Microsystems in Household Appliances

摘要

The household appliance industry is grown up to one of the largest market for electrotechnical and electronic products. This industry comprises large appliances, small appliances and heating/ventilation/air conditioning. The household industry has an annual turnover of about 100 Billion $ worldwide, where the Eastern Asian countries represents the largest market, followed closely by Western Europe and USA All these appliances are using sensors, but in the last time the technical requirements on appliances have been increased, and the customers expect improved functionality, as well as reduced and carefully controlled consumption of water, energy or detergents. The use of sensors was dominated in past by sensors for temperature, level and flow. Increasingly more and new microsystem devices are now introduced in household appliances, and even more are expected in the near future.