Progress in power ICs and MEMS, "analog" technologies to interface the real world

The dramatic progress in integrated circuit technology has led to a huge increase of achievable digital computing power not accompanied by a parallel evolution in the capability to interface to the real world which is "analog" and not digital. This capability is fundamental in many products and represents the driving force in their evolution. Technologies like bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD), available for many years to realize power ICs, appear to be more suitable than the pure CMOS to play the role of building analog interfaces. An emerging frontier of analog interfaces is represented by micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) where the manufacturing technology developed in many years of microelectronics is being applied to micro-machined silicon, creating new solutions that combine electrical, mechanical, fluidic and optical elements. In this paper, an overview of BCD technology trends and of new applications of MEMS devices is examined.