What is MEMS?

MEMS is like having tiny robots inside your phone or watch that help it work better.

Imagine you have a tiny little house, and inside that house live tiny workers who do important jobs, like telling the house when to move, when to stop, or even when it’s getting too hot. That's what MEMS is like in real life: microelectromechanical systems are tiny machines, so small you can’t see them with your eyes alone.

Think of a bath scale, when you step on it, the number changes because it feels your weight. Now imagine that scale has tiny parts inside, like little springs or moving pieces, that help it know how much you weigh. That’s what MEMS does: they use tiny moving parts to sense things or make actions happen.

These tiny workers are in lots of places, your phone might use them for motion sensing, your car could use them to detect crashes, and even your gaming console uses them to know when you tilt it. It’s like having a whole tiny factory inside something you touch every day!