Session 21 Overview TD: Sensors and Microsystems

This session highlights future directions in the development of biological sensing systems, fingerprint identification and imaging systems, MEMS-based optical microsystems and microactuators, and optoelectronic integrated circuits for high-speed telecommunication. High-performance sensors for wireless monitoring of biological signals, and chemical and DNA analysis, are increasingly needed in many emerging applications in health care. The first two papers present the latest developments in this area. Paper 21.1 discusses a fully-integrated direct-conversion Doppler radar for remote detection of heart rate and respiration. A 1.6GHz transceiver is used to monitor these vital signals. Paper 21.2 presents an exciting development in the field of bioMEMS and DNA-analysis chips. It reports on a 16x8 DNA sensor array using a fully-electronic readout scheme without the need for optical components which increase cost considerably. The DNA probes are fabricated on top of a standard CMOS chip. This allows fabrication of low-cost and high-performance platforms for biological and chemical analyses. For the past few years ISSCC has been the primary venue for presenting the latest developments in highly-integrated ICs for fingerprint sensing and analysis. This year, there are two papers in this area. Paper 21.3 presents a 500dpi capacitive CMOS fingerprint sensor with on-chip circuitry for adaptively enhancing the acquired image. Paper 21.4 presents another 500dpi, 224x256 pixel sensor that includes circuitry for correcting blur through image enhancement and rotation, as well as for identification and matching. Paper 21.5 presents the first micromachined silicon electronic-jet (silicon-fan) chip for cooling of IC chips in small portable electronic systems. This e-jet chip is approximately 1mm thick and approximately 2cm square, and can sit directly on top of a packaged IC for active heat sinking. Jets with a velocity as high as about 1m/s are generated acoustically. The session ends with three papers dealing with devices and circuits for optical-telecommunication microsystems. Paper 21.6 presents an overview of the latest developments and future directions in the application of MEMS-based micro-actuators and micro-mirrors for optical-networking applications. It presents a new MEMS scanner with a large scan angle and low actuation voltage for low-power applications. Paper 21.7 deals with the development of a 2x2 optical switch fabricated using SOI on CMOS. This switch has a 5MHz bandwidth, the highest in this technology. The session ends with Paper 21.8 dealing with an integrated optoelectronic circuit for optical-storage applications. The IC is 1.7 times faster than anything previosly reported and utilizes a number of new circuit concepts in a 0.6µm BiCMOS process.