machined using various etching processes. Anodic bonding
of glass plates or additional silicon wafers is used for
Basic Process adding features in the third dimension and for hermetic
encapsulation. Bulk micromachining has been essential in
enabling high performance pressure sensors and
accelerometers that have changed the shape of the sensor
industry in the 80's and 90's.

Deposition Patterning Etching

6.1 Deposition processes

One of the basic building blocks in MEMS processing is the

ability to deposit thin films of material with a thickness
anywhere between a few nanometers to about 100
micrometers.
(Etched grooves using (a) anisotropic etchants, (b) isotropic
6.2 Patterning etchants, (c) Reactive Ion Etching (RIE))

The differences between the various sorts of etching

Patterning in MEMS is the transfer of a pattern into a
material .Lithography in MEMS context is typically the procedures. The thin layer visible between the photo resist
transfer of a pattern into a photosensitive material by and the silicon itself is silicon dioxide (SiO2). It serves as an
selective exposure to a radiation source such as light. A etch mask for the Si etch, since its etch rate in most of the
photosensitive material is a material that experiences a acidic etchants is considerably lower than that of Si,
change in its physical properties when exposed to a whereas photo resists do not stand up to the strong attack
radiation source. If a photosensitive material is selectively
of most of the etchants. It is either a naturally grown oxide
exposed to radiation (e.g. by masking some of the
of approximately 20 Å (oxidation of silicon is nearly
radiation) the pattern of the radiation on the material is
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unavoidable when exposed to an atmosphere containing commonly used in HAR silicon micromachining are thick
oxygen) or is thermally grown to a distinctive thickness. polycrystalline silicon, known as epi-poly, and bonded
silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers although processes for
7.2 Surface micromachining: bulk silicon wafer also have been created (SCREAM).
Bonding a second wafer by glass frit bonding, anodic
bonding or alloy bonding is used to protect the MEMS
In contrast to the bulk micromachining described above,
structures. Integrated circuits are typically not combined
where three-dimensional structures are etched into the
with HAR silicon micromachining. The consensus of the
substrate wafer, surface micromachining consists of
industry at the moment seems to be that the flexibility and
building them by layering thin films of new material onto
reduced process complexity obtained by having the two
the surface of the substrate. Usually, sacrificial spacer layers
functions separated far outweighs the small penalty in
are used to create freestanding structures like air-bridges;
packaging. A comparison of different high-aspect-ratio
after depositing such a sacrificial layer and patterning it
microstructure technologies can be found in the HARMST
using micro lithographic steps described above, the
article.
material for the final structure is deposited. Afterwards, the
spacer layer is removed by an appropriate etchant, freeing
the desired structure.

8 TYPES OF MEMS SENSORS:

There are many types of sensors now available in market
such as,

 Mechanical Sensors
 Optical Sensors
((a) Spacer layer deposition. (b) Pattering of the spacer  Thermal Sensors
layer. (c) Deposition of the microstructure layer. (d)  Chemical & Biological Sensors
Patterning of desired structure. (e) Stripping of the spacer
layer resolves final structure.) 8.1 Mechanical Sensors:

MEMS accelerometer is the one of the type of mechanical

sensor. MEMS accelerometers have displaced conventional
7.3 High aspect ratio (HAR) silicon micromachining:
accelerometers for crash air-bag deployment systems in
automobiles. The previous technology approach used
Both bulk and surface silicon micromachining are used in
several bulky accelerometers made of discrete components
the industrial production of sensors, ink-jet nozzles, and
mounted in the front of the car with separate electronics
other devices. But in many cases the distinction between
near the air-bag and cost more than $50 per device. The car
these two has diminished. A new etching technology, deep
is equipped with airbags, means having a sensor “MEMS
reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine good
accelerometer “which is the IC (integrated circuit) small.
performance typical of bulk micromachining with comb
The sensor works by detecting rapid-deceleration (slowing
structures and in-plane operation typical of surface
down too fast, CMIIW), who then ordered the system to
micromachining. While it is common in surface
inflate the airbag.
micromachining to have structural layer thickness in the
range of 2 µm, in HAR silicon micromachining the
thickness can be from 10 to 100 µm. The materials
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The soft contact lens like sensor, with its MEMS antenna
8.2 Optical Sensors:
(golden rings), its MEMS sensor (silver ring close to the
A diaphragm-based interferometric fiber optical outer edge), and microprocessor
microelectromechanical system sensor with high sensitivity
is designed and tested for on-line detection of the acoustic
waves generated by partial discharges (PD) inside high-
voltage power transformers. In principle, the sensor is
made according to Fabric Perot interference, which is 9 APPLICATIONS:
placed on a micro-machined rectangular silicon membrane MEMS sensors have wide range of applications such as,
as a pressure-sensitive element. 9.1 Automation:
MEMS technology finds applications in,
8.3 Thermal Sensors: 1. Airbag Systems
2. Vehicle Security Systems
Thermal sensors detect the temperature & converts it into 3. Inertial Brake Lights
digital form. Developed through TI's (Texas Instrument) 4. Headlight Leveling
expertise in MEMS technology, the TMP006 is the first of a 5. Rollover Detection
new class of ultra-small, low power, and low cost passive 6. Automatic Door Locks
infrared temperature sensors. It has 90% lower power 7. Active Suspension
consumption and is more than 95% smaller than existing The automotive MEMS sensor market will reach new highs
solutions, making contactless temperature measurement in 2012, leaving behind the ups and downs of 2009 and 2010
possible in completely new markets and applications. and the Japan Earthquake earlier this year. And the news
gets much better beyond 2012: MEMS revenue from vehicle
8.4 Chemical & Biological Sensors: growth will jump 16% in 2012 to $2.31 billion, on its way to
$2.93B in 2015 (see Figure 1). This represents 9% growth
Piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) from 2010 to 2015.
resonant sensors, known for their excellent mass resolution,
have been studied for many applications, including DNA
hybridization, protein–legend interactions, and
immunosensor development. They have also been explored
for detecting antigens, organic gas, toxic ions, and
explosives. Most piezoelectric MEMS resonant sensors are
acoustic sensors (with specific coating layers) that enable
selective and label-free detection of biological events in real Figure 1: Market for automotive MEMS sensors, 2006-2015
time. These label-free technologies have recently garnered revenues in US $M. (Source: IHS supply)
significant attention for their sensitive and quantitative In 2015, although car production will reach a total of 98
multi-parameter analysis of biological systems. million units and drive growth organically, the market
"rocket" (i.e., mandates) will have exhausted their
propellant by this stage -- and the sensor market therefore
only grows at 5% in that year.

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9.2 Medicine: MEMS promises to be an effective technique of producing

sensors of high quality, at lower costs. Thus we can
There are a wide variety of applications for MEMS in
medicine. The first and by far the most successful conclude that the MEMS can create a proactive computing
application of MEMS in medicine (at least in terms of world, connected computing nodes automatically, acquire
number of devices and market size) are MEMS pressure and act on real-time data about a physical environment,
sensors, which have been in use for several decades. The helping to improve lives, promoting a better understanding
market for these pressure sensors is extremely diverse and of the world and enabling people to become more
highly fragmented, with a few high-volume markets and productive .
many lower volume ones. Some of the applications of
MEMS pressure sensors in medicine include: ACKNOWLEDGMENT-
1. MEMS pressure sensors are used to measure The author thanks the director of college
intrauterine pressure during birth. The device is housed in “ANNASAHEB COLLEGE OF ENGG. & TECHNOLOGY”
a catheter that is placed between the baby's head and the for financial support and also
uterine wall. During delivery, the baby's blood pressure is Dr. Shaila Subbaraman (professor at ADCET)
monitored for problems during the mother's contractions. Mrs. M. N. Chvan (asst. professor at ADCET)
2. MEMS pressure sensors are used in hospitals and Mr. R. A. Jadhav (asst. professor at ADCET)
ambulances as monitors of a patient’s vital signs, For the technical assistance.
specifically the patient’s blood pressure and respiration.
3. The MEMS pressure sensors in respiratory monitoring
are used in ventilators to monitor the patient’s breathing
also in biconcavity laser.

9.3 Marine Science:

The advancement of MEMS technology has enable scientist
to miniaturized sensors on a dimensional scale of microns
.Recently ,the achievements in mems technology helps to
adaption of new sensors into underwater .It helps to get
more information about temperature ,pressure ,tidal &
current velocity. The MEMS devices, in marine sensing may
be attached to:
Ships, AUVs (Autonomous underwater vehicle), fixed sea
structure, sea bed.
MEMS sensors are also used to finding oil & gas reserves.

9.4 Military Operation:

1. An array of MEMS sensors spread on the ocean floor

could detect the presence of enemy submarines.
2. MEMS sensors (pressure sensors, accelerometers etc.) are
being used in anti-torpedo weapons on submarines and
ships.
3. MEMS sensors in torpedoes are responsible for
detonating the torpedo at the right time.
4. Hitting the target in a crowded environment.
5. Prevent any premature explosion.

10 CONCLUSION:

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