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Ask The Expert - MEMs Sensors and Predictive Maintenance with STMicroelectronics

Most of us are reacting to and interacting with MEMs sensors on a subliminal but constant basis.

Have you thought about how your smartphone became so smart? Well inside is a whole host of MEMS sensors which you are interacting with daily. Accelerometers and gyroscopes along with GPS may be used for fitness apps, for example, monitoring the speed at which you are running whilst mapping the route and tracking the distance you have covered. In addition, pressure sensors and magnetometers could monitor weather, altitude and orientation, then there is microphone MEMS, an established element of the smartphone allowing us to use voice command applications.

The world of MEMS continues to develop at pace and within this edition of Ask the Expert, we put your questions to Andrea Onetti of STMicroelectronics. In this interview, we find out more about the technology and discover that the advantages MEMS bring to the world of personal electronics is only part of the story, the industrial benefit from MEMS is also pretty significant.

Question breakdown.

01:27 - Where do you see the direction of MEMS going with the advancement of Nano Technology?

04:32 - Is the widespread use of accelerometers helping to develop the technology or is the technology helping to develop the market for personal electronics?

06:36 - Where do you think the biggest growth will be in the next 5 years?

10:04 - Are you seeing demand and applications for sensors in biotechnology?

18:27 - With the evolution of IoT and 5G converging, are you expecting an increase in demand?

21:54 - Are you focusing on the AR/VR market and applications?

25:31 - Do you see a need for electronics manufacturers to start working closely with technology providers to create solutions?

29:20 - Do you see communities like DesignSpark as an extended arm of your research and development team?

30:37 - In MotionFX sensor fusion library, how do I compensate for the inaccuracies of individual sensors?

32:12 - With noise AWGN simulation programmes, do they just highlight that there is a noise potential there or do they help to provide a solution?

33:42 - For predictive maintenance, what would be the recommended solution for the effects of motor vibration?

38:04 - I will be exploring the use of accelerometers and gyroscopes for 2-wheeled, upright, self-balancing robots. Is there any guidance that ST can give for angular measurements and how will compensation or complimentary filtering help?

42:46 - For gas leakage detection, are there any particular products that you would recommend?

For more on STMicroelectronics MEMS 

MEMS

Machine learning

SensorTile.box

Industrial sensors

Tools and software

Drivers for MEMS

iNEMO engine software libraries

Open.MEMS

Favourite things are Family, Music and Judo. Also, I have the ability to retain and quote useless facts, something that pleases me but can annoy others. My engineering hero - Isambard Kingdom Brunel

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