Integrated sensors: expanding the boundaries of microsystem design for multidisciplinary customers

One of the main challenges in technology education is how to keep up with the ever changing tools, processes, and standards dictated by newly developed tools not available at the university. Silicon foun dries currently offer custom processes that can be adapte d to develop sensors, optoelectronic devices and microelectromechanisms with a small budget. As a result, students from different scientific areas, in electr onics and electrical engineering, profit from the same idea. Another advantage of this outsourcing is the possibility of sharing circuits, laboratory experiments, and courseware among universities and among disciplines, democratizing t he educational experience and, thus, improving the formation of qualified human resources. With the knowledge of the design rules any person can submit his/her project as any of their counterparts in ano ther country. During the post-processing steps, the sens ing element can be tailored toward the specific applica tion they are designed for. Students from several backgrounds are involved in the early and later sta ges of the process, and help with debugging, as well as wi th field testing. Examples of interdisciplinary projects rea lized under this paradigm include: electrophysiological signal microelectromechanical systems, signal acquisition, electronic nose, telematic system for several appli cations such as sensors network, cells culture, and field e mission devices.