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If you’re Analog Devices, you’re betting that the high-reliability requirements of medical and industrial applications will open up new opportunities for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers and gyros.
After gaining a strong foothold in automotive and consumer electronics applications, thanks in part to new high-volume manufacturing, the MEMS motion sensor market is heading into a third wave of adoption in medical and industrial applications, according to Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) at last week’s (April 27) MEMS panel at the 2010 Globalpress Electronics Summit.
“Advanced, high-performance MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes are set to transform an incredibly diverse scope of new applications,” said Mark Martin, vice president of the MEMS and Sensors Technology Group at Analog Devices (Norwood, Mass.).
Karen Lightman, managing director of the MEMS Industry Group, agreed. “We’re in the midst of seeing the rise of the third wave of adoption, and it’s going to focus more on medical – blurring the line between consumer and medical devices – as well as industrial applications.”
Other growth drivers include sensor networks, energy including smart grid, and automotive applications particularly aimed at energy savings/energy harvesting and safety, said Lightman. Pricing for MEMS devices has dropped enough that there will be a proliferation of some of these applications, she added.
“At the end of the day, it’s really about cost,” Lightman said. “But, at any cost, if it doesn’t do something better than the existing technology, it won’t be used as a replacement technology because of the risk factor.”
As the adoption of MEMS devices in consumer electronics takes hold – which really didn’t start to make big gains until Apple, Inc. introduced the iPhone in 2008, fueling the demand for MEMS accelerometers used to detect motion in smartphones – new applications are starting to emerge in medical and industrial markets.
Martin said the third wave of adoption is driven by a need for higher levels of performance required in robotics, machine health monitoring, and portable medical devices, which are adopting ADI’s iMEMS and iSensor motion signal-processing technologies.
ADI defines high performance as meeting requirements for critical system performance parameters, safety or reliability enhancements, and highly precise measurements/diagnostics, combined with delivering the capability to maintain critical specifications like sensitivity, noise, and accuracy under all conditions, including various shock, vibration, and temperature conditions, which will result in benefits such as increased efficiencies and less system downtime.
As an example, ADI recently introduced the ADIS16223 iSensor accelerometer for monitoring industrial systems. Touted as the first fully programmable embedded triaxial MEMS vibration sensor, the device addresses the need for a more accurate, stable, and cost-effective approach to condition-based maintenance in industrial equipment. It monitors, detects, analyzes, and captures data in a single component. The ADIS16223 provides the same capabilities and programmability of larger brick level solutions, together with a wide bandwidth, in a smaller 15x15x15mm module.
The new device more easily isolates the vibration source and offers improved diagnostic accuracy compared to vibration switches or handheld monitors, Martin said.
Here are several key specs: +/- 70g dynamic range across three axes, 72.9k sample/s sample rate, programmable serial peripheral interface (SPI), flat frequency response from DC to 10kHz, programmable digital filters with low-pass and band-pass options and a wide temperature range of -40°C to +125°C.
Bosch Sensortec also presented at the panel, discussing the company’s rise in consumer MEMS applications. iSuppli ranks Bosch as the No. 2 supplier of MEMS in consumer electronics. STMicroelectronics is the No. 1 supplier. Kionix, Freescale, and ADI round out the top five.
Other panelists included Kionix, Applied Materials, and Coventor. Kionix discussed the company’s acquisition by Rohm as well as topics such as system-level integration and application innovation. Applied Materials talked about why it entered the MEMS market, while Coventer covered its holistic approach to MEMS design.
About the Author
For more than 20 years, business and technology writer Gina Roos has contributed both print and web articles to influential trade publications in the electronics industry. These publications include EE Times, Electronics Supply & Manufacturing, Electronic Business, Electronic Design News, Government Computer News, and Purchasing magazines. Roos was a major contributor to EE Times’ eeProductCenter website, specializing in sensors, passives, interconnects, and electromechanical devices. She also wrote the “In the Channel” column about the electronics distribution industry for ProductWeek. Roos has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Suffolk University in Boston, Mass.
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