Inertial MEMS Testing New Challenges in Motion Simulation

摘要

As MEMS inertial sensors have a completely different value chain and fabrication, many questions about testing and characterisation need to be answered. ACUTRONIC tries herewith to outline one approach. Manufacturing processes from the semiconductor industry also bring new players and a new culture onto the market place of inertial sensing. The demand is driven by lower cost and specific testing throughout the complete value chain. The trends are continuing towards higher performance and smaller form factors. Yet another enabler that has facilitated integration, adaptability and configurability has been the integration of mixed signal electronic functions in an ASIC. Implementing DSPs or MCUs provide the possibility to follow the way from partial to full IMU with extensive firmware contents. As MEMS inertial sensors need to measure the same values under the same circumstances as their classical predecessors, we have to raise the question whether testing is changing or not. Distinctive aspects in Inertial MEMS Testing are volume/test capacity, accuracy and whether throughput or the maximum accumulation of data is desired (inline/online). Since fabs are built up along black boxes we are functionally breaking down the tasks for a turnkey testing solution. New approaches and conceptual innovations need to be taken into account and as certain requirements naturally remain the same, other specific characteristics of MEMS enable testing in new ways.