Four Billion Bosch MEMS Sensors Key Technology for Internet of Things

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors are indispensable in cars and smart phones today. These tiny sensors are becoming ever smarter, more compact, and more energy efficient. With help from MEMS sensors, even more things can become connected; in fact, anything can connect with anything else on the Internet of Things (IoT) – including things that have never before featured electronics, such as windows and doors. This means more comfort, safety, and energy efficiency.

Bosch provides sensors for a range of uses in the automotive and consumer electronics industries. For instance, MEMS sensors measure pressure, acceleration, rotary motion, mass flow and the Earth’s magnetic field, and act as the sensory organs for cars or smart phones. Bosch has been producing these sensors for vehicles since 1995.

Due to Bosch Sensortec acceleration sensors, a smart phone or tablet knows how it is being held, and adjusts the image accordingly. Tiny MEMS microphones made by Akustica, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bosch Group, detect sounds and speech. Now every second smart phone worldwide uses Bosch sensors.

Bosch has been at the forefront of MEMS technology since it first emerged, and is the world’s leading supplier in this extremely dynamic market. Since the start of production in 1995, Bosch has manufactured well in excess of four billion MEMS sensors. In 2013, around one billion sensors emerged from its state-of-the-art wafer fab in Reutlingen – or three million each day.

“Bosch is the only supplier that manufactures sensor types for so many different applications itself. Overall, Bosch holds more than 1,000 patents and patent applications related to MEMS technology to ensure we stay on top of our innovative capacity,” said Klaus Meder, president of the Bosch Automotive Electronics division.

MEMS sensors can measure an ever greater range of variables. In early 2014, Bosch Sensortec unveiled a world exclusive in sensor technology – the BME280 integrated unit, which combines sensors for pressure, humidity, and temperature in a single housing. The new unit was specially developed for applications related to environmental monitoring, indoor navigation, smart homes, personalized weather stations, and sports and fitness. Within a second, it can determine humidity. It also offers remarkably precise measurement of ambient temperature and impressively low energy consumption.

The introduction of MEMS sensors in automotive electronics in the 1980s and 1990s marked the first wave of their surging popularity. The second major wave has been their widespread use in smart phones since the beginning of the 21st century – and the Internet of Things now heralds the third wave. Sensors, signal processing, batteries and transmitters have become so small, energy efficient, and economical – even as all-in-one units – that they can be used in their billions. At the same time, radio networks are available almost everywhere.

This makes MEMS the key technology for connecting things over the Internet. MEMS must be equipped with a radio chip and a battery, and they must possess software intelligence, because only relevant data should be transmitted to the Internet, not raw data. In 2013, Bosch launched a door sensor that reports suspicious movements to the home owner’s smart phone. In the future, windows will control the heating or alarm system via unobtrusive sensors, and bracelets with embedded sensors will call for help if their wearer suffers a fall. Web-enabled sensor technology will be in everything that is “smart,” not just in smart phones.

A key aspect of Bosch’s future sales growth is web-enabled products and web-based services. To unlock this business area, Bosch founded Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions GmbH at the end of 2013. It supplies compact electronic products and software expertise designed to make devices intelligent and web-enabled across a broad range of applications.

The focus is on the development of connected sensors and actuators. Initially, business activities are concentrating on sensor-based applications for intelligently networked homes, or “smart homes,” as well as activities in the fields of traffic, transportation, and logistics – because in the future, consignments of critical goods will be able to transmit data on any unusual status changes directly to logistics centers.