Apr 9 2015
Scannano and LFoundry today announced a strategic long term relationship to apply Scannano’s disruptive NANO technologies to a wide spectrum of new product applications. The first of these new products will be a MEMS-based portfolio of pressure sensors.
By using Scannono’s Deep Vacuum Gap (DVG) and micro-membrane nano-technologies, the new pressure sensors will offer unmatched levels of high accuracy and miniaturization with lower power consumption and multi-functionality. As a result, the new devices can be fabricated together with “application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC)” on the same chip using standard CMOS processes.
The DVG process will be used to create a tiny vacuum gap with very high accuracy of approx. 1nm. The gap will then be combined with a sensing membrane to measure pressures exerted on the membrane. Because the deformation occurs in the range of a few nanometers, a high degree of accuracy can be achieved in a single nano-dimensional device. Furthermore, because of its low power requirement, it can be integrated with other devices on the same chip.
Applications for the new pressure sensors are widespread and include over 100 devices in a wide range of automotive and industrial products. Monolithic integration onto a single chip enables state-of-the-art designs using standard CMOS processes. Automotive applications can include safety systems such as crash detection and tyre pressures and power train devices such as manifold and turbo air pressures. Industrial applications can include gas flows, level meters, altitude compensation systems and weather stations.
Device design activities are already under way and manufacturing will commence at Foundry’s Italian facility in Avezzano near Rome.
Source: http://www.lfoundry.com/