CEA-Leti spinoff iNGage is developing affordable, high-performance, miniaturized Inertial Measurement Units. The company’s innovative approach is the product of fifteen years’ research in MEMS.
Navigation and geolocation tools often rely on satellite positioning systems such as GPS. However, their signals are not always available, for example inside buildings. In such cases, an alternative solution is required, such as an Inertial Measurement Unit, often called IMU. This system is made up of three accelerometers and three gyrometers – to which a pressure sensor can be added for altitude. Starting from a reference point, it is capable of determining the position, orientation and speed of an object in real time.
Combining High Performance and Miniaturization
IMU, such as those found in smartphones, could be useful for applications such as industrial robotics. However, autonomous vehicles or driver assistance applications require a level of precision to within a few tens of centimeters.
“High-performance IMUs do exist, but they are yet bulky, expensive modules or systems,” notes Philippe Robert, co-founder and CEO of iNGage. “In contrast, today’s IMU sensors components have a limited level of precision: they can be subject to an error of several meters within a few seconds.” In both cases, these constraints are incompatible with the applications mentioned above.
iNGage was founded on February 10, 2025 with the aim of meeting this growing need by developing a new type of IMU component. This innovative solution will combine high performance with small size and affordability: Thanks to micro and nanotechnologies, its dimensions will be small while performance per mm2 of silicon will be higher due to the innovative detection principle used by iNGage.
Detection Using Piezoresistive Nanogauges
“We opted for a new approach based on a piezoresistive detection principle,” explains Philippe Robert. “This involves measuring the variation in resistance between two suspended nano gauges in response to the mechanical stress caused by the effects of acceleration and rotation.”
iNGage has been able to increase the sensitivity and performance of MEMS sensors by applying this principle at a nanometric scale.
“Our distinguishing characteristic is that we combine MEMS with its nanoscale equivalent, NEMS,” emphasizes Philippe Robert. “MEMS services the mechanical structure of our IMU while NEMS enables the piezoresistive nano gauges. This enables us to produce IMUs at the component scale with performance levels that are impossible today using only capacitive MEMS technology. It’s an innovation that opens the door to new use cases.”
This technology is the result of fifteen years’ research at CEA-Leti and is protected by over thirty patents.
Towards GNSS-denied Positioning in Autonomous Applications
The startup is a winner of the BPI i-Lab 2024 innovation competition. It has promisingly demonstrated that its innovative detection principle can be used to produce three-axis accelerometers and three-axis gyrometers, as well as pressure sensors, on a single chip and with a level of precision compatible with the intended applications. Thanks in particular to a fundraising campaign, iNGage is now aiming to produce complete prototypes for customers evaluation. These will be used, for example, in autonomous drones and robots applications that require a high degree of accuracy in terms of positioning. The company will then tackle the markets for driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles, complementing other technologies such as GPS, radar and LiDAR. A Carnot-funded project at CEA-Leti enabled the development and stabilization of critical process steps for the first proof-of-concept demonstrations based on high-performance, multi-sensor architectures with unique designs. Today, the startup iNGage is benefiting from these results
