In milliseconds before a car crash, an airbag miraculously deploys. In a Nintendo Wii™ tennis match, a nimble video screen character shadows its human player’s precise court movements and wins the match.
What is this technology that both saves lives and adds “real life” movement to video games?
The answer is the technology of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology. One North Carolina-based company, Coventor, Inc., is paving the way for the use of MEMS and nanotechnology, particularly in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
Coventor supplies software to provide 3D analysis and design for MEMS and nanoscale systems. These systems are creating new capabilities and increased precision and efficiency for a wide array of ICT devices such as computers and computer software, cell phones, videogames, and biomedical sensors.
How does the ICT sector use MEMS and nanotechnology?
MEMS are tiny machines that operate at the micro level. Embedded in silicon chips, they enable the chips to do things like sense changes in their environment or control their environment. Companies like Nintendo are increasingly integrating MEMS into their products in order to meet the ever-growing and more sophisticated consumer demand.
In the ICT sector, the application of MEMS technology is currently improving the performance of communications circuits while decreasing their cost and power usage. And nanotechnology—the creation of materials, components, devices, and systems at the near-atomic, or nanometer, level—will help create the next-generation computer chips that are even smaller, faster, and more powerful.
The MEMS embedded into ICT systems are built at the micro level, or the scale of one millionth of a meter. But even at this small level, one micron is still 1,000 times larger than a nanometer, which is 1 billionth of a meter. Researchers are just beginning the process of building systems that operate on the nano level.
Fortunately, the MEMS technology currently available will eventually contribute to the production and assembly of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) in the future. Operating at the molecular level, NEMS are similar to MEMS, but they have a significantly smaller mass and faster response time.
The small size of NEMS and MEMS will lead to important technological advancements, but realizing these advancements will require special manufacturing techniques. The manufacturing tools used to build macro-scale systems such as car motors and refrigerators are inadequate for manufacturing MEMS. They lack the necessary precision to build systems one thousand times smaller than a pinhead.
As a result, companies are turning to a type of manufacturing similar to that used for creating computer chips. These companies use 3D mapping software to simulate the MEMS and to determine design flaws before they produce physical prototypes.
A North Carolina company helps design better MEMS
Coventor, Inc., is a leader in the MEMS and semiconductor design software fields, with over 140 commercial and 200 university customers. The company’s CoventorWare software provides modeling and simulation solutions for industries that use micro- and nanotechnology.
Due to the level of precision that is required for the MEMS to function correctly, software such as that designed by Coventor has emerged to analyze functionality as well as design flaws. The software serves as a crucial intermediary between MEMS and NEMS R&D and production because its simulations provide valuable insight into design flaws and ways to improve the final product.
According to Michael Jamiolkowski, President and CEO of Coventor, “Our software designs the products that make the consumer products more innovative and lowers their price.” To paraphrase the well-known BASF slogan, Coventor doesn’t make a lot of the products you buy; it makes the products you buy better.
CoventorWare played a critical role in the design of the Nintendo Wii’s remote. According to Nintendo, the Wii remote uses MEMS “accelerometer” sensors to detect changes in the player’s direction, speed, and acceleration. These sensors make it possible for a player’s actual motions to be translated into movement in the game, a previously impossible feat. CoventorWare allowed the designers to more efficiently design the accelerometer that goes into the Wii’s remote.
Similarly, CoventorWare also contributed indirectly to the development of the Apple iPhone, which features a phone, music and video, and Internet access. MEMS in the Apple iPhone detect motion to keep the image on its screen correctly oriented for the user. By using the 3D design software, designers of the MEMS parts inside the iPhone were able to test whether the MEMS functioned properly before actually producing a physical prototype.
This same type of mechanism becomes a life-saving sensor to detect when airbags in cars should deploy. These MEMS accelerometers work by being able to calculate the amount of acceleration at the onset of a collision and then sets off the airbag or, in the case of the Wii, register the acceleration and then instruct the computer how to move the character, according to its calculations.
According to Jamiolkowski, “Design software is an infrastructure tool with a business-to-business value proposition. What we do for our customers—often designers and manufacturers—is enable them to develop more complex and more innovative products while lowering development cost and overall time to market. This brings advantages to the consumers like we’ve seen in all electronic products: more features and capabilities for lower and lower prices.”
Coventor’s innovative design software has revolutionized the ICT sector and will play a significant role in designing the next generation of micro- and nanoscale machines.
By Catharyn Howard-Teplansky
Catharyn is a senior majoring in Economics and International Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to her studies, she is active in The Roosevelt Institution, a public policy think tank, and founded the UNC Chapter of The Triple Helix, an international undergraduate research journal.
