Silicon microsystems: merging sensors, circuits and systems

While the electronic properties of silicon are widely utilized in high-volume IC manufacturing, the use of its mechanical as well as its other properties is still lagging behind. Recent advances in IC-compatible micromachining techniques, however, have created the technological basis for constructing miniature, high-precision, mechanical structures in and on silicon. Thus microsensors and microactuators can be merged together with sophisticated microelectronics to create microsystems. This tutorial shows that besides lowering manufacturing costs, the silicon integration of both sensors and electronics offers several other significant advantages.