High-Voltage Drivers for Sensors and Actuators

Piezoelectric or capacitive MEMS sensors and actuators are used in numerous industrial, medical and commercial applications to control or measure physical parameters. A large number of these elements require high voltages at low power dissipation. Especially for portable and mobile devices, there is thus a need to miniaturize the high voltage driver for MEMS sensors and actuators. Interfacing the MEMS devices with low-power, area-efficient high-voltage application specific integrated circuits (HV ASIC) are a suitable measure for tackling the challenge of the required extreme miniaturization. 

The circuit design group at Fraunhofer EMFT specializes in the development of high voltage drivers for sensors and actuators. The competences include design, characterization and testing of HV ASICs. Reference projects  include a HV driver ASIC for micropumps  focused on switched-mode capacitive DC-DC boost converters, a multi-channel HV ASIC for ultrasonic transducers like CMUTs and PMUTs, and a low-power read-out ASIC for capacitive particle sensors.

These competences in the area of high-voltage drivers for sensors and actuators are available at Fraunhofer EMFT for your application topics. We look forward to hearing from you!