Researchers at MIT have achieved a major breakthrough in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology which will allow for the fabrication of three dimensional microchips using existing fabrication techniques.
The silicon device contains microscopic elements about the width of a red blood cell which can be engineered to reach heights of hundreds of microns above the chip’s surface.
Fabio Fachin, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told MITNews the device can be outfitted with sensors on both sides of the very tiny bridge to detect three-dimensional phenomena such as acceleration.
“One of the main driving factors in the current MEMS industry is to try to make fully three-dimensional devices on a single chip, which would not only enable real 3-D sensing and actuation, but also yield significant cost benefits,” Fachin says. “A MEMS accelerometer could give you very accurate acceleration [measurements] with a very small footprint, which in space is critical.”
Fachin collaborated with Brian Wardle, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and Stefan Nikles, a design engineer at MEMSIC, an Andover, MA-based company which develops wireless-sensor technology.
The most disruptive byproduct of the discovery will likely be the impact it has on the cost of developing sensors that can be embedded in just about anything. It was previously thought that an entirely new manufacturing process was needed to develop 3D MEMS, but Fachin and his team were able to accomplish their goal using current fabrication techniques. This could be a game changer for developing highly complex wearable sensors for body area networks.
“This offers a very cost-effective way for 3-D structures,” says Y.K. Yoon, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida who did not take part in the research. “Since the process is based on a silicon substrate, and compatible with standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes, it will also offer a pathway to a smart CMOS-MEMS process, with good manufacturability.”
