Instrumentation Monthly Test | Measurement | Control
Nanusens disruptive technology, which is set to change the MEMS sensor market with an innovative way to make MEMS-within-CMOS, has been shortlisted in three different categories in the 2019 Elektra Awards – Design Team of the Year, Start-up of the Year and Best Campaign of the Year. The award ceremony takes place in London on the 4th of December. 
Dr Josep Montanyà, Nanusens CEO, said, “This is proving to be a great year for Nanusens. For a small start-up to be a finalist in three categories of such a prestigious international competition is amazing. We are delighted that the Elektra judges have recognised the significance of our MEMS-within-CMOS technology and its potential to disrupt the MEMS marketplace. It is wonderful to have such validation by these experts in the electronics industry.”
Nanusens has also been shortlisted in this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards – Design Team of the Year, New Product (Electronic) of the Year, Small Company of the Year and Start Up of the Year. The results will be announced on 11 October 2019.
The problem that Nanusens solves is that the demand for sensors is exceeding the current production capabilities. This is a problem that is getting worse as more and more devices are being designed with a range of sensors to provide awareness and make them smart, with smartphones being one of the leading examples that has helped the sensor market grow to billions of units a year.
The bottleneck is caused by current production methods requiring specialist techniques that makes it hard to ramp up production. Nanusens has developed a way to use the same standard techniques (CMOS) used in the giant production facilities that make most of the world’s electronic chips. This means that there is no limit to the number of sensor chips that Nanusens can make as they can be made in any of these facilities. Nanusens predicts that it could increase the size of the sensor market from billions of units to trillions of units by solving this production bottleneck.
“The Internet of Things has been forecast to need trillions of sensors,” added Dr Josep Montanyà, “but current sensor production methods cannot support such numbers. We will be able to and at the right price for the market. This will finally enable the IoT to grow as predicted.”
The first target market on this journey is earbuds. These need a number of ultra-small sensors to provide an enhanced user experience. Nanusens’ breakthrough technology enables it to make sensors that are less than a quarter of the size of current designs. This frees up space inside the earbud design for larger batteries for a longer operational life or more sensors for additional features.
