STMicroelectronics Drives Internet of Things Growth with Innovative MEMS Technology and Wireless Links

STMicroelectronics announced that Benedetto Vigna, executive vice president, general manager of ST’s Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group, will deliver a keynote speech at the SEMICON Taiwan 2013 MEMS Forum on how MEMS will drive the development of the Internet of Things.

According to American Forrester Research, by 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) production value will be 30 times greater than the current total production value of Internet-related industry. Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry indicated that there are multiple research institutes forecasting IoT to create a new wave of increased strength for the global economy to 2020, surpassing the US$1 trillion dollar mark by the end of the decade.

IoT heralds a new era that requires new sensor and connectivity technologies. The integrated smart sensor systems, which are part of the IoT concept and include hardware and software solutions, will deliver the processing and analysis capabilities to extract raw data from multiple sensors in the world around us and make decisions to determine, deliver and control the ingredients of an active, healthy and efficient life style.

“There are three key areas in MEMS helping to drive the Internet of Things: Motion; Acoustic; and Environmental sensors such as humidity, pressure, chemical and infrared,” said Vigna. “As we drove MEMS adoption by the mobile phone market five years ago, ST is unique in its having all the sensor technologies, together with the extremely low-power SPIRIT1 RF wireless radio for home, office and industrial use, and our Bluetooth Low Energy radio for wearable applications, to drive the IoT market development and create the next MEMS wave.”

With more than 3 billion motion sensors sold in the market to date and complete control of its design and production processes, ST is the one-stop MEMS supplier, offering a comprehensive portfolio of micro-machined accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, magnetic sensors and microphones, and has the capability to integrate these in multi-sensor combos with on-board signal processing, control functions, sensor-fusion algorithms and wireless connectivity. ST is also at the forefront of the MEMS technology development with more than 800 MEMS-related patent families.