Additive electroplating technology as a post-CMOS process for the production of MEMS acceleration-threshold switches for transportation applications

Abstract

This paper presents an acceleration-threshold sensor fabricated with an electroplating technology which can be integrated on top of a pre-processed CMOS signal processing circuit. The device can be manufactured using a standard low-cost CMOS production line and then adding the mechanical sensor elements via a specialized back-end process. This makes the system especially interesting for automotive applications, such as airbag safety systems or transportation shock monitoring systems, where smaller size, improved functionality, high reliability and low costs are important.