I will discuss how drivers such as signal performance, miniaturization and integration have pushed the MEMS Industry to innovate not just in designs but also in processes.
I will show examples from a wide variety of applications, starting with Accelerometers for Airbag and coming right up to date with microfluidic applications for medical analytics.

We present recent advancements in ultra-low-power (ULP) and zero-power sensor systems. Ultra-low-power capabilities of sensors represent an important goal for creating miniaturized, non-intrusive, autonomous, and widely deployable sensing solutions, particularly in situations where continuous power is unavailable, the required operational lifetime exceeds battery capacity, or routine battery replacement is impractical or too costly. Common applications include mobile devices, environmental monitoring, and remote infrastructure surveillance. We classify ULP sensors into two groups: low-power functional nanostructures used for sensing, and passive sensor concepts. Reducing power consumption in functional sensor materials typically involves running nanoscale devices at very low voltages and currents. As examples, we discuss suspended carbon-nanotube transistors as fundamental components for ULP sensors, as well as passive sensor concepts.

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University; Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School; and Harvard John A. Paulsson School of Engineering & Applied Sciences

More than the 15 years ago, my team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University set out to develop a way to drastically decrease the high failure rate and associated costs that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies face when they attempt to bring a drug through the development pipeline and obtain regulatory approval. As a major cause of failure is the inability of preclinical animal models to successfully predict drug efficacy and toxicities in humans, we set out to create an alternative. In this presentation, I will describe Organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) microfluidic devices lined with living human cells that form tissue-tissue interfaces, reconstitute vascular perfusion and organotypic mechanical cues, integrate immune cells, contain living microbiome, and recapitulate human organ-level physiology and pathophysiology with high fidelity. Work will be presented describing how single human Organ Chips and multi-organ human Body-on-Chips systems have been used to model complex diseases and rare genetic disorders, study host-microbiome interactions, both mimic and quantitatively predict drug pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters, recapitulate whole body inter-organ physiology, and reproduce human clinical responses to drugs, radiation, toxins, and infectious pathogens. Results confirming that human Organ Chip models of drug-induced liver injury are significantly more accurate than animal models at predicting human toxicity responses will also be presented. However, the need to sense analytes in the small volume effluents of these chips also led to another technology innovation: multiplexed electrochemical sensors with reduced background and high sensitivity, which are now being applied for multiple clinical diagnostics applications. The results presented provide excellent examples of how approaches in microengineering can advance clinical medicine and improve healthcare.

The field of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) has seen remarkable advancements over the past few decades, evolving from simple capacitive sensors in the 1980s to highly sensitive piezoresistive sensors today. This presentation will provide a comprehensive roadmap for the development of MEMS, focusing on innovative materials and sensing technologies. We will explore how these advancements are paving the way for next-generation MEMS devices, with a particular emphasis on microphone MEMS and optomechanical sensing.

Microphone MEMS: One of the key areas of focus is the development of high-performance microphone MEMS. Innovations such as the air-to-vacuum transducing mechanism and the use of vacuum cavities have significantly improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and robustness of MEMS microphones. These advancements enable MEMS microphones to achieve superior performance in various applications, from consumer electronics to industrial sensing.

Optomechanical Sensing: Another groundbreaking development is optomechanical sensing, which leverages light for motion detection. CEA-Leti's optomechanical sensor technology represents the next evolution of MEMS sensors, combining extreme sensitivity (femtometer detection), ultra-rapid response in the terahertz range, and superior integrability using proven 200 nm VLSI MEMS and photonic integrated circuit technologies. This new paradigm in sensing offers unprecedented performance for a variety of applications, including:

• Portable in-situ mass spectrometry with extreme sensitivity down to individual viruses and proteins for biological analysis and environmental monitoring.
• Biological sensing offering rapid biomarker detection and sensitivity down to single bacteria for diagnostics and water testing.
• Real-time atomic-force microscopy imaging approaching video-rate imaging for the observation of fast biological processes.
• Silicon clocks with quartz-like accuracy, offering native GHz-frequency clocks with no electronic multiplication for ultimate precision.

This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in MEMS technology, with a focus on microphone MEMS and optomechanical sensing. By highlighting the innovative work being done at CEA-Leti, we aim to illustrate the potential of MEMS for a wide range of applications and to pave the way for future developments in this exciting field.