Glossary

Accelerated life testing: Also known as accelerated ageing, it is a methodology in reliability that subjects a product to a high degree of operational and environmental stresses, such as high temperature or voltage, in order to precipitate failure modes that would normally manifest themselves in later stages of the product's life.
Action potential: A temporary change in the electrical voltage across the cellular membrane of a nerve or muscle cell. Action potentials occur when the cell is stimulated, especially by a nerve impulse. They form the mechanism by which sensory and motor functions are transmitted across the neural system.
Amorphous silicon: Silicon lacking a preferred crystalline orientation, typically consisting of extremely fine grains each measuring a few nanometers in size.
Amplification: In biochemistry, it is the process of making a large number of identical copies of a DNA fragment. In electronics, it is the process of increasing the magnitude of an electrical voltage.
Anodic bonding: A process to bond silicon to glass, specifically Pyrex 7740 or equivalent.
Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC): An electronic integrated circuit with a functionality designed specifically for one particular application (e.g., the detection of minute changes in capacitance and conversion into an output voltage).
Bandpass: See Filter.
Bandwidth: The extent of the frequency response of a linear system. It is numerically defined as the difference between two corner frequencies where the system gain is 3 dB below the maximal gain. An input signal with a frequency content below or above the corner...

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Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering, Second Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Glossary

A-C

Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering, Second Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Glossary

A-C

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