Page 13 - MEMS Mechanical Sensors

2 Introduction

• IEEE International MEMS Conference (rotates annually between the United
States, Asia, and Europe);
• Micro and Nano Engineering—MNE (held annually in Europe);
• Japanese Sensor Symposium (held annually in Japan);
• Micro Total Analysis Systems— µTAS (held annually in the United States,
Asia, Europe, and Canada);
• SPIE hold many symposia on MEMS at worldwide locations.

In addition, there are several journals that cover the field of microsensors and
sensor technologies, including:

• Sensors and Actuators (A-Physical, B-Chemical);
• IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS);
• Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering;
• Measurement, Science and Technology;
• Nanotechnology;
• Microelectronic Engineering;
• Journal of Micromechatronics;
• Smart Materials and Structures;
• Journal of Microlithography, Microfabrication, and Microsystems;
• IEEE Sensors Journal;
• Sensors and Materials.

The major advancements in the field of microsensors have undoubtedly taken
place within the past 20 years, and there is good reason to consider these as a mod-
ern technology. From an historical point of view, the interested reader might wish to
refer to a paper titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” [2]. This is based on a
seminar given in 1959 by the famous physicist Richard Feynman where he consid-
ered issues such as the manipulation of matter on an atomic scale and the feasibility
of fabricating denser electronic circuits for computers. He also considered the issues
of building smaller and smaller tools that could make even smaller tools so that
eventually the individual atoms could be manipulated. The effects of gravity become
negligible while those of surface tension and Van der Waals forces do not. Feynman
even offered a prize (subsequently claimed in 1960) to the first person who could
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make an electric motor 1/64 in (about 0.4 mm ). These size limits turned out to be
slightly too large and the motor was actually made using conventional mechanical
engineering methods that did not require any new technological developments.

1.2 What Are MEMS?

MEMS means different things to different people. The acronym MEMS stands for
microelectromechanical systems and was coined in the United States in the late
1980s. Around the same time the Europeans were using the phrase microsystems
technology (MST). It could be argued that the former term refers to a physical entity,