Functional integration processes gain more and more importance in lightweight engineering. In this paper we discuss how to improve fibre-reinforced composites with structurally integrated condition monitoring systems, suitable for predicting failure behaviour. Especially commercially available and tested silicon sensors, but also new developments are well-suited for this intention. We present a smart semi-finished textile with integrated silicon sensors for in-situ conditions and process monitoring in fibre-reinforced composites. It consists of a textile substrate tape with integrated electrically conductive fibres and various silicon sensors, applied by micro-injection moulding. A so-called “interposer” is used as an electrical adapter between the microstructures of the sensor system and the mesostructures of the textile. The key technology used for the encapsulation and electrical contacting of the sensor nodes is a two-stage two-component micro injection moulding process, allowing for a cost efficient and application specific mass production. As proof of concept we chose the injection moulding process to investigate the influence of the fabrication process on all electronic components with a silicon stress measurement chip. We performed in-situ measurements of temperature and in-plane mechanical stress for different glass fibre contents of the PA6 melt and tool temperatures and compared the results with a finite element simulation.

This paper presents a first time application study of resonant Si-MEMS DC/DC converters, which do not require a separate actuator or bulky inductor. The converter is capable of boosting the polarization voltage of capacitive MEMS, which is beneficial in terms of sensitivity, displacement or generated force. Furthermore, the DC/DC converter can be integrated with the MEMS which it is supplying using the same fabrication technology. Innovative claims include a test board for the characterization of resonant DC/DC converters and a SPICE behavioral model of the device, considering parasitic effects.

The development of a new sensor generation with a significant performance gain is mainly aimed at increasing the sensitivity. In addition to that, a variety of properties such as integrability, power consumption, robustness, reliability, cross‐talk sensitivity, and others, can be equally important. Some properties scale directly with sensitivity, whereas others show trade‐off characteristics. An overview of different approaches for new sensor generations with enhanced performance is presented and discussed in this article. The main focus is on new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) elements, fabricated within a standard high‐aspect‐ratio micromachining process and capacitive working principle. Herein, a novel MEMS‐based bandpass, a gap reduction technique, fluted electrodes for reduced damping, and a novel direct current/direct current (DC/DC) converter, is proposed. Acoustic emission sensing is chosen as example application to underline the challenging requirements for the design. Furthermore, the recent improvements in technology are presented. Based on bonding and deep reactive ion etching (BDRIE), it allows larger aspect ratios as well as through‐silicon vias and low‐pressure encapsulation. Consistent further miniaturization leads to the use of nanoscopic elements within MEMS as sensing component instead of the conventional electrostatic working principle. Unique properties of graphene rolls or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) enable promising sensitivity improvements if they are integrated at wafer‐level. Therefore, a design concept and formal verification‐tool is presented.

Exact predictions of the mechanical behavior of MEMS devices are one of the key requirements for a successful, fast and efficient design process. The accurate implementation of damping mechanics remains still one of the biggest challenges in system modeling, due to the high level of detail in the fluid domain through perforations or the edge region. This paper deals with the generation of compact models based on conformal mapping, which allows the description of non-trivial laminar flows by means of analytical expression, suitable for fully automated model-generation procedures.

This paper demonstrates and discusses a highly automated approach for the design of micro-elec-tro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and system-level multidomain reduced order model generation. The presented techniques in form of rigid body models (RBM) and modal superposition models (MSUP) in conjunction with component mode synthesis (CMS) enable fast and efficient model adaption and optimization of components in the different phases of the MEMS design process by providing sufficiently fast and accurate modeling solutions. Different aspects and requirements of individual methods are discussed and compared.

Currently there is a great demand for energy and resource efficient and also function integrating manufacturing processes. Therefore, suitable technologies and corresponding foundational researches are being pursued in the federal cluster of excellence “MERGE Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures” at the Technische Universität Chemnitz. A part of this project is the development of the continuous orbital winding (COW) technology including the goal of a large-scale process used for special fiber-reinforced thermoplastic semi-finished products. This method is an inverted winding process. The winding core needs to perform only the feed motion. Furthermore, this allows synchronization to upstream and downstream process chains.Due to the modular structure of the machine concept, it is possible to integrate a sensor system during production without interrupting the process. For this purpose, a textile carrier tape with integrated electrically conductive fibers and applied sensors is embedded. Various silicon sensors, e.g. acceleration, pressure or stress sensors are applied by micro-injection molding. A so-called “interposer” is used as an electrically adapter between the microstructures of the sensor system and the mesostructures of the textile.In this article, basic investigations for the continuous processing of semi-finished thermoplastic structures and the integration of sensors are presented. It is intended to determine the bonding properties, possible structural thickening by the sensors and the resistance of the sensor systems and its electronic components to the process conditions.In summary, investigations are carried out to determine the parameters of the machine system as well as to determine the optimum processing conditions for the application of additional elements.

One of the present trends in microelectronic is the embedding of electronic devices directly into structural components. This integration of smart systems into hybrid and light weight structures also is a main objective of MERGE, the research cluster of excellence on Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures. The integrated silicon sensor system, also called stress monitor chip system (SMC), that allows health monitoring and failure detection in the hybrid structures is one of the MERGE demonstrators. It is capable of determining the magnitudes and the distribution of the mechanical load induced into electronics and sensor dies during embedding processes like encapsulation and moulding as well as afterwards in the service of the structural hybrid component. In the past years, the SMC system has already been shown to be highly accurate in stress monitoring during mechanical and thermal cyclic tests, in moisture swelling assessments and also during fabrication processes like transfer molding of Chip-on-Board (CoB) samples and epoxy underfilling of flip chip samples [1,2]. This paper investigates the individual process steps from the bare sensor chip up to the completion of the sensor integration in the lightweight structure regarding the induced mechanical stresses by using the SMC system.