MEMS is at the vanguard of performance, rugged enough for deployment wherever the need arises. In aerospace and defense, this means tough environmental conditions like extreme temperatures and vibration. For quartz, a sudden change in temperature or poor performance caused by shock and vibration can cause significant drift in GPS positioning. You need the reliability that only MEMS can provide for mission-critical applications like manpack radios and GNSS receivers.

MEMS timing devices have up to 3000 times less mass than comparable quartz components, making them virtually immune to shock, vibration and g-force. It's simply impossible for quartz to compete.

The automotive industry is leading the trend of silicon becoming more integrated into our everyday lives. A decade ago, a typical vehicle had a handful of ECUs. Now, computers are all over the car, from infotainment systems and dashboard controls to safety features, sensors, assisted and autonomous driving. Electric vehicles push this trend exponentially, with as many as 100 ECUs and growing.
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MEMS-based components are easier to design, take up less space, use less power, and have fewer environmental constraints than their quartz counterparts. As our devices get more intelligent, pushing data back and forth between dozens of integrated systems, timing becomes more critical to keeping these systems in sync.