Multi-Sensing Single Chip Technology Developed to Begin Smart Life

“Hello, your recent daily life, exercise frequency, and physical information show that your health status is very good.”  Please do not be astonished when you receive such message from your earphones one day.  This could be realized in the next few years. 

The National Chip Implementation Center (CIC) of the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) has been developing the “multi-sensing single chip technology” that integrates many sensors to actualize this tiny, cheap, and low-power single chip with Taiwan’s predominant semiconductor technology to cause the wearable device and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) smarter and more powerful. 

According to the press release of the CIC, foreign companies have been holding the relevant sensor chip technologies.  The three main categories of sensor chips (sport, environmental, biomedical) require three different processes; the sport sensor chip needs movable structure, and the environmental and biomedical sensor chips need gold or platinum metal.  As such, it seems impossible to integrate all these three sensing functions into a piece of wearable device (such as, smart phones or watches) or IoT device and to integrate the sensor chips with the system circuit, and therefore that is the reason why it is difficult and costly to make the minimum and low power devices. 

The “multi-sensing single chip technology” is a result of the collaboration by and between the National Chip Implementation Center of NARLabs and foundries.  They successfully integrate the vibrant micromechanical structure into IC chips and overcome difficulties in combining different metals and semiconductor IC process into one substrate, so as to accomplish sport, environmental and biomedical sensors integration with IC.  In the future, one single IC will include different sensor functions and integrate the functions of wireless communication, computing and memory. 

This multi-sensing single chip technology is developed by Taiwan by using the 8-inch wafer fabrication process and combining designing and testing technologies to fabricate the multi-sensing single chip in one standard process, which actualizes the characteristics of low cost, small size, and low power, and flexible system integration.  Further, CIC will work with domestic foundries and assembly plants to carry out industrialization of this technology.  CIC will also collaborate with Taiwan’s academia to promote development of innovative sensor chips by the academic research groups and further to facilitate production by the industry.  By using the CIC’s technology platform, the industry and the academia can work together to develop the key sensor single-chip parts and further to realize the wearable devices and IoT devices for the ultimate goal of launch into the world’s sensor chip market and opening a new opportunities for Taiwan IC industry.  (March 2015)
/CCS