According to the company this can be achieved by replacing the MEMS sensors in an earbud with a single multi-sensor chip solution that is up to ten times smaller, freeing up space for larger batteries.
Nanusens creates its sensors on the nanoscale within the layers of its CMOS chip that also has the control electronics. The Inter Metal Dielectric (IMD) is etched away through the pad openings in the passivation layer using vapour HF (vHF) to create the nano-sensor structures. The holes are then sealed and the chip packaged as necessary. As only standard CMOS processes with minimal post-processing are used and the sensors can be directly integrated with active circuitry as required, the sensors can potentially have high yields similar to CMOS devices. This also means that the production is fab-independent.
As a result, the NEMS (Nano Electro Mechanical Systems) chip is only one cubic millimetre so this will create a saving of three cubic millimetres for every MEMS package that it replaces. The Nanusens chip only increases slightly with every additional sensor function to accommodate additional control electronics.
