Micro mechanisms in your phone

Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) are tiny mechanical contraptions inside your phone which detect accelerations and rotation, using accelerometers and gyroscopes machined out of pure silicon.

#shorts

[joshuahancock]

At first I thought maybe it was just completing a circuit, but a variable capacitance is actually a pretty brilliant way to do it.

[BrushyHat]

MEMs blow my mind. The fact we can manufacture and use these reliably is a technological marvel. Thanks for the quick peak at them. Would love to see a MEMs Gyroscope.

[Kartik_Z]

I literally studied this MEMS subject in last semester of my graduation a few weeks ago, I didn't understand a thing but this video seems very straightforward.

[miaouew]

"Sensing Comb" is now my new favorite name for a component

[soup_troop]

MEMs took me down a rabbit hole for a bit and man, we take our funny pocket computers for granted.

[DUHRIZEO]

So cool! Blows my mind that this stuff can all happen at such a small scale.

[ThZuao]

The Gyroscope uses a similar principle, but there are combs in perpendicular axis, on of which is being moved at a known frequency. The other one is moving togheter with it and as angular velocity is applied, it's movement is calculated into angle by the chip by accounting for the Coriolis effect.

[crimson]

It parallels the vestibular system so beautifully

[teddycook]

Believe it or not, this same kind of change in capacitance is also how a condenser mic works.

[efisgpr]

MEMs ...first read anout them in Popular Mechanics (or Popular Science) in 1988-9. Nice to hear about them again.

[DavidGP]

Another example for a system that is available for pennies now, and used to be like tens of thousands of $$$ a few decades ago (let alone thousands of times bigger and using thousands of times more energy) 🤯

[sebastianfletcher-taylor]

The phone knows where it is because it knows where it isn't.

[LucasRodmo]

I never get used to how smart engineers are.

[vanq]

Those models would make awesome rubber coasters like the Gamers Nexus ones.

[Oogadoog]

This is so awesome. I worked with someone who worked on the Atlas rocket tracking system, and in his words: “It was just a series of resistors.” That’s all he said.

[heatherryan]

That is so mind-blowing how that works. Just wow.

[OfficialDeathScythe]

These flat but functional and moveable pieces are my favorite, I think they’re called compliant mechanisms or something like that

[rammrras]

Immagine theese things being extremely small. Its a marvel of electronics

[nindoninshu]

Nobody's gonna mention how he just glitched at super speed halfway through the video 😭

[justaspiral]

That makes sense. It's pretty similar to the way our bodies detect the movement of our head.