ABSTRACT
This chapter considers two transducers, an accelerometer and a force transducer, which serve as examples of a new field which has been labeled "micromachining". Micromachining is the combination of conventional silicon integrated-circuit technology, the process by which regular integrated circuits are made, together with advanced chemical etching techniques which enable us to remove silicon in a very precise, controllable, reproducible manner. With this combination of technologies, it is possible to accurately and economically make carefully designed precision structures on a batch fabrication basis. A micromachined silicon force transducer originally developed for in vivo biomedical instrumentation in 1972. A suture hole is made for stitching the block down to some adjacent tissue in order to provide strain relief and keep forces that might be transmitted through the lead wires due to tissue motion from reaching the transducer.
