Move from Online Test to Fault-Tolerant: Design and Simulation of a Multi-functional MEMS Sensor

Fault-tolerance is an important design requirement in critical sensor applications. It is conventionally achieved by using redundant components, which increases system´s size, cost and complexity, that are often sacrificed or comprised due to associated limitations. This paper proposes a novel solution to achieve sensor fault-tolerance at the system level instead of the usual approach that targets the component level. The architecture consists of multi-functional sensors which are used to replace conventional single mode sensors, and a data fusion algorithm which provides online test and fault-tolerance. This method has the potential to significantly increase system reliability and supports a reduction in the overheads inherent with the use of redundancy in fault-tolerant systems. A MEMS humidity/pressure sensor has been designed as an example to support the method. The sensor has simple structure, good linearity and sensitivity, and the potential of further integrating a temperature function.