Sensors and MEMS

In recent decades, sensors have progressively become an important component for many products in very different fields of application, all of them requiring specific vacuum conditions.

The SAES has specifically developed advanced getter solutions to satisfy some of the key technical vacuum requirements of sensors such as:

• IR uncooled sensors (micro bolometers), for thermal imaging systems used in security/surveillance/firefighting/thermography applications
• Laser and mechanical gyroscopes  for sophisticated  inertial navigation systems
• Pressure  transducers for vacuum gauges
• IR cooled sensors for defense applications

Although such devices are addressed to different market segments and are based on completely different working principles, they all share the requirement of getters to meet the required operational lifetime.

For these sensor devices, the SAES is offering advanced non-evaporable getters such as porous getters or high capacity getter films exhibiting excellent sorption performance at room temperature together with stable mechanical properties, preventing any particles issues.

Also dispensable dryers and active sealants are proposed to ensure proper operation and life time to the devices.

For MEMS sensors such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, micro-bolometers, pressure sensors, frequency resonators and  atomic clocks, SAES propose dedicated getter solutions, such as PageWafer® for wafer level packaging and PageLid® for discrete packaging, suitable for all types of vacuum packaged MEMS devices, both at discrete level and at wafer level.

For a complete packaging solution,  SAES is also offering together with its getters a vacuum packaging service for discrete components such as ceramic packaging for inertial sensors and metallic and ceramic packging for microbolometers.