Microengineered Sensors: A Review

Recently the application of bulk and surface processing of silicon related materials has made it possible to successfully fabricate micromechanical structures in the range of 0.5 to 500 microns, which exhibits unrestrained motion over at least one degree of freedom. The sculptural fabrication techniques can be used to realize a variety of measurement devices (microengineered sensors). This paper describes the recent developments in the area of design, fabrication and operation of these microengineered sensors. The possible integration of the sensing elements with the signal processing circuit on one chip (the so called smart sensors) is also being discussed briefly.