What is MEMS Technology?

What is MEMS Technology?

MEMS stand for Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems. This technology integrates mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics located on a silicon substrate level.

Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems Advantages

MEMS Technology enables small-sized sensors such as miniature IMU, AHRS, INS. Other advantages include lower power consumption, lower cost, increased reliability and robustness.

MEMS Applications

MEMS have proven to be a key enabling technology for developments in areas such as transportation, telecommunications and health care. Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems sensors are now also widely used in consumer grade applications, such as smart-phones and gaming devices, but there is also a large market for higher quality MEMS devices, developed for automotive, aerospace and other applications.

Sensor Grade

The sensor grade represents the quality of the component, which is a good indicator of its reliability. It is a scale that is usually separated into the following categories: Consumer, Industrial, Tactical, Navigation, Military.

The higher grade the sensor is, the more accurate it is, and higher is the price. For inertial devices, this classification is based on the drift in g for the accelerometers and in degrees per second for the gyroscopes.

Consumer Grade vs Industrial Grade

Consumer and industrial grade sensors answer to different needs.

The main strength of Industrial grade sensors is their reliability, when consumer grade sensors have a wider measurement range for a lower price.

The gyroscope range indicates the grade of the sensor. Usually gyroscopes and accelerometers are the same grade.