Modern Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

Dear Colleagues,

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are a technology that can generally be defined as miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical elements (i.e., devices and structures) that are made using microfabrication techniques.

MEMS have evolved from being a niche spinoff from microelectronics in the 1960s into an important and fast-growing industrial field in its own respect. The MEMS field now has a mature infrastructure spanning from extensive research activities to high-volume manufacturing, with a wide spectrum of applications. In the early days, high-cost niche applications were dominant, with users who were willing to pay a premium price for the MEMS devices because of their unique qualities in specific parameters like miniaturization, high reliability, and performance specifications. Typical examples here are MEMS accelerometers for defense and space applications, catheter tip blood pressure sensors for biomedical use, and barometric pressure sensors for weather stations, more or less all evolving as spin-offs from universities and research laboratories. These market niches were too small to finance the creation of cost-effective production, but that changed with breakthrough into high-volume markets, most notably with MEMS accelerometers for the automotive industry with airbag safety systems as the first high-volume low-cost application emerging in the 1980s. There is still a niche market for high-end/high-cost MEMS devices like MEMS gyroscopes for defense and aerospace, but the high-volume markets are now dominant, with automotive applications now being added by MEMS for mobile phones, consumer applications like sport watches, etc. The next “killer application” seems to be MEMS devices for wireless Internet of things (IOT) devices exploiting miniaturization with high performance and low power consumption. Since the inception of the field there has been a steady, evolutionary progress of performance combined with further cost reductions. Overall, the MEMS industry is booming, with double-digit (~10%–20%) annual growth in both the number of manufactured devices and turnover.

The MEMS research community is doing a great job to advance stat-of-the-art by steadily improving processes and designs, and most notably by taking advantage of the rapid progress of advanced micro- and nanotechnologies. In this Special Issue, recent advances in MEMS research will be highlighted.

Prof. Per Ohlckers
Guest Editor

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• microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
• accelerometers
• pressure sensors
• gyroscopes
• inertial sensors
• micro- and nanotechnologies