Understanding Smart Sensors - Nomads.usp

The Next Phase of Sensing Systems 325the Internet are defining the need and value of such personal ID sensing, orbiometrics. Potential users of biometrics are banks, governments, healthcareentities, and businesses. Sensors that recognize voice, face, fingerprints, hand,eye, and DNA are being investigated. Voice recognition is a behavioral identification;the other five are physiological. The combination of neural networksand sensing technology is being pursued to solve this smart sensing requirement,and a reliable, low-cost solution will be implemented for a number ofapplications.14.5 Software, Sensing, and the SystemCAD and simulation capability is essential in both the electrical and themechanical portions of the sensor. It is also becoming a critical element in anysystem design. Design tools that implement mechatronic methodology arebeing standardized, which will produce a common level of understanding.Based on the increased capability that semiconductor hardware is providing, amore structured methodology will be the only way that designers will be able tocope with the semiconductor capability that will be available in the future. Thenumber of transistors, the increased I/O possibilities, and the added difficultyinherent in high-density geometries will pose challenges to the most experienceddesigner. Add to that brief list only one more item, such as lower supplyvoltages, and it is easy to see that system designers must start to deal with systemproblems at higher and earlier stages in the design.Software for sensor designers is already viewed as essential. Modeling forthe structures and materials in the micromachining process has been the focusof universities and an integral part of the newest products provided by the sensorindustry [20, 21]. Those activities, combined with mechatronics and themixed-signal modeling that is gaining acceptance in the electronics design community,will provide the critical tools for smart sensing.14.5.1 CAD for MEMSCompanies dedicated to providing tools and services for solving today’s MEMSproblems have been established and provide significant support to the developmenteffort for MEMS. One company has developed an integrated designpackage that includes three-dimensional design, modeling, and simulationhardware [22]. This software supports electrostatics, electromechanics, microfluidics,thermodynamics, piezoresistance, and coupled thermomechanics. ThisMEMS-specific electronic design automation (EDA) tool integrates elecromechanicalmodeling with VHDL/Verilog and HDL-A support for mixed signal