CSCE 121 Culture Report 3

Self-Calibrating MEMS

As technology improves it becomes easier to make better technology; resulting in exponentially increasing technological advances. At the same time, scientific measurements are becoming more and more precise: we can get within millionths of a degree above absolute zero (0K), microscopes are able to see individual atoms now, telescopes can see farther into space with amazing clarity, and scales can accurately weigh nanograms of a certain substance. The instruments involved for all of these nano-feats have one thing in common: microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), or tiny “metasensors.” Until now, MEMS had to be calibrated to environmental norms in special laboratories. Thanks to a researcher from Purdue University, MEMS are now able to calibrate themselves out in the field using capacitance, which are easy to measure accurately .

Satellites use gyroscopes to keep themselves aligned while in orbit. If a satellite were to lose alignment and fall out of orbit, it would be destroyed upon reentry. Unfortunately, this happens far more often than necessary because the gyroscopes’ accuracy degrades over time. Self-calibrating MEMS would allow the gyroscope to keep their orientation for much longer—if not indefinitely.

Electron microscopes use MEMS to focus and interpret the beams of electrons with amazing precision. The new self-calibrating MEMS would be able to direct the electrons more precisely, allowing us to see even smaller objects with even more detail.

The applications for more accurate MEMS are tremendous. The production of these self-calibrating MEMS must require precision, and self-calibrating MEMS will enable us to produce better, more accurate self-calibrating MEMS, and so on. Most of the results that computers give us are only accurate approximations, and innovations like these self-calibrating MEMS bring us closer to the asymptotic goal of absolute perfection.