Recent Trends in CMOS-MEMS Sensors

Abstract

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices have become an integrated part of human life, and various initiatives are continuously being adopted to take the technology to the next level due to the growing need for MEMS technology in recent communication and sensing applications. The integration of MEMS devices with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits on a single microchip platform brings in improved performance alongside miniaturization. The integrated platform for CMOS and MEMS can be categorized depending on the sequence in which MEMS structures and electronic circuitry is processed. As such, the platform can be divided into pre-CMOS (where MEMS devices are fabricated before CMOS circuits), intra-CMOS (where MEMS devices are fabricated alongside CMOS circuits), and post-CMOS (where MEMS fabrication is carried out after the CMOS fabrication). The fusion of MEMS devices and CMOS circuits offers diverse applications; some of these application areas include bioMEMS, digital micromirror devices (DMDs), infrared sensors, tactile sensors, actuators, acoustics, thermoelectric power generators etc. The present article will discuss in detail the working principle of CMOS, various categories of CMOS-MEMS sensors, and the current trends in CMOS sensor applications.