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MEMS foundry Tronics develops piezoresistive nanowire inertial MEMS sensor

One year after announcing the commercialization program of CEA-Leti's MEMS and NEMS technologies, MEMS foundry Tronics has successfully designed and manufactured the first batch of the six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) MEMS motion sensor chips based on the piezoresistive nanowire technology, with three accelerometers and three gyroscopes on a single die.  With a reported die size of less than 4 mm², the company claims that its 6DOF MEMS chip is one of the smallest in the industry, and further optimization will make it the smallest.

An overview of high-performance MEMS based inertial sensors

A coming wave of high-performance MEMS based inertial sensors will enable lots of new applications.  We recently spoke with Dr. Andrei Shkel, a Professor at the University of California at Irvine, who has served as a Program Manager at DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office.  Dr. Shkel is also the event chair and organizer for the upcoming International Symposium for Inertial Sensors and Systems (ISISS 2014) with participation from such companies as Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, Analog Devices, Qualtre, and Systron Donner.  In this comprehensive interview, Dr. Shkel shares his views on the current R&D and commercial trends, provides an overview of relevant DARPA programs, and outlines his predictions for emerging applications enabled by the next generation of MEMS based inertial sensors.

MEMS makers ST, InvenSense announce settlement of pending patent litigation

STMicroelectronics and InvenSense, the leading makers of MEMS based motion sensors, announced this week that they have settled all pending proceedings between them and have entered into a patent cross license agreement.  The two companies had instituted various proceedings beginning in May 2012 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).  This settlement and patent cross license agreement resolves all such actions.  Under terms of the settlement, neither ST nor InvenSense has made any admission of liability with respect to such proceedings.  Other terms between the parties have not been disclosed.

Si-Ware's MEMS based spectrometer gaining traction in the marketplace

Depending on the performance, traditional spectrometers sell for $5,000 to as much as $100,000 per instrument.  Si-Ware Systems (SWS) says that its MEMS based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer module enables instrument makers to sell their products at well below the current price levels.  There are different levels of performance and capabilities for spectrometers, and instruments for higher spectral ranges are more costly.  For example, mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometers tend to need cooled photodetectors which adds significantly to the cost.  The performance of Si-Ware’s module is not as good as the lab-grade spectrometers.  However, the company says that its module is good enough for many other applications.