News Article
MEMS device voted year’s best
The MEMS development of an American subsidiary of German based Siemens AG has been voted among the year’s best technologies by a prestigious North American technical magazine. In a sign that the MEMS market is rapidly developing new market potential, the work on environmental usage of MEMS by Siemens has been singled out.
The MEMS development of an American subsidiary of German based Siemens AG has been voted among the year’s best technologies by a prestigious North American technical magazine. In a sign that the MEMS market is rapidly developing new market potential, the work on environmental usage of MEMS by Siemens has been singled out.
The goal of the Siemens group headed by Osman Ahmed is to develop MEMS devices that will drive sensing, communicating, processing and power management in a single device.
According to Siemens, the technology can combine several building automation system functions such as sensing, wireless communication, processing and power management. Siemens have devised a method that places several sensing layers on one silicon sensor.
"What we have been thinking from a Building Systems perspective is that it would make sense to go beyond sensing and incorporate other pieces of the puzzle that we actually provide in a building system, i.e., the wireless communication, the intelligent microprocessor and power management," says Ahmed.
"If we have the power scavenging sources, then I think the next generation might be a hybrid system [lithium-ion battery and ambient power]. So you will be having a battery back up, but then you will be using power scavenging sources when they are feasible to apply. And that hybrid system might give you six to eight years of life [for the MEMS chips]."
As for manufacturing applications, Ahmed says there are three major categories. One is monitoring the plant environment (bio, chemical). Another is operational efficiency. And the third category is monitoring plant assets.
For example, when a plant examines its energy efficiency and finds out that it is 20% less efficient than it could be, solutions may include changing the lighting to save that 20%.
"But with Microsystems we can actually pinpoint precisely where is the problem, and in that way our response could be more cost effective," Ahmed says.
Adding to this, Ahmed says the Microsystem platform will enable users to customize the technology.
"So somebody may need toxins, somebody may need chemicals, somebody may need biosensors, somebody may just need environmental sensors. You can essentially create this platform and plug and play the sensor suite depending upon your application."
The goal of the Siemens group headed by Osman Ahmed is to develop MEMS devices that will drive sensing, communicating, processing and power management in a single device.
According to Siemens, the technology can combine several building automation system functions such as sensing, wireless communication, processing and power management. Siemens have devised a method that places several sensing layers on one silicon sensor.
"What we have been thinking from a Building Systems perspective is that it would make sense to go beyond sensing and incorporate other pieces of the puzzle that we actually provide in a building system, i.e., the wireless communication, the intelligent microprocessor and power management," says Ahmed.
"If we have the power scavenging sources, then I think the next generation might be a hybrid system [lithium-ion battery and ambient power]. So you will be having a battery back up, but then you will be using power scavenging sources when they are feasible to apply. And that hybrid system might give you six to eight years of life [for the MEMS chips]."
As for manufacturing applications, Ahmed says there are three major categories. One is monitoring the plant environment (bio, chemical). Another is operational efficiency. And the third category is monitoring plant assets.
For example, when a plant examines its energy efficiency and finds out that it is 20% less efficient than it could be, solutions may include changing the lighting to save that 20%.
"But with Microsystems we can actually pinpoint precisely where is the problem, and in that way our response could be more cost effective," Ahmed says.
Adding to this, Ahmed says the Microsystem platform will enable users to customize the technology.
"So somebody may need toxins, somebody may need chemicals, somebody may need biosensors, somebody may just need environmental sensors. You can essentially create this platform and plug and play the sensor suite depending upon your application."
