“MEMS empowers consumer devices and gadgets with an ability to sense the external environment and act intelligently”

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, is a technology that in its most general form can be defined as miniaturized mechanical and electromechanical elements (i.e., devices and structures) that are made using the techniques of microfabrication. Over the last couple of decades, the market for MEMS has been rapidly expanding. These days MEMS has a large range of other applications spread across numerous market sectors.

Many of today’s most common MEMS applications are found in consumer electronics (CE), such as smartphones, tablets, and video game systems. Additionally, a variety of other applications, including wearable electronics for the health and fitness markets, also incorporate MEMS, and as the use of these devices increases, the demand for MEMS should become even more ubiquitous.

To understand the scope of MEMS in India better, Electronics Bazaar spoke to Vishal Goyal, Senior Manager – Technical Marketing, Analog and MEMS Group [AMG], India, Asean and ANZ, STMicroelectronics. STMicroelectronics is an ecosystem enabler for MEMS & Sensors

How can MEMS benefit consumers on a larger scale?

MEMS sensors have enabled intuitive motion-activated user interfaces in many consumer devices, including most of the leading smartphones, tablets, personal media players, game consoles, digital still cameras and remotes, making these more accessible and appealing to people. ST’s MEMS devices are also widely used for free-fall protection in laptop hard-disk drives, in many health and fitness products, and for car infotainment and enhanced navigation. Today, they are being designed into new applications as varied as providing the crispest, clearest audio in mobile communications and adding localized weather/environmental monitoring capabilities to consumers’ mobile devices.

Please share few examples of the application areas where MEMS Technology can benefit consumers.

Few examples where MEMS Technology can benefit consumers are:

In Smart City with better living, higher security, and less waste by

• Reducing traffic congestion
• Better usage of resources
• Improving security
• Infrastructure evolution using smart sensor nodes enabling new services like traffic monitoring, weather station, improved security
• Automating garbage collection : Connected containers allow cities to more manage efficiently manage collection and provide better services

In Smart Homes by

• Increasing comfort level
• Saving energy
• Automatic climate control

In Smart Things by

• Enabling better interaction with technology
• Making daily tasks easier
• Gesture based games

In Fitness & Healthcare by

• Helping to lead healthier lives
• Helping physicians monitor and diagnose remotely

In Smart Driving for making intelligent cars aware to

• Increase safety
• Fleet monitoring and Telematics
• Recognize driver’s driving pattern recognition 

 How important is MEMS in the Indian market?

India is one of the largest markets for consumer goods and latest gadgets. MEMS sensor technology plays an important role by empowering consumer devices and gadgets with an ability to sense the external environment and act intelligently. So, MEMS is quite important for the Indian market.

STMicroelectronics offers a comprehensive portfolio of micro-machined accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, magnetic sensors, and microphones and has the capability to integrate these in multi-sensor combos with on-board signal processing, control functions, sensor-fusion algorithms, and wireless connectivity.

How do you stay competitive and maintain your leadership position in MEMS technology space

ST is the only company to offer the full range of Sensors and Microactuators. ST is continuously strengthening its position in the MEMS market through the introduction of new devices. In addition to motion sensors, environmental sensors and MEMS microphones, we are using MEMS mirrors to develop a complete solution for ultra-mobile projectors. It is absolutely critical to keep competitive advantage and maintain the trust of our customers. This requires to be innovative and creative while following our strategic direction.

Can you highlight a bit on the new products that ST has showcased in India?

STMicroelectronics has launched three new products at a go this time. They are :

• Wesu Smartwatch platform
• Blue Micro-system
• Voice over BLE

Our first product i.e, STEVAL-WESU1 FW provides a complete framework to build wearable applications, using inertial and environmental sensor drivers, battery profile measurements, and Bluetooth low energy for data communication. The system embeds a low power ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller unit (STM32L151VE), an iNEMO inertial module (LSM6DS3), a high performance magnetometer (LIS3MDL), a barometric pressure sensor (LPS25HB), a Bluetooth low energy wireless network processor (BLUENRG-MS) and power management circuitry that allows fast charging and precise energy estimation (STNS01 and STC3115).

The second product i.e, BLUEMICROSYSTEM1 provides a complete middleware for STM32 to build applications using inertial (e.g. motion MEMS) and environmental (e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature) sensors, leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy for sensor data communication.

The third product i.e, BlueVoice + Android provides a complete example of STM32 application for voice streaming (acquired by digital MEMS microphones) over Bluetooth Low Energy to an Android device. The package is based on an improved version of OsxBlueVoice library which implements a vendor- specific profile, defining a service composed of an audio characteristic.