4. Silicon sensors: the economic challenge

Sensors based on microelectronics, and more specifically silicon technology, offer clear technical and economic advantages.

Towards the end of the 1970s, the race to innovate was driven by a concern to reduce size in order to increase computing power or device functionality. In the 1980s, the advent of "collective" technologies, combined with silicon processing, led to drastic reductions in manufacturing costs, enabling the "democratization" of these new products (microelectronics). What's more, the mechanical qualities of silicon, combined with relatively simple collective machining, either chemical (KOH, etc.) or physical (plasma etching, micro-drilling), now make it possible to industrialize certain microstructures for high-volume, low-cost markets.

The duality of small size and low cost can meet new needs such as :

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