MEMSSysteme

MEMS Systeme, often used to refer to microelectromechanical systems, describes miniature devices that integrate mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common substrate, typically silicon. MEMS devices are designed to perform sensing, actuation, and signal processing within a compact form factor and are produced using semiconductor microfabrication techniques.

Fabrication relies on microfabrication processes such as surface micromachining and bulk micromachining, commonly applied to silicon wafers. Materials used include silicon, silicon carbide, and various polymers. Packaging remains a critical challenge because MEMS devices are sensitive to environmental conditions, and integration with CMOS electronics is often pursued to create compact, turnkey sensor systems.

Common sensing modalities include capacitive, piezoresistive, optical, and resonant approaches. Actuators may be electrostatic, thermal, magnetic, or piezoelectric. MEMS devices are frequently combined with on-chip electronics to enable readout, conditioning, and communication.

Applications span automotive sensing (airbag, tire-pressure, inertial measurement), consumer electronics (accelerometers, gyroscopes, and microphones), industrial automation, medical devices, and RF components (switches and filters).

The MEMS field continues to advance through improvements in reliability, packaging, and scalable manufacturing. In German-speaking contexts, MEMSSysteme (often written MEMS-Systeme or MEMSSysteme) is used to denote MEMS devices and systems.

Future directions include heterogeneous integration with advanced substrates, bioMEMS and microfluidics, energy-efficient and low-power sensing, and the development of flexible or stretchable MEMS for unconventional form factors.