ST talks about Consumerization and Personalization
October 20, 2010, MEMS Technology Summit, Stanford, CA—Benedetto Vigna, vice president and general manager, sensors and high-performance analog vision at STMicroelectronics talked about MEMS moving “From Consumerization To Personalization” in his keynote address.
The first successful commercial MEMS products were automotive airbag sensors. These products opened the door for MEMS to other product areas, as manufacturers developed and refined specialized techniques for MEMS production. The expansion beyond accelerometers continued in the automotive product areas into tire pressure gauges and stabilization systems. The increasing production volumes would leverage the traditional semiconductor learning curve resulting in reduced prices for all classes of MEMS products.
These constantly falling prices have brought MEMS products down to a range where they can easily be integrated into consumer-level products. Now MEMS products are available in gaming systems and mobile and handheld applications, and in fact make smart phones possible. Device functionality has also expanded beyond pressure sensors and accelerometers to gyroscopes, tuning filters, and even into biological sensing and detecting functions.
This move into consumer devices increases production volume leading to further price decreases and highly robust manufacturing functions. As a result new products have higher performance and reliability at a much lower cost than previous generations of products. New design tools are helping to reduce development times and are enabling more people to become involved in MEMS design.
The third wave of MEMS products will be in, on, and around the body. The drivers for these new products is the increasing population and aging of the population. Sensors are now or will soon be available to detect motion pressure and biological functions together creating a unified vital sign detection system. In addition, other types of devices could deliver drugs to specific parts of the body to pumps, valves, and nozzles. Other devices are in development to address cell and fluid handling issues.
One example of a multi-sensor platform comes from gaming. EA sports has a Active 2.0 game accessory that monitors a number of physical parameters of the player during a game. One new implantable device is a pressure sensor for glaucoma that provides 24/7 sensing of the pressure inside the eye, and connects wirelessly to a readout device for data evaluation.
A remote patient monitoring is a complement to an ECG. In addition to vital sign measurements, the monitor includes an accelerometer to detect falls. The product connects through low-power wireless signals to an intermediate storage device which is queried by medical people in hospital. As more sensors include wireless connectivity, biological sensing moves to a digital domain, which enables remote point-of-care with hospital-level diagnostics.
Also in the implantable product category are now functions like insulin delivery for diabetics. These pumps can be coupled to other devices that measure glucose levels to automatically create a closed loop control system. Along the same lines, micro pore valves and nozzles can deliver drugs to specific sites rather than depending on fluid transport mechanisms within the body.
The consumerization of MEMS will bring about changes in our daily lives, from entertainment and games to healthcare diagnostics and delivery. All of this change requires innovation, which is only possible when creativity, resources, execution, and function all intersect.
