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The purpose of this paper is to present the utilities of packaging and PCB fabrication processes for manufacturing micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) and its package for sensing and actuation applications.

A broad array of manufacturing approaches available in the packaging industry, including lamination, lithography, etching, electroforming, machining, bonding, etc. and a large number of available functional materials such as polymers, ceramics, metals, etc. were explored for producing functional microdevices with greater design freedom.

Good quality MEMS devices can be manufactured using packaging style fabrication, particularly using stacks of laminates. Furthermore, such microdevices can be built with a high degree of integration, pre‐packaged, and at low cost.

Further manufacturing research work should be undertaken in collaboration with the PCB and packaging industries, which stand to benefit greatly by expanding their offerings beyond serving the semiconductor industry and developing their own integrated MEMS products.

The paper presents examples of basic packaging fabrication processes for producing 3‐D structures and free‐standing structures, and a new MEMS manufacturing paradigm to build micro‐electromechanical (MEMS) for biomedical, optical, and RF communication applications.

To describe the historical development of micro‐electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor technology, to consider its current use in physical, gas and chemical sensing and to identify and discuss future technological trends and directions.

This paper identifies the early research which led to the development of MEMS sensors. It considers subsequent applications of MEMS to physical, gas and chemical sensing and discusses recent technological innovations.

This paper illustrates the greatly differing impacts exerted on physical, gas and chemical sensing by MEMS technology. More recent developments are discussed which suggest strong market prospects for MEMS devices with analytical capabilities such as microspectrometers, micro‐GCs, microfluidics, lab‐on‐a‐chip and BioMEMS. This view is supported by various market data and forecasts.

This paper provides a technical and commercial insight into the applications of MEMS technology to physical and molecular sensors from the 1960s to the present day. It also identifies high growth areas for innovative developments in the technology.

This paper aims to design, optimize and simulate the Radio Frequency (RF) micro electromechanical system (MEMS) Switch which is stimulated by electrostatically voltage.

The geometric structure of the switch was extracted based on the design of Taguchi-based experiment using the mathematical programming and obtaining objective function by the genetic meta-heuristic algorithm.

The RF parameters of the switch were calculated for the design of Taguchi-based S11 = −5.649 dB and S21 = −46.428 dB at the working frequency of 40 GHz. The pull-in voltage of the switch was 2.8 V and the axial residual stress of the proposed design was obtained 28 MPa and the design of Taguchi-based S11 = −4.422 dB and S21 = −48.705dB at the working frequency of 40 GHz. The pull-in voltage of the switch was 2.5 V and the axial residual stress of the proposed design was obtained 25 MPa.

A novel complex strategy in the design and optimization of capacitive RF switch MEMS modeling is proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a technical review of silicon micro‐electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and its applications.

Following an introduction, the paper describes silicon MEMS fabrication and assembly techniques, considers a selection of commercially important products and their applications and concludes with a brief review of power MEMS research.

Silicon MEMS fabrication technology is derived from techniques used in semiconductor manufacture and has yielded a diverse and ever‐growing range of sensors, actuators and other miniaturised devices that find applications in a multitude of industries.

This paper provides a detailed technical review of MEMS technology and its applications.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors and their commercialisation and to consider a number of recent applications, markets and product developments.

Following an introduction and a brief historical background to MEMS sensors and their commercialisation, the paper describes a selection of recent applications, with an emphasis on high volume uses. Various market figures are included to place these applications in a commercial context. Sensors for both physical variables and gases are considered.

The paper shows that MEMS sensor applications continue to grow in the automotive, consumer electronics and other industries, which consume many millions of sensors annually. New product developments reflect the requirement for smaller and lower-cost sensors with enhanced performance and greater functionality. Markets for physical sensors dominate but MEMS technology is making progressive inroads in the gas sensing field.

This article provides a timely review of a selection of recent MEMS sensor applications, markets and product developments.

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in micro‐scale assembly technologies, primarily in the context of microsystems based on three‐dimensional (3D) micro‐electromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro‐opto‐electromechanical systems (MOEMS) technologies.

Following a brief introduction, this paper first discusses the problems associated with the assembly of micro‐components and then considers the role of robots and self‐assembly technologies. This is followed by a brief summary and conclusion.

Experimental robotic systems have been developed and used for the assembly of a wide range of MEMS and MOEMS components. Various self‐assembly technologies offer prospects for massively parallel microassembly but have yet to achieve the success of the robotic approach. Some work has sought to combine the best feature of both approaches but as yet, no technologies have been developed that can rapidly, accurately and cost‐effectively assemble micro‐components into hybrid 3D MEMS/MOEMS devices in a true production environment.

This paper provides a detailed review of recent progress in the robotic and self‐assembly of micro‐components.

This paper aims to present an efficient design approach for the micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers considering design parameters affecting the long-term reliability of these inertial sensors in comparison to traditional iterative microfabrication and experimental characterization approach.

A dual-axis capacitive MEMS accelerometer design is presented considering the microfabrication process constraints of the foundry process. The performance of the MEMS accelerometer is analyzed through finite element method– based simulations considering main design parameters affecting the long-term reliability. The effect of microfabrication process induced residual stress, operating pressure variations in the range of 10 mTorr to atmospheric pressure, thermal variations in the operating temperature range of −40°C to 100°C and impulsive input acceleration at different input frequency values is presented in detail.

The effect of residual stress is negligible on performance of the MEMS accelerometer due to efficient design of mechanical suspension beams. The effect of operating temperature and pressure variations is negligible on energy loss factor. The thermal strain at high temperature causes the sensing plates to deform out of plane. The input dynamic acceleration range is 34 g at room temperature, which decreases with operating temperature variations. At low frequency input acceleration, the input acts as a quasi-static load, whereas at high frequency, it acts as a dynamic load for the MEMS accelerometer.

In comparison with the traditional MEMS accelerometer design approaches, the proposed design approach focuses on the analysis of critical design parameters that affect the long-term reliability of MEMS accelerometer.

This paper aims to provide details of MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) sensors produced from materials other than silicon.

Following a short introduction, this first considers reasons for using alternatives to silicon. It then discusses MEMS sensor products and research involving sapphire, quartz, silicon carbide and aluminium nitride. It then considers polymer and paper MEMS sensor developments and concludes with a brief discussion.

MEMS sensors based on the “hard” materials are well-suited to very-high-temperature- and precision-sensing applications. Some have been commercialised and there is a strong, on-going body of research. Polymer MEMS sensors are attracting great interest from the research community and have the potential to yield devices for both physical and molecular sensing that are inexpensive and simple to fabricate. The prospects for paper MEMS remain unclear but the technology may ultimately find uses in ultra-low-cost sensing of low-magnitude mechanical variables.

This provides a technical insight into the increasingly important role played by MEMS sensors fabricated from materials other than silicon.

Pressure, being one of the key variables investigated in scientific and engineering research, requires critical and accurate measurement techniques. With the advancements in materials and machining technologies, there is a large leap in the measurement techniques including the development of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors. These sensors are one to two orders smaller in magnitude than traditional sensors and combine electrical and mechanical components that are fabricated using integrated circuit batch-processing technologies. MEMS are finding enormous applications in many industrial fields ranging from medical to automotive, communication to electronics, chemical to aviation and many more with a potential market of billions of dollars. MEMS pressure sensors are now widely used devices owing to their intrinsic properties of small size, light weight, low cost, ease of batch fabrication and integration with an electronic circuit. This paper aims to identify and analyze the common pressure sensing techniques and discuss their uses and advantages. As per our understanding, usage of MEMS pressure sensors in the aerospace industry is quite limited due to cost constraints and indirect measurement approaches owing to the inability to locate sensors in harsh environments. The purpose of this study is to summarize the published literature for application of MEMS pressure sensors in the said field. Five broad application areas have been investigated including: propulsion/turbomachinery applications, turbulent flow diagnosis, experimentalaerodynamics, micro-flow control and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/micro aerial vehicle (MAV) applications.

The first part of the paper deals with an introduction to MEMS pressure sensors and mathematical relations for its fabrication. The second part covers pressure sensing principles followed by the application of MEMS pressure sensors in five major fields of aerospace industry.

In this paper, various pressure sensing principles in MEMS and applications of MEMS technology in the aerospace industry have been reviewed. Five application fields have been investigated including: Propulsion/Turbomachinery applications, turbulent flow diagnosis, experimental aerodynamics, micro-flow control and UAV/MAV applications. Applications of MEMS sensors in the aerospace industry are quite limited due to requirements of very high accuracy, high reliability and harsh environment survivability. However, the potential for growth of this technology is foreseen due to inherent features of MEMS sensors’ being light weight, low cost, ease of batch fabrication and capability of integration with electric circuits. All these advantages are very relevant to the aerospace industry. This work is an endeavor to present a comprehensive review of such MEMS pressure sensors, which are used in the aerospace industry and have been reported in recent literature.

As per the author’s understanding, usage of MEMS pressure sensors in the aerospace industry is quite limited due to cost constraints and indirect measurement approaches owing to the inability to locate sensors in harsh environments. Present work is a prime effort in summarizing the published literature for application of MEMS pressure sensors in the said field. Five broad application areas have been investigated including: propulsion/turbomachinery applications, turbulent flow diagnosis, experimental aerodynamics, micro-flow control and UAV/MAV applications.

This paper aims to illustrate how sensors can be fabricated by combining nanomaterials with micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology and to give examples of recently developed devices arising from this approach.

Following a short introduction, this paper first identifies the benefits of MEMS technology. It then discusses the techniques for integrating carbon nanotubes with MEMS and provides examples of physical and molecular sensors produced by these methods. Combining other gas-responsive nanomaterials with MEMS is then considered and finally techniques for producing graphene on silicon devices are discussed. Brief concluding comments are drawn.

This shows that many physical and molecular sensors have been developed by combining nanomaterials with MEMS technology. These have been fabricated by a diverse range of techniques which are often complex and multi-stage, but significant progress has been made and some are compatible with standard CMOS processes, yielding fully integrated nanosensors.

This provides an insight into how two key technologies are being combined to yield families of advanced sensors.