Khalil Najafi
Ctr. for Integrated Sensors and Circuits, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
The development of integrated sensors based on solid-state technology has become an important goal for many application areas. These devices are an important link for gathering, processing, and communicating information between many electronic systems and users, and the nonelectronic world in areas such as health, care, transportation, manufacturing, avionics, environmental monitoring, and many others. Significant advances have been made in developing new integrated sensors and microsystems: sensors for measuring pressure, acceleration, flow, image, vibration, strain, sound, and many others have been developed. This paper will review the state-of-the-art in integrated sensors and microsystems. It will briefly review the application of integrated circuit technology to micromachining and microsensors, and will provide examples of a few solid-state, silicon-based microsensors. Finally, the paper will discuss the impact that these devices have had on measurement and control systems, and will review future applications.