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2008
Journal Article
Title
The Dawn of self-sufficient micro systems
Abstract
The market of self-sufficient, autonomous micro systems is known to be permanently growing due to declining manufacturing costs and the decreasing size of these systems. Applications like access control, catastrophe management, autonomous technical inspections, and monitoring of environmental conditions will benefit from the reduced size and extreme mechanical robustness. Developments in the area of self-sufficient micro systems are mainly driven by advances in semiconductor fabrication and packaging technologies. With the technological feasibility, the first products of self-sufficient micro systems were targeted at the laboratory market with less critical cost constraints. Currently, self-sufficient micro systems are entering the mass market. Wireless heat cost allocators and tire pressure sensors have been the first mass products in million quantities. While a price difference of several dollars decides the marketability in the industry market, just a few cents are important in the consumer market. Hence, a high optimization degree for self-sufficient micro systems is becoming more and more important.