Environmental Sensors – From Research to

Products and Applications

Martin Schrems, Martin Valkenburg, Peter Gasteiner
ams AG
About ams
Shaping the world with sensor solutions
Focus
• Design and manufacture of sensor solutions
• Markets: communications, consumer, industrial,
automotive and medical
• Solutions: intelligent light sensors, RFID/NFC,
chemical sensors, active-noise-cancelling ICs,
position sensors, ultra-low power management,
and more
• Standard products, ASICs, foundry services
People:
• More than 1,800 employees in 20 countries
• 14 design centers
• 20 sales offices
• 30+ channel partners
Manufacturing
• IDM with 30+ years of experience
• Advanced processes: CMOS, HV-CMOS, SiGe,
sensor modules, 3D TSV
• Certified for automotive & medical production
• Full service foundry including packaging & test
• 8 inch wafer fab in Austria (180k wspa)
• Test facility in Calamba, Philippines
• Global manufacturing partners
Financials
• Revenues 2014 EUR464m/$614m
• Revenues H1 2015 EUR323m/$360m
Source: ams AG (2015)
Confidential © ams AG 2015
Page 2
Sensors and Smart Systems

» Sensors ICs make systems smart

Smart System Block Diagram Examples

Wearable/Fitness
Power Management Energy Harvesting & Storage

Smart Watch
Sensors Actuators
Data Smartphone
Processing
Interfaces Interfaces
µ
Wireless Controller Wireless
Receivers Transmitters
Smart Home
Memory & Software
…
Smart Everything
Environmental Sensors

» Provide environmental information to people

» EM radiation, sound, pressure, temperature, gas, particles

Relative
Temperature Humidity
Standalone Sensors Integrated Multi-Sensors

FOCUS TREND

Gas Pressure
5 e-senses Smart Sensor Systems
Market drivers for environmental
sensing
• Human comfort and safety Mobile
• Environmental awareness and indoor navigation
Wearable
• Fitness
• Health monitoring Consumer

• Human comfort, safety and health

• Energy Efficiency Home and
• Cost reductions (maintenance, energy, …) Building
• Security Automation

• Cost reduction
• Yield increase
Industrial &
• Safety Agriculture
• Security

• Improve human comfort Automotive

• Pedestrian and passenger safety
• Security
MEMS market by segment

Strong growth and largest

volume for consumer market

(McKinsey 4/2014)
 Consumer sensor device shipments
by application
» Sensor shipments [M units] by vertical market segment
25.000

Wearables Connected Home

Networking Mobile Devices
20.000
PCs/Peripherals Cellular

15.000
(Millions)

10.000

5.000

0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Source: ABI Research Q1/2015

Environmental Sensors for Mobile
and Consumer applications
Environmental Sensor Market Forecast [M units]
3.000

2.500
Gamma Radiation Sensor

Ultraviolet Light Sensor

2.000
Fine Dust Sensor

Chemical / Gas Sensor

1.500 Humidity, Temperature & Pressure Combo Sensor

Humidity & Temperature Combo Sensor

1.000 Standalone Pressure Sensor

Standalone Temperature Sensor

500

Sources: ABI Research, IHS isuppli, ams AG (2015)

0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
R&D example
EU project “Multi-Sensor Platform”
» Ambition: Integration of multiple sensor functions

Gas, Humidity,Temp.

Particle LWIR-Sensor
CMOS platform chip

Printed Circuit Board

T- Sensor Light Sensor (RGBW,IR,UV)

PE energy
harvester γ – radiation ?
CMOS platform chip

Printed Circuit Board

Particulate Matter

» Fine Particles (< 2.5µm, < 10µm) pose health hazards (cancer,..)
[µm]

Source: wikipedia (2015)

Miniaturized Fine Dust Sensors ?

Optical ~ m3 Optical ~ cm3 MEMS ~ mm3

(thin) Film Bulk Acoustic wave Resonator

Fine Dust Measurement Station Optical Fine Dust measurement using Optical Fine Dust measurement e.g. by SAW / FBAR
Mobile phone functions (Budde et al. (2013)) (S.Thomas et al. (2013))
Gamma radiation

Sharp Pantone 5 107SH iPhone 4s using camera covered with

0.05µSv/h (min) black tape & SW app
(dedicated semiconductor sensors 2x100mm2) 1µSv/h (min)
Source: Sharp (2012) Source: ansto (2014)
Light Sensor

» 3D integrated optosensor IC
» Lighting & display managements
» VIS, IR or UV detection
»…

Filter
IC Sensor

TSV Si substrate
0.3mm
metal layer
bump

Top / Bottom view Cross section Optical Response Wafer Yield

Source: M.Schrems et al. ESSDEC 2014, ams AG (2014)

Relative Humidity

» SoC integrated humidity sensor (CMOS postprocessing)

Source: ams AG (2015)

Pressure

» SoC integrated pressure sensor (CMOS postprocessing)

Top view ASIC with two Top view membrane showing Top view Packaged
membranes on CMOS release etch holes Product Source: ams AG (2015)
Temperature

» CMOS-based design block (Bandgap)

0C

±0.2C
Specification Limits

Source: ams AG (2015)

Gas (chemical)

» Volatile Organic Compounds

Source: ams AG (2015)

• High sensitivity towards reducing (CO, VOCs) and oxidizing (NO2) target gases
• long-term stability > 10 years continuous operation
Source: ams AG (2015)
3D Chemical Sensor IC
poly-silicon heater
power consumption 9 mW

µ hotplate

TSV CMOS

µ hotplate

Source: A.Nemecek et al., Semicon Europe (2014) ; ams AG

Sensor Fusion

» Transforming multi-sensor signals into user information

sensor
inside
sensor sensor phone

gas
molecules

Inaccurate sensing due Slow sensing due to Slow sensing due to

to thermal interference the thermal inertia the diffusion/adsorption

Corrected
environmental information
Senor fusion software architecture
Ts
Tbattery Pre- Post-
Tcpu History Predictor filter Ta
filter
Intensitydisplay RHa
…..
RHs Non-linear Non-linear

Source: ams AG (2015)

Summary

» Environmental sensors and their use cases are emerging with

different levels of maturity - from R&D to final product stage

» Useful combinations for sensor fusion include e.g.

gas+humidity+pressure+temperature for human health,
fitness and safety
» UV and fine dust sensors may be useful adders
» Gamma radiation may not need dedicated sensor (app ?)

» Miniaturization using SiP and 3D integration is key in

reducing costs in multi-sensor (sensor fusion) applications