SEM/TEM of the Month
-- Semiconductor International, 4/1/2001
Ball Semiconductor Inc. (BSI, Allen, Texas) demonstrated this Ball
Omni-directional Clinometer at an opening ceremony of the Ball Technical Center
in Fuji Electronics Co. Ltd. (Tokyo). The product is jointly designed with
Professor Masayoshi Esashi of Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan). Its control
circuit is jointly developed with Tokimec Inc. (Tokyo). BSI's spherical
semiconductor fabrication methodology, spherical surface design tool and
proprietary micromachine fabrication technology are also used to fabricate this
prototype. The clinometer is made from a 1 mm diameter silicon ball (core),
which is a standard size for BSI's semiconductor devices. Surrounding the core
is a special shell structure. On the inner wall of the shell, three pairs of
electrodes for three axes and one common electrode are delineated by using BSI's
spherical lithography technology. The core ball can freely move inside the
shell. From the measurement of capacitance between electrodes, the tilting angle
along each of the three axes can be measured throughout a 360° range. The
resolution of tilt angle sensing is ±20° including hysteresis. The product is
scheduled to be released by the end of the year.
Please send submissions for SEM/TEM of the Month to Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief, 58 Summer St., Andover, MA 01810 USA.
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