1. General information and manufacturing processes

MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems), which came into being some twenty years ago, are micro-sensors and/or micro-actuators. They are micromachined and can be "integrated" with their electronics. They are manufactured using microtechnology, which is a silicon machining technology employing processes generally shared by the microelectronics industry. Electronics can be combined on the same substrate (monolithic integration) or assembled by transfer in the same housing or on the same substrate. They are used in the automotive industry (air bags, tire pressure measurement, etc.), in consumer applications (cell phones, game consoles, video projectors), in the oil industry (well measurement systems), in the medical sector (pacemakers), in the agri-food and environmental sectors (chemical sensors), and so on.

In this article, we define "microsystems"...