<title>Wireless surface acoustic wave and MEMS-based microsensors</title>

Abstract

The integration of SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave), MEMS and required microelectronics and conformal antennas to realize programmable microsensors suitable for many engineering and biomedical applications will be presented in this talk. This unique combination of technologies results in novel conformal sensors that can be remotely sensed by a wireless communication system with the advantage of no power requirements at the sensor site (passive sensor). The required features in many of these applications are high precision, wide dynamic range and wide frequency range. MEMS-SAW based devices presented possess typical advantages of MEMS sensors including the additional benefits of robustness, excellent sensitivity, surface conformability and durability. After a brief overview of SAW sensors and MEMS, the paper is focused on the design and fabrication of MEMS devices for a few engineering applications such as accelerometer and gyroscopes for automobile, inertial navigation sensors and tire pressure sensor.