Various embodiments provide systems and methods capable of facilitating interaction with handheld electronics devices based on sensing rotational rate around at least three axes and linear acceleration along at least three axes. In one aspect, a handheld electronic device includes a subsystem providing display capability, a set of motion sensors sensing rotational rate around at least three axes and linear acceleration along at least three axes, and a subsystem which, based on motion data derived from at least one of the motion sensors, is capable of facilitating interaction with the device.

Controlling and accessing content using motion processing on mobile devices

A module operable to be mounted onto a surface of a board. The module includes a linear accelerometer to provide a first measurement output corresponding to a measurement of linear acceleration in at least one axis, and a first rotation sensor operable to provide a second measurement output corresponding to a measurement of rotation about at least one axis. The accelerometer and the first rotation sensor are formed on a first substrate. The module further includes an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to receive both the first measurement output from the linear accelerometer and the second measurement output from the first rotation sensor. The ASIC includes an analog-to-digital converter and is implemented on a second substrate. The first substrate is vertically bonded to the second substrate.

Integrated motion processing unit (mpu) with mems inertial sensing and embedded digital electronics

Interfacing application programs and motion sensors of a device. In one aspect, a high-level command is received from an application program running on a motion sensing device, where the application program implements one of multiple different types of applications available for use on the device. The high-level command requests high-level information derived from the output of motion sensors of the device that include rotational motion sensors and linear motion sensors. The command is translated to cause low-level processing of motion sensor data output by the motion sensors, the low-level processing following requirements of the type of application and determining the high-level information in response to the command. The application program is ignorant of the low-level processing, and the high-level information is provided to the application program.

Interfacing application programs and motion sensors of a device

This paper discusses piezoelectric acoustic devices based on widely used piezoelectric materials. Commonly used piezoelectric thin film deposition techniques and the influence of process parameters on the growth, texture and orientation of the films are discussed. Etching techniques are also outlined. A comparative study of different devices developed previously is given. Also, applications of developed devices in aero-acoustic and medical fields have been briefly discussed. Flow charts of various techniques of deposition along with a combined one for full acoustic device fabrication are given. Various techniques, frequently used for thin film characterization have been discussed. The testing and measurement techniques to determine the responses of acoustic devices such as sensitivity, resonance frequency, frequency response, piezoelectric co-efficient etc. have been briefly illustrated. This paper discusses common failure modes with respect to the field of use of acoustic devices. It also concisely discusses various reliability tests done in industries to assess the quality of the developed devices. This review has also suggested directions for future development of thin film acoustic sensors.

Piezoelectric MEMS based acoustic sensors: A review

This review collates around 100 papers that developed micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) capacitive microphones. As far as we know, this is the first comprehensive archive from academia on this versatile device from 1989 to 2019. These works are tabulated in term of intended application, fabrication method, material, dimension, and performances. This is followed by discussions on diaphragm, backplate and chamber, and performance parameters. This review is beneficial for those who are interested with the evolutions of this acoustic sensor.

A Review of MEMS Capacitive Microphones

Provided are a Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) package and a method of packaging the MEMS package. The MEMS package includes: a MEMS device including MEMS structures formed on a substrate, first pad electrodes driving the MEMS structures, first sealing parts formed at an edge of the substrate, and connectors formed on the first pad electrodes and the first sealing parts; and a MEMS driving electronic device including second pad electrodes and second sealing parts respectively corresponding to the first pad electrodes and the first sealing parts to be sealed with and bonded to the MEMS device through the connectors to form an air gap having a predetermined width.

Mems package and packaging method thereof

This paper presents a novel fabrication method of scalloping-free and footing-free vertical electrodes for micromachined capacitive inclinometers with a high sensing resolution. The proposed fabrication method is based on additional crystalline wet etching of a (1 1 0) silicon that is bonded to a silicon substrate with a patterned insulator layer. The sensing electrodes, which are aligned to the (1 1 1) plane, have very smooth sidewalls because the morphological defects formed by the silicon deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process are drastically reduced in the crystalline wet etching. The fabricated capacitive inclinometer with smooth sensing electrodes was evaluated in terms of capacitance change and resolution. The capacitance of the fabricated inclinometer is changed from −0.246 to 0.258 pF for the inclination angle (−90° to 90°). The temporal deviation of the capacitance is as small as 0.2 fF, which leads to a high resolution of 0.1° or less for ±45°.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0960-1317/19/3/035025/pdf

Fabrication of morphological defect-free vertical electrodes using a (1 1 0) silicon-on-patterned-insulator process for micromachined capacitive inclinometers

In this paper, a low-power CMOS interface circuit is designed and demonstrated for capacitive sensor applications, which is implemented using a standard 0.35-μm CMOS logic technology. To achieve low-power performance, the low-voltage capacitance-to-pulse-width converter based on a self-reset operation at a supply voltage of 1.5 V is designed and incorporated into a new interface circuit. Moreover, the external pulse signal for the reset operation is made unnecessary by the employment of the self-reset operation. At a low supply voltage of 1.5 V, the new circuit requires a total power consumption of 0.47 mW with ultra-low power dissipation of 157 μW of the interfacecircuit core. These results demonstrate that the new interface circuit with self-reset operation successfully reduces power consumption. In addition, a prototype wireless sensor-module with the proposed circuit is successfully implemented for practical applications. Consequently, the new CMOS interface circuit can be used for the sensor applications in ubiquitous sensor networks, where low-power performance is essential.

1.5 V Sub-mW CMOS Interface Circuit for Capacitive Sensor Applications in Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

A surface-micromachined capacitive-type micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) acoustic sensor with X-shape bottom electrode anchor on a Si substrate is presented. As it is designed to be implemented on only one side of a substrate for a simple monolithic integrated process, this sensor has X-shape bottom electrode anchor fabricated. The anchor operates to remove the back side process of wafer for a conventional back chamber because the chamber is formed through Si surface etching by an isotropic dry etcher of XeF 2 . The Si MEMS acoustic sensor proposed in this paper has a diameter of 300 µm and a back chamber depth of 25 µm. It shows a pull down voltage of 9.1 V at 1 kHz and a zero-bias capacitance of 1.87 pF. Additionally, the sensor has an open-circuit sensitivity of 0.57 mV/Pa at 1 kHz on a bias of 5 V.

A surface-micromachined MEMS acoustic sensor with X-shape bottom electrode anchor

In this paper, a bidirectional readout integrated circuit (ROIC) with capacitance-to-time conversion operation has been proposed and demonstrated for high performance capacitive micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers, which is implemented by a 0.35-mum CMOS EEPROM process. For the desired performance of the proposed ROIC, a bidirectional time-to-digital conversion (TDC) method with a capacitance-to-time (C-T) conversion operation is employed for the detection of the directions. At the condition of the reference capacitance (CRef.) of 20 pF, the new ROIC shows the positive sign-bit ('1') for the case of the sensor capacitance (CSen.) 20 pF, which lead to the bidirectional accelerometer operation. Consequently, the new proposed ROIC exhibits the bidirectional readout operation by the bidirectional TDC operation with the C-T conversion.

Chang-Han Je

Papers

Mems package and packaging method thereof

Fabrication of morphological defect-free vertical electrodes using a (1 1 0) silicon-on-patterned-insulator process for micromachined capacitive inclinometers

1.5 V Sub-mW CMOS Interface Circuit for Capacitive Sensor Applications in Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

A surface-micromachined MEMS acoustic sensor with X-shape bottom electrode anchor

A Bidirectional Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC) with Capacitance-to-Time Conversion Operation for High Performance Capacitive MEMS Accelerometers