Using MEMS to Miniaturize Mobile Phones 135
securitas writes: "The NY Times has a feature on using microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) in cell phones to replace bulky passive components like the filters, resonators and duplexers that make up most of the size of today's phones. In theory, they say, you could have a cell phone in a ring on your finger. Besides making everyone seem like James Bond, a ring-phone would give new meaning to the phrase 'Talk to the hand.'"
Coltan (Score:1)
Frankly, after seeing what is going on in the Congo, I feel ashamed for even owning a cell phone.
.
Re:Coltan (Score:1)
Re:Coltan (Score:2)
It is pretty scary. I hadn't heard anything about it either. I guess the companies do all they can to play down the issue, much like the diamond company [google.com].
More information (Score:3, Informative)
Coltan killing elephants, gorillas and people [npr.org]
The Coltan Rush [bbc.co.uk]
Minerals Fueling War [sptimesrussia.com]
Guns, money and cell phones [thestandard.com]
.
Re:Coltan (Score:1)
Re:Coltan (Score:5, Informative)
The controversy over coltan and the Congo seems to revolve around two issues. One is that Congo's neighbors seem to be exploiting its coltan resources, i.e. smuggling coltan and exporting it as their own product. Another is the environmental impact, since illegal mining operations probably care as much about the environmental impact they have as they do about the law.
All of this so far is off-topic, but if rf MEMs could replace capacitive filters and resonators, it could help reduce the demand for coltan. This feeble attempt to be on-topic is purely speculative, though, as I am not a wireless engineer and the NYT article lacks details about the materials being used in these devices.
Re:Coltan (Score:3, Insightful)
Tantalum tends to be used in low frequency and power circuits. Quite honestly, if you didn't need a mobile phone the size of a domino, you could make them a bit bigger and use plain ordinary electrolytic capacitors instead.
Of course, they use other nasty chemicals, so you just can't win...
Re:Coltan (Score:2)
Not quite. Aluminum electrolytics don't respond well at high frequencies, and in modern electronics usually the power supply filter caps have to handle quite high frequencies, since the power drawn by components varies rapidly. Ceramic caps take care of the highest frequencies, but don't store enough charge to cover everything. Electrolytics store lots of charge, but don't let it out fast enough. Tantalums are in-between, and quite often perfect.
The rising production of cell phones did cause a severe shortage of tantalums a year or two ago. One of our customers was then designing a board with a 233MHz Pentium, where size and weight didn't matter. So instead of tantalums, they used about a dozen medium size electrolytics in parallel -- this was massively more capacitance than needed, but by adding together the slight high frequency response of all those electrolytics, they got the same effect as a couple of good tantalums. Only trouble was, when you turned power on charging up all those caps for the first time put a strain on the power supply!
Re:Coltan (Score:2, Informative)
Funny thing... Africa isn't the major producer of the stuff. Australia is, then Africa, Brazil, Thailand, China, Canada and Malayshia.
Get a clue (Score:2)
For hundreds of thousands of people in the "republic" of Congo, coltan mining is one of the few ways to make ends meet. It's actualy allowing people to eat regularly and keep from starving to death.
Great.... (Score:5, Funny)
Does this mean people are going to get pulled over for talking on their cell (in areas where it's illegal), when all they were really doing was picking their nose?
What an injustice... what a travisty....
Universal MIS-Communication (Score:1)
Imagine conversations with all of those expressive people who are always wave their hands:
"I WAS wond.....and thEN I THOught..."
Re:Great.... (Score:1)
"Call home." It calls home.
"Answer phone." It answers phone.
etc.
Seems a lot easier...
ryan
Re:Great.... (Score:1)
Do we absolutely need another reason for... (Score:1)
Dildos (Score:1, Insightful)
A vibrator in a wedding ring should keep the "little missus" happy in a discrete way... ;-)
Ring phones (Score:4, Interesting)
-Restil
Re:Ring phones (Score:2, Informative)
. . . to reduce the size of the phone will reduce the size of the battery . . .
"Luckily," he says dryly, "the article answers this very issue."
Indirectly, better filtering helps reduce the size of a cellphone because lower-quality filtering results in a signal loss that is corrected by more amplification, which drains power. More power means bigger batteries and extra electronics within the phone.
"The ultimate benefit," Mr. Mueller said, "is a smaller, lighter phone that works well and works longer between charges."
The Gardener
Re:Ring phones (Score:2)
That would be fine if your phone only received. To transmit, you need real power (5W?) which drains even palm-sized batteries fast. And I don't believe that the driver transistors and filters needed on the transmitter can shrink that small anyway.
Cell-phones have to have receive always turned on (so it can receive a call at any time), but when idle they only turn on transmit for a few milliseconds at a time to identify themselves to the network. My wife's cell phone batteries last for days in this mode. But when she starts talking, a full charge goes in half an hour.
Re:Ring phones (Score:3, Interesting)
Or a solar hat! I say that last one because I would love the fidora to come back.
Bring the fidoras back! (Score:1)
I second that!! I had hoped that RedHat would have done this too, but a red fidora really isn't as cool as a black one
Re:Ring phones (Score:1)
and that phone he used?
that was a pda combination?
I want one.
When are we going to get those?
Re:Ring phones (Score:2)
Re:Ring phones (Score:1)
One Ring to Bind them? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One Ring to Bind them? (Score:2)
a:"I'm not dead, I'm married."
b:"No, you're married, not dead is how it really is."
Re:One Ring to Bind them? (Score:1)
Upon your honour and cold iron?
What happen if... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What happen if... (Score:1)
You may want to invest in a mic/earpece (Score:2)
Embedded phones.. (Score:1)
Now if they just had some kind of thought-based dialing system...
Re:Embedded phones.. (Score:1)
Now if they just had some kind of thought-based dialing system...
So, if I'm with my wife, but start thinking about my girlfriend, suddenly I'm dialing her? I can see a downside here . . .
The Gardener
Re:Embedded phones.. (Score:1)
and don't forget... (Score:1)
log/pass = password/password
MEMS are cool! (warning not an original joke) (Score:2, Redundant)
third hole, they hear a phone ring. The American excuses himself, puts
his left thumb to his ear and his left pinky finger to his mouth and
proceeds to have a phone conversation. When he is done, he looks at the
other two and says, "Oh, that's the latest American technology in cell
phones. I have a chip in my thumb and one in my pinky and the antenna is
in my hat. Great stuff, huh?" They continue golfing until the ninth
hole when, again, they hear a phone ring. The German tilts his head to
one side and proceeds to have a conversation with someone in German.
When he finishes, he explains to the other two that he has the latest in
German cell phone technology. "A chip in my tooth, a chip in my ear and
the antenna has been inserted into my spine...Ah, the wonders of German
know-how!" At the thirteenth hole, a phone rings again and upon hearing
it, the Japanese guy disappears into some nearby bushes. The German and
the American look at each other and then walk over and peer into the
bushes. In the middle of the bushes is the Japanese guy, squatting with
his pants down around his ankles. "What on earth are you doing?!" asks
the American. The Japanese guy looks up and replies, "Waiting for a
fax."
finger in the ear phone (Score:1)
This technology has already been patented. By the Japanese [patent.ne.jp].
yah (Score:1)
that was a really lame joke. I'm sorry I repeated it.
thank you.
From what? (Score:1)
I say bring back the big manly phones that look like radio handsets!
Even more fragile phones? Woot.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Once they make a small phone like that out of something nice and hard, whatever it is, I'll be happy.
For example, the Motorola i1000plus is quite durable, although big. Now compar it to a StarTec, smaller phone, but put the belt clip on and it's just as big. Don't even try to wear it without the clip. It's ultra fragile. On the other hand I've had the i1000 in my pocket, no clip no protector nothing for quite some time and no problems at all.
What good is a cell phone 'ring' if it's broken?
Nokia 8000x (Score:2)
Anyway, they are quite durable. I'd imagine those flip phones would be quite fragile though.
MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:2)
Yeah, but this might be a way to make MEMS mainstream. I imagine your insulin pump would be much cheaper if it contained the same technology as a cell-phone.
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:1)
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:2)
I don't think I understand what you mean. Surely phones are more mainstream than insulin pumps, no? Or are you saying the phones have to be embedded? I wouldn't make that assumption. An earing and a tie pin could make a nice phone too.
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:1)
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:2)
Not being a diabetic, thats actually pretty easy..
Re:MEMS are much cooler then this (Score:1)
Its bad enough ... (Score:2)
Is this to facilitate our ever-increasing divorce rates? Now she can call to inform you of the impending alimony payments right from the wedding band!
Suddenly, the solitary life doesn't seem so bad.
Of course, not everything can be miniaturized... (Score:3, Insightful)
And was that guy in the other car flipping you the bird, or just extending his antenna?
Re:Of course, not everything can be miniaturized.. (Score:1)
Of course, all can be solved with the mighty bluetooth. But having separate keypad and everything kinda defeats the purpose.
Re:Of course, not everything can be miniaturized.. (Score:1, Offtopic)
I imagin cell phone would end up in your ear, until the embed them into peoples teeth, anyway.
Yeah, nevermind the interface... (Score:1)
Shameless plugs (Score:5, Informative)
Here [physicstoday.org]
is an general interest article from the group in which I work with some details oriented towards these types of mesoscopic MEMs.
Here [physicstoday.org]
is a neat picture of a Mesoscopic MEMs device (an acceleratometer resting on top the middle part of the "8" in a 1998 penny.
And though my research at Berkeley wasn't MEMS oriented, Berkeley MEMS is pretty active. Here [berkeley.edu] is a link to that.
As the article points out, MEMS are finding applications in cell phones because it is easy to make very small RF filters using inertial effects to provide inductive-like impedences. (In the past, the inductive like parts of a cell-phone filter would either be done with spiral inductors, which are unwieldly or via other microwave circuit voodoo.)
However, beyond cell phones is a grab bag of MEMs applications already at or beyond the prototype stage:
- Car air bag detectors (the above accelerometer)
- Laser gyroscopes
- Projection displays (pixel mirrors arrays)
- Optical fiber switches
- Medical applications (microfluidics, bio-chips,
- Remote sensing (minaturized microphones, or in the future, smart dust)
Enjoy
Kevin
Phone cards (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Phone cards (Score:1)
Re:Phone cards (Score:1)
It's already heading our way. Check out:
Disposable cell phone [howstuffworks.com] Disposable cell phone [digit-life.com]
But, we should always consider the other side of our use and toss society:
Disposable cell phone and the toxic price [commondreams.org]
Implants (Score:4, Funny)
The last guy to go is one of those crypto dudes who wears all black. He holds out his hand and taps his palm a few times. Then after a brief pause he starts speaking to someone as if on the phone, which it turned out he was, this dude had a cell phone implanted into his palm and skull!
Anyway we continued drinking for some time (it was IETF after all) and the dude asked us to watch his laptop for a while while he went to the little boys room. We had some more drinks and were about to leave when someone pointed out that the dude had not returned yet. So I went off to the bathroom to find him.
I find the dude bent over the can with his legs stretched out and a bog roll stuck up his ass. Immediately I think the dude has been mugged. "Hey whats up, you OK?" I ask. "No I'm fine", the dude replies "I'm just waiting for a fax".
Sooo.. (Score:2)
If it takes the form of jewlery, it would be an earing. But mor likely it will be behind the ear, like a hearing aid so you can just talk and hear without holding a darn thing. Of course you can do that now, you just have the phone clipped to your belt.
Basically the ring analogy was just a long way to go for a bad joke. Not that there is ever a short way to a bad joke...
Re:Sooo.. (Score:1)
Un-needed size reduction? (Score:3, Interesting)
Where this technology might be more appropriate is in the imbedded markets. For the Auto-makers, the size of On-Star style equipment could be greatly reduced and in-dash cell phones could have a much nicer and simpler integration.
Though its quite cool to see electornics reaching the miniature level, at some point (which we may have already reached) it will be impracticle to reduce the package size of many consumer electronics. Do you really want a 1 cubic inch sized cell phone that you loose once a week and spend $200 to replace?
As for MEMS, the medical applications [manufacturingcenter.com] are much more interesting.
Smaller phones won't work (Score:3, Informative)
Simply put, a ring-size phone is just plain impossible with anything remotely resembling current physical plant and battery technology.
Re:Smaller phones won't work (Score:1)
If info I found on a quick google search is right, US has average population density of something like 30/km^2 or little less, and for example here in Finland we have average of
_17_ per square kilometer, yet we have biggest relative cell phone amount in the whole world, and yes, those phones are the miniature european GSM version - and they DO work almost anywhere, the two biggest operators have probably something like 99% coverage, or more.
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:1)
By 2G standards, GSM won in the US (even though its still in development). GSM is easily upgradable to GPRS (2.5G) and then switch out to WCDMA.
The article is some respects is retarded anyway. Its not the radio circuits that take up all the real estate, its the processors and integrated circuits. Most of the filtering is done by DSP anyway. Oh yeah, and the radio only takes up a fraction of the space anyway.
Its not rocket science when you consider what they have done to shrink the size of cell phones: put everything in integrated circuits and software. There is a reason why phones are now using zero IF heterodyne receivers (even though they are a forking pain in the ass). Now RF MEMs ACTIVE circuits will make a *huge* difference - but not on circuit real estate - but on actually being able to make a good 3G radio without sacrificing quality.
And CDMA power control sucks!
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:1)
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:1)
Okay, I totally took your comments in the wrong way.
One of the problems with CDMA phones is the simple fact that its more complicated (frequency hopping plus more complicated linear modulation) compared to GSM's simplicity (time division with GMSK - frequency modulation basically).
GSM is very simple, extremely well researched, and been in development for a very long time. Ericsson and Nokia are on their 6th or 7th generation of platforms, far ahead of 2nd or 3rd generation CDMA handsets. Thats why the GSM phones are smaller, not because its a market thing. Even the Samsung phones are huge by GSM standards!
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:1)
Yes. I want a 1 cubic inch sized cell phone with a watch strap. Then I won't ever lose it.
The Motorola T193 (a GSM Voicestream phone) I have is nicely sized - fits in the palm of my hand and pretty unobtrusively in my jacket pocket. It's not ridiculously small like the Nokia 8290. But I know I'm going to leave it somewhere and walk off without it eventually. I've never bought a PDA because I know it would suffer the same fate.
But put all of that (phone, PDA) in a watch case with decent voice recognition software, and you have a product that I'll sell your soul to buy.
jvance
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:1)
Do you really want a 1 cubic inch sized cell phone that you loose once a week and spend $200 to replace?
I doubt that one would be capable of loosing such a cell phone unless, as another poster suggested, it came with some sort of wrist strap. However, it would be very easy to lose such a small phone.
Congratulations! You have been participant #21 in my campaign to rid Slashdot of this error.
Re:Un-needed size reduction? (Score:2)
In Japan, phones tended to be a little bigger than Motorola's flip phones (v.series, startac, etc) (taller more than wide though and less deep) and tended to have more features packed in. They also seemed to make 100 variations of every model for fashion purposes.
In London, phones were basically identical to what is found in the US with the exception of an Ericsson and a couple Samsungs.
Of course, in the Bay Area, we have GSM and PCS available which may not be the case in other parts of the country. Maybe in your area they are still selling brick phones, but around here you can pick up a Motorola v.series, Nokia 8800 series, Samsung A series and Ericcson T series (well the T28 World which is the smallest of the series anyway.)
Fapping + Phone? (Score:1)
If these things come with a vibration (silent ring) function, I'd be calling myself all day long.
Blurring the line... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Blurring the line... (Score:2)
I don't understand. You speak as though there was some sort of a difference to begin with.
Finger phone (Score:2)
You mean kinda like a miniaturized one of these [slashdot.org]?
OK this together with the Think & point mouse (Score:2)
Of course I would have to avoid most public places when talking to my girlfriend. I would hate for her to hear WOW WHAT A NICE ASS ON THAT!
Seriously are we down to this as being "stuff that matters"?
Nokia will make lots of money... (Score:2)
It could be useful, actually (Score:4, Insightful)
The current "best" PDA-phone combination is arguably the Nokia 9210 [nokia.com] (or yet-to-be-released 9290 in the US). Although the size is perfectly ok for myself, the weight is not. A ring-sized phone embedded inside a PDA could be the planned direction for this miniaturization.
Palm is too bulky a unit to be used as a phone, contrary to whatever Handspring say about its Treo. The 9210 is too heavy and too thick for most people. Imagine a phone with Palm functionality, the integration of 9210, and the weight of 80g. This ring-phone technology could be the answer to our prayers.
explain it to the finger (Score:1)
well it's like this your honour , i was showing him my new phone and he like, took offence , and it all went downhill from then onwards.....
Cell phone in your ring? (Score:4, Funny)
It doesnt matter. (Score:3, Interesting)
They can make it the size of an eraser head, If they cant get me a battery for it that lasts as long as a full day of use then it's worthless technology.
Re:It doesnt matter. (Score:1)
I'd think a few grains of Plutonium-238(in a companion ring with a hard shield protecting the battery) would be enough fuel for anyone. Unfortunately average humans of today would crack it open and irradiate themselves to death.
Though there are other fuel sources, which given the unique properties of mems, could simply tap atomic motion itself for power with microspring capacitors if needed. The rythmn of your pulse, plus the motion of your hand, and the difference in temperature of your flesh and the outside air itself combined could be more than enough power to keep a micro-cellphone ring running indefinitely.
There is a huge arena of ambient energy to be tapped once you can define the microscopic world efficently.
Wearable phones (Score:2)
Of course the Trekkies would all buy the 'com badge' version.
Ear Phone! (Score:1)
How about a ring watch? (Score:1)
Y'know, a gold ring with an embedded digital timepiece, not much bigger than your standard gold band. Even something that displays at the push of a button to conserve battery power. What's the use of having a cellphone the size of a ring when you have to have that 3-ounce watch around your wrist?
Teaser Scene's from "That 2000's Show" (Score:1)
"No it's not a Cell Phone, it's an IN-VIS-A-BLE PHONE!!!"
("Only 8 bucks a minute too")
So if my ring is set to vibrate.. (Score:1)
Oh, come on, use your imagination.
Talk to the hand? Talk to DoCoMo (Score:1)
"NTT DoCoMo's Media Computing Lab is currently developing a wearable wireless phone that consists only of a wristband. The phone, called the "Whisper," because it vibrates rather than rings, contains a tiny microphone the wearer speaks into.
The wristband also contains a device that converts voice into vibrations that travel through the hand, the finger and into the ear canal.
To answer incoming calls, the wearer taps the index finger and thumb -- that's it -- and then sticks a finger in one ear to hear the person on the other line. "
Psychological problem with small phones (Score:3, Interesting)
For this reason, phone manufacturers actually increase the size of cell phones for sale in America, or otherwise simply choose not to sell the smaller models here. I predict these types of "ring phones" and what-not will probably have a very hard time gaining a mainstream foothold in North America.
I'm all for smaller phones (Score:2)
putting phones in more useful places.... (Score:1)
Or, to put it another way, you have a "normal" sized cell phone (whatever we decide that is) that you carry with you, but everywhere you go there's a phone embedded into small spaces places?
Ooo, even better. What if the receivers are all built on a bluetooth [bluetooth.org] standard. Everyone has a jabra-like [jabra.com] ear piece that automatically reaches out and makes a "PAN" connection when it comes in range of a "button" phone. There's a button phone receiver on your monitor, in your car, and in your house, and when you're in any of those spaces, all you have to do is touch your ear piece and speak the number you want to dial. Calls are automatically forwarded to you depending on where the PAN is established. If you go to a store, your earpiece automatically connects to the button phone receiver on the shopping cart, so that if you have questions while you're shopping, you can ask a customer service rep (on their dime)...
Okay. Back to the crack smoking....
Talk to the hand (Score:2)
- StaticLimit
Re:Talk to the hand (Score:2)
One ring... (Score:1)
jewelry phones (Score:2)
Of course, then you'll have people forever asking you "Did getting your cell phone hurt?"
Two words... (Score:1)
Phone sex...
Great. (Score:1)
Voice recognition... okay... "Phone, dial 201-555-1212!"... and every phone on the bus starts ringing.
Your going to hit a physics wall (Score:1)
NY Times sells e-mail addresses to spammers (Score:1)
The last time a NY Times story came up, I put in a bogus name and e-mail address, however the e-mail address was aliased to an existing one. Well, guess what? Earlier today I received spam to this bogus e-mail address using the bogus name. Rancid wankers.
Re:Battery for ring phone (Score:1)
Well... (Score:3, Interesting)
I doubt that a slower, more expensive and more highly breakable technology is going to be replacing the current one. A general rule of thumb is that no moving parts can be faster/safer/lower power/smaller than moving parts. MEMS has previously been used to replace larger mechanical systems. Its especially good for increasing the resolution of mechanical scans. There was a presentation at my school on the subject - a guy came in with a credit card sized thing and showed that all you do is connect it to a solution and siphon the solution through the card. A MEMS system could then recognize certain chemical agents in the solution (something that is only possible by having a higher resolution scan of the materials).
But for wireless? At least, it becomes extremely difficult to transmit a signal without a large antennae, and I think mems would require more power than passive systems.
This is all the truth of the technology as I have read about it in the past. Has anyone seen anything that contradicts my assertions?
Confusing nanomechanics "moving parts" (Score:3, Informative)
I doubt that a slower, more expensive and more highly breakable technology is going to bereplacing the current one. A general rule of thumb is that no moving parts can be faster/safer/lower power/smaller than moving parts.
I think you're confused about what the "moving parts" are and what they do. Those rules apply to moving parts that rub against each other. These devices are resonators and diplexers, implemented as parts that vibrate and flex, like a bell ringing or a tuning fork humming.
Matter flexes all the time, regardless of whether the motion is deliberate or just a response to heat. Unless the flexing is so large that atoms are displaced from their resting place they don't wear out for geological time.
(Even some displacement is possible without wear. It's called "annealing". Atoms move around slightly to release stresses, resulting in a part the same shape but less brittle.)
For a resonator: In place of electronic tuned circuits (capacitors and inductors, with the action taking place in the motion of electrons and the electric fields between, and magnetic fields around, large conductive structures) you use nanoscopic tuning forks or other shapes with sudden discontinuities.
The motion of electrons through long circuits at about 2/3 the speed of light is repaced by the motion of atoms through distances comparable to their own diameter, at speeds more typical of large masses pushed by moderate forces.
The electric field between two metal plates is miniaturized as the electric fields between pairs of atoms.
The "inertia" of the magnetic field around a long conductor is replaced by the physical inertia of moving atomic nuclei.
The operating speed is EXACTLY the same, as is the amount of energy used. (For a given "Q" factor the friction losses are the same, whether a tuned circuit is implemented as an electrical or nanomechanical structure.)
This kind of thing has been done before - about the time transistor radios became pocket-sized. One example is a miniature quartz crystal about the size of a large ant, precision cut and with precision-deposited electrodes and "doping" weights, replacing (and doing a better job than) about a half-dozen tuned circuits, each pair about the size of a pencil eraser.
But that was for a frequency under half a megahertz. Now we're talking several factors of ten faster - which translates to several factors of ten smaller. And we're now in the range where we can replace several tuned circuits the size of the chip with several silicon and metal structures each about the size of a large transistor.
As for "expensive" to construct, we're not talking microscopic robot arms mounting tiny levers and wheels on axles. We're talking etching a shape into silicon, glass, or conductive metal. This can be done using the same processes that put the circuitry and interconnections onto the chip. (It might not even take any extra steps.)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Informative)
Presently, the most precise analog input filters are electromechanical devices called SAW filters. An array of electrodes apply the input signal to start a piezoelectric crystal vibrating, with another array picking up the output signal. The signal passes through the crystal as a sound wave; the crystal might oscillate at many frequencies, but to pass between crystal and electrodes, the sound wavelength must match the array spacing.
The proposed "MEMS" filter is a tuning fork etched out of semiconductor, I assume with piezoleletric input and output electrodes. Only signals at very near the natural oscillation frequency of the fork can set it vibrating so as to be picked up at the output electrode. The electrodes can be much smaller, and for cell phone frequencies obviously the fork has to be very tiny. Since the device is smaller, it doesn't use as much power.
"Slower" -- no. "Uses more power" -- no. "More expensive" -- true for now, but the tinier device will probably be cheaper once it's become a commodity part mass-produced in competing factories. "More breakable" -- yes, but I don't think it will be breakable enough to be a likely point of failure. A really strong shock in the right direction could snap the tuning fork, but considering the tiny size and considerable strength of the likely materials, you'd probably mangle the case, display, and circuit board before you damaged the MEMS.
A slightly more realistic reliability concern is that for a tuning fork to work, it has to have air space around it. That is, where solid-state components are encased in solid epoxy, a bubble would have to be left around the fork. It's OK if the bubble comes out the intended size and location, and the epoxy covers it completely and makes a good seal around the wires. But if there's the slightest leak to let moisture or anything else get into the bubble, the device will soon die. There are a few larger components which require air bubbles to operate: crystal oscillators usually have a tuning-fork in a bubble, some optocouplers have an air gap separating the LED and phototransistor. No matter how much effort the manufacturer of these devices puts into controlling the build process and testing them 100%, we always have a few go bad when we solder them to the board. They also tend to have high field failure rates, although I don't know if that is due to leakage into the bubble. Crystals are lower frequency and a larger tuning fork, so more breakable, and optocouplers are used mainly to prevent high voltage zaps from getting into the device -- it's no surprise when a device that's _expected_ to be zapped gets zapped too much and fails.