• 
• 

Published on August 7, 2007

TMEC is a microelectronics research and development unit under the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) to develop microelectronics prototypes aiming towards industrial mass production. It also has wafer fabrication facilities for small volume production of microelectronic and chip products.

TMEC will begin the development of basic sensors including thermal sensors, pH sensors and pressure sensors to serve industries. The outcome of the development is expected this year. As sensors are likely to be in widespread use in electronic products in the future, it will offer potential for the country to develop this technology, said Nectec's director Pansak Siriruchatapong.

He said since Thailand was a production base for electrical and electronic appliances, local development of sensor products would support local manufacturers who wanted to add more value to their products.

So far, TMEC has developed microelectronics for thermal sensors, pH sensors, blood pressure sensors, magnetic sensors and light sensors. Pansak said these were basic sensors that could be used in various devices including electrical and electronic appliances, medical devices, hard disk drives or electronic devices for agriculture or agritronics.

Nectec's assistant director Suthee Phoojaruenchanachai, who oversees TMEC, added that to make the sensor chips function as required, the centre would work with local universities to integrate the chips on IC boards.

"We will start with putting the sensor chips we produce ourselves in the lab on IC boards to make each sensor work as intended and next, we hope to develop all the systems into a single chip," Suthee said.

Apart from basic sensors, Pansak added that the plan also included the development of what he called a silicon microphone, a very small microphone which will be embedded in various kinds of electronic devices to detect sound. It will also be used as an input device for voice command applications.

Pansak said as the silicon microphone was related to microelectronics, it would be a key strength for TMEC.

To develop the silicon microphone requires microelectronic expertise to put several silicon microphones into an array so the microphone will be able to detect and separate sound to properly respond to the application.

"In the future, we believe there will be more use of voice-command devices, so this kind of microphone is important to make all the spoken-command responses accurate," he said.

TMEC plans to start silicon-microphone development next year.

Under TMEC's development path, the centre also hopes that its research activities will move towards the development of smart control technology for use in home appliances, automobiles, medical science, agriculture and environmental industries.

Smart control is a technology combining intelligent power-integrated circuits and smart sensors in a single chip. When used in automobile or home-appliance products, for example, it will add more value to the products and allow the device to offer functions which can be customised to serve individual user's requirements.

"We see that with this technology, future products like air-conditioners, for example, will be able to offer users more comfort. Instead of users having to adjust the temperature themselves, the device will detect the surroundings, such as temperature, heat and humidity, and then adjust for the most comfortable environment automatically," Pansak said.

TMEC plans to begin development of smart control technology in the next two years.

In addition to research activities, TMEC also offers wafer-fabrication services to produce small volumes of microelectronic products for outside organisations. The centre this year received a budget of Bt257 million to improve its utilities infrastructure to support wafer-fabrication processes and upgrade its machines to make the fabrication process more stable.

TMEC's director Amporn Poyai said that in the past, the centre instability of electricity, which made the fabrication process temporary halt at some times. With this new budget, the centre could build its own backup power source so the process could run continuously even if there was a blackout.

TMEC has a capacity to make 300 wafers per month. The technology used now is at 0.8 micron, which is suitable for use in the production of sensor chips. However, the centre plans to upgrade its production technology to 0.5 microns in the next two years.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation