"MEMS: Freescale goes multidice, gets smarter"

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's requirement that all new passenger vehicles include electronic stability control starting in 2012 will save up to 10,000 American lives each year, NHTSA predicted last week. Even before that mandate emerged, microelectromechanical-system chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Inc. was on the trail of a combo MEMS sensor capable of implementing ESC. Freescale's ESC chip will capitalize on two trends driving MEMS development: integration of multiple sensing elements into one package and integration of more intelligence, to embed decision-making functions at the point of sensing and to enable communication over sensor networks. Freescale plans to serve those trends in its automotive MEMS offerings as well as smart multisensor MEMS chips for consumer applications, such as portable media players, cellular phones, global positioning systems, medical monitors and E911 locator devices.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199000278