MEMS Barometers Toward Vertical Position Detection

Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) sensors constitute perhaps the most exciting technology of our age. The present effort incorporates all the information needed by scientists and engineers who work on research projects and/or product systems, which apply to air pressure acquisition and to its rearrangement into altitude data. Some of the potential implementations of this method (regularly referred to as barometric altimetry) include, but are not limited to, Position Location Application, Navigation Systems, Clinical Monitoring Applications, and Aircraft Instrumentation.

This book holds the key to such applications, providing readers with the theoretical basis as well as the practical perspective of the subject matter. At first, the reader is introduced to the background theory, methods, and applications of barometric altimetry. Thereafter, the book incorporates the development of wireless barometers and a (real-time monitoring) wireless sensor network system for scheduling low-cost experimental observations. Finally, a deepened understanding to the analysis procedure of pressure measurements (using Matlab script code) is performed. Some accompanying material can be found at http://bit.ly/mems-files.

Dimosthenis E. Bolanakis was born in Crete, Greece (1978) and graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering (2001) from ATEI Thessalonikis. He received an M.Sc. (2004) in Modern Electronic Technologies and a Ph.D. (2016) in Education Sciences (focusing on Remote Experimentation), both from University of Ioannina. He has (co)authored more than 30 papers (mainly on Research in Engineering Education) and he is the author of MEMS Barometers toward Vertical Position Detection: Background Theory, System Prototyping, and Measurement Analysis (Morgan & Claypool, May 2017), and co-author of Microcomputer Architecture: Low-level Programming Methods and Applications of the M68HC908GP32 (Createspace/Self-publishing, 2012). During the period 2012–2014 he joined European System Sensors S.A. corporation that specialized in the design of MEMS sensors. Since 2014 he has been occupied as Special Lab & Teaching Personnel at Hellenic Air Force Academy (Informatics & Computers section). His design/research interests include: C-based & FPGA-based digital hardware design; MEMS sensors system-level design and measurement analysis (using Matlab script code); C/LabVIEW software co-development for the hardware interfacing; and research in engineering education. He currently lives in Athens (Greece) together with his wonderful wife, Katerina, and their two delightful kids, Manolis and Eugenia.