From physical signals to intelligent systems: Driving innovation in MEMS sensor technologies

As Head of R&D for MEMS sensors at Bosch, I am responsible for developing the technologies and designs that enable our future sensor products. My team defines the technology roadmap, translating product requirements into scalable solutions and ensuring high performance, quality, and cost efficiency. We work closely with Bosch business units and Bosch Sensortec to bring innovations into volume production. Ultimately, our goal is to provide sensor technologies that provide clear value within our customers’ systems.

The MEMS sensor landscape has diversified significantly. Pressure and inertial sensors used to be the focus but today we address a much broader range of applications with increasing system complexity. This requires multiple technology platforms and more differentiated solutions. At the same time, expanding areas such as IoT, robotics, and intelligent systems are accelerating innovation and shaping new requirements.

The most important decisions revolve around technology priorities and resource allocation. We define which innovations to pursue and how to translate them into competitive products. This includes balancing performance, scalability, and cost efficiency. These decisions are key to ensuring long-term technology leadership and offering attractive solutions to our customers.

What fascinates me about MEMS sensors is their ability to translate physical effects into precise signals and context information for the digital world. Turning motion or environmental changes into useful information is essential for many modern technologies. This connection between physics and real-world applications makes the field uniquely exciting. We like to describe MEMS as a decathlon consisting of different technical disciplines. Developing and empowering our expert network in all these disciplines is very important to me. It is rewarding to see how the systems we contribute to become smarter and more responsive.

Together with product management, we translate technology and market trends into a targeted, future-focused sensor portfolio. This enables customers to easily access our solutions, which are optimized for performance, size, and cost. By aligning development closely with application needs, we improve system efficiency and functionality, which directly supports our customers’ competitiveness and the success of Bosch.

We collaborate closely with customers and internal partners from an early stage to align requirements and system expectations. This creates informed trade-offs, for example between performance, integration, and cost. Early alignment supports faster and more reliable development processes and enables platform approaches. The outcome is a solid foundation for successful and scalable customer solutions.

A key trend is the growing importance of intelligent systems that rely on high-quality sensor data. Applications such as robotics, autonomous systems, and smart devices require precise and reliable sensing in real time. In parallel, advancements in integration and signal processing are allowing sensors to operate in spots previously inaccessible and sense signals previously undetectable. MEMS sensors are therefore gaining even more significance as the interface between the physical and digital worlds.

We collaborate across Bosch using a shared MEMS technology roadmap, which allows us to leverage synergies and scale effects. In addition, we work closely with other semiconductor units, Corporate Research, and development partners. This ensures a strong link between technology, product development, and system understanding. Such collaboration is essential to deliver competitive and future-ready solutions.