The company's NEMS based sensors are made using standard CMOS processes and mask techniques. In the Nanusens process, the inter metal dielectric (IMD) is etched away through the pad openings in the passivation layer using vapor HF (vHF) to create the nano-sensor structures. The holes are then sealed and the chip packaged as necessary. Because only standard CMOS processes are used, and the sensors can be directly integrated with active circuitry as required, the sensors can potentially have high yields similar to CMOS devices. Nanusens claims that its process also results in nano-scale devices that overcome a major problem of MEMS inertial sensors, stiction, by two orders of magnitude by reducing the sensor size by an order of magnitude into the nano-realm. We recently spoke with Josep Montanyà i Silvestre, the CEO of Nanusens.
