Reliability of digital mems sensors: Metrological characterization of accelerometersand microphones

The reliability of digital MEMS accelerometer and microphone sensors is investigated, on the basis of suitable calibration procedures developed at INRiM, in order to provide the metrological traceability and the proper sensitivity in the digital domain. Nowadays, digital sensing systems, based on MEMS technology, are largely used in a wide range of advanced industrial, environmental, energy and medical applications. The possibility to have many accurate, low-power consuming and low-cost sensors present undoubted advantages, in terms of costs reduction and energy saving, while maintaining high quality in the control processes, monitoring or measurements and being flexible in providing enhanced data collection, automation and operation. Nevertheless, at present, digital MEMS sensors are not always reliable to quantify with adequate accuracy the measured physical phenomena, due to the lack of metrological traceability and sensitivity parameters for digital sensors.