MEMS/NEMS Sensors: Advances, Trends and Challenges
A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microelectronics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 1442
Special Issue Editors
Interests: electrochemical sensors; biosensors; microfluidics; flow cytometry; single-cell sequencing; digital signal processing; pattern recognition
Interests: biosensors; bioimpedance; nanomaterials and nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
MEMS/NEMS are micro-/nano-electromechanical systems that integrate specific electrical and mechanical components on a nanoscale and microscale, allowing various micro-/nano targets to be measured quickly and precisely. Using MEMS sensors (e.g., microfluidic biosensors), for example, micrometer-sized cells (from hundreds of micrometers to sub-micrometers) can be characterized at frequencies exceeding 1000 Hz. On a nanoscale, nanomechanical structures provide indispensable functions such as sample introduction, separation, and purification when handling continuous single-molecule and single-nanoparticle processing. Nanoscale sensitivity enables the monitoring of various environments for viruses, bacteria, and particulate materials.
A bottleneck in the application of MEMS/NEMS is their instability. Even with the same setup, some operators encounter serious noise interference, but others do not. The presence of unanticipated and untraceable interferences tremendously decreases detection sensitivity and produces varying results across experiments.
Additionally, to date MEMS/NEMS sensors have typically integrated multifunctions, and their developers also tend to develop their own analysis methods. In the future, research on new sensors and analysis methods is expected to remain a popular topic in the future as it permits better correlation between detected signals and targets. This trend poses a burden for newcomers and users for selecting and using the most suitable sensor design and analysis methods. Therefore, machine/deep-learning-based detection systems could also be a possible research topic, as it could improve analysis efficiency and eliminate the need for experts.
Lastly, advances in intelligent MEMS/NEMS sensors have shown the potential of machine/deep learning in structure design and data analysis. These intelligent algorithms have the potential to eliminate many of the barriers to adoption of MEMS/NEMS sensors by non-expert users. However, the performance of many intelligent models depends on the data they are trained on; they cannot be transferred to other projects. By training on a single lab's data, intelligent models may perform well within the developer's fabrication and operational workflow but poorly in others. To date, the extensive implementation of machine/deep learning in MEMS/NEMS sensors still requires its adopters to possess increased technical expertise.
We invite researchers to contribute either original research or review articles focusing on, but not limited to: (i) MEMS/NEMS sensor design and applications; (ii) novel fabrication techniques/protocols; (iii) stabilization of the detection of MEMS/NEMS sensors; (iv) signal analysis methods for MEMS/NEMS sensors; (v) development of intelligent MEMS/NEMS sensors.
Dr. Tao Tang
Dr. Ajay Kumar Yagati
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- MEMS/NEMS
- signal processing
- machine/deep learning
- intelligent systems
