Electronic OEMs look to MEMS/sensors for enhanced user experiences

A ready audience of industry executives representing some of the world’s leading manufacturers of virtual reality (VR), mobile handsets, wearables and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), shared their wants for new micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)/sensors for future products while attending MEMS Executive Congress, held recently in Napa CA.

Xianfeng Ding, chief scientist of sensing at Huawei – the world’s third largest mobile phone manufacturer and top 10 wearables maker – called upon the whole MEMS/sensors industry to innovate in power management, sensing and wireless connectivity – critical functionality in smartphones and wearables.

Jack McCauley, co-founder of Oculus VR and now principal of McCauley Labs, is working on more sophisticated VR head tracking systems, all of which require MEMS to function properly. McCauley sees MEMS micro mirrors as the next potential solution.

Jeff Owens, CTO and executive vice president of Delphi Automotive, shared some metrics from a coast-to-coast automated drive using a vehicle built with Delphi’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). “Delphi’s coast-to-coast automated drive was 3,400 miles over nine days through 15 states using 20 active safety sensors plus GPS, navigation, vision systems and driver-state monitoring. More than 99% of the distance was fully automated, and we gathered three terabytes of valuable data.”

With their car generally “the most sophisticated piece of electronics that people own,” according to Owens, growth in ADAS is one more market driving the MEMS/sensors industry forward.

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group Executive Director Karen Lightman described the impetus for such active speaker-attendee engagement, “The MEMS and sensors industry is providing billions of devices that define the personalized, interactive and contextual user experiences in the products we use on a daily basis. MEMS Executive Congress brings the catalysts from both sides of the equation – the executive decision-makers buying and supplying MEMS technology – into the room with a common purpose: driving sales of more highly differentiated products that will produce positive revenue streams.”