By Maria Vetrano As director of the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics at Northwestern University, Professor John A. Rogers explores soft materials for conformal electronics, nanophotonic structures, microfluidic devices and MEMS, all with an emphasis on bio-inspired and bio-integrated technologies. During his keynote at FLEX and MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress 2019, February 18-21 in Monterey, Calif., Rogers will present examples of the diverse, novel classes of biocompatible electronic and microfluidic…
SEMI-MEMS & Sensors Industry Group
Getting to Low Power in IoT/IIoT Devices
By Luca Fontanella and Simone Ferri Over the last three years the number of battery-operated electronic-component solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications has been increasing steadily. This trend will continue for years to come, particularly with the growing popularity of mobile devices of all flavors. Addressing power consumption for battery-powered always-on IoT/IIoT devices – which rely on dozens of electronic components, including sensors —…
Emerging MEMS and Sensor Technologies to Watch – 2019 and Beyond
By Dr. Alissa M. Fitzgerald, founder and managing member, A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, LLC When developing industry forecasts, market analysts gather data from hundreds of companies to provide actionable insights on established technologies and to identify near-term business opportunities. As a developer of new MEMS and sensor technologies for a range of commercial applications, clients often ask us, “What’s going to be hot?” Gauging the promise of emerging technologies that…
Cybersecurity and Industry-Government Collaboration Hot Topics at MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress 2018
By Maria Vetrano SEMI-MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) welcomed a global group of industry executives to its 14th annual MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress (MSEC), October 29-30, 2018 in Napa, Calif. MEMS and sensors represent a robust sector of the electronic industry. Analyst firm Yole Développement expects the global market for MEMS and sensors to double in the next five years, reaching $100B by 2023, spurred by growth of…
Autonomous Mobility and the New Age of Sensor Fusion
By Maria Vetrano Marcellino Gemelli, director of global business development at Bosch Sensortec, will present at the upcoming MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress on October 29-30, 2018 in Napa, Calif. SEMI’s Maria Vetrano caught up with Gemelli to give MSEC attendees a preview of Gemelli’s feature presentation. Sensor fusion — the integration of different types of sensors through software algorithms to increase overall system performance and/or reduce power consumption— has…
Sensors in the New Age of the Car
By Richard Dixon, Senior Principal Analyst, Sensors, IHS Markit Sensors are inextricably linked to the future requirements of partially and fully autonomous vehicles. From highly granular dead-reckoning subsystems that rely on industrial-strength gyroscopes for superior navigation to more intelligent and personalized cockpits featuring intuitive human machine interfaces (HMIs) and smart seats, new generations of partially and fully autonomous cars will use sensors to enable dramatically better customer experiences. Dead reckoning,…
When Will Self-Driving Cars Become a Reality?
By Stephen Breit, Senior Director, MEMS Business, Coventor, a Lam Research Company Self-driving cars have been all the rage in both the trade and popular press in recent years. I prefer the term “autonomous vehicles,” which more broadly captures the possibilities, encompassing not only small passenger vehicles but mass transit and industrial vehicles as well. Depending on who’s talking, we will all be riding in fully autonomous vehicles in five…
MEMS Fabrication: Growth-Enabler or Industry Roadblock?
By D.Sc.(Tech.) Heikki Holmberg, senior development manager technology, Okmetic Oy The MEMS industry has huge growth potential. Will MEMS fabrication act as a bottleneck to continued expansion or a critical conduit to achieving that potential? Slow development cycles, multiple fabrication platforms and high cost for small R&D volumes are barriers to rapid development of new products. Understanding the special features of MEMS fabrication — with its many ecosystem options —…
AI and MEMS Sensors: A Critical Pairing
By Kaustubh Gandhi, Senior Product Manager, Bosch Sensortec Artificial intelligence (AI) is making headlines everywhere, offering a range of capabilities, including location and motion awareness — determining whether a user is sitting, walking, running or sleeping. Behind the scenes, AI is capturing volumes of data. Makers of smartphones and fitness and sports trackers, along with application developers, are all clamoring for this data because it helps them analyze real-world user…
What’s Next for Smart Speakers? Smarter Microphones
By Matt Crowley, CEO, Vesper Technologies Smart speakers and voice assistants are already a big part of everyday life for many of us. Improvement in speech recognition accuracy obtained from advancements in natural language processing, machine learning and cloud computing technologies is driving the success of voice assistants. We’re asking Siri to play music, Alexa to order kitchen supplies and OK, Google for the weather. The world’s largest consumer electronics…
