Micromachined Electro-Mechanical Systems, also called microfabricated Systems, have evoked great interest in the scientific and engineering communities. This is primarily due to several substantive advantages that MEMS offer: orders of magnitude smaller size, better performance than other solutions, possibilities for batch fabrication and cost-effective integration with electronics, virtually zero dc power consumption and potentially large reduction in power consumption, etc.
This Seminar would give an introduction to these exciting developments and the technology and design approaches for the realization of these integrated systems. It would be followed with an introduction to the design of microsensors, such as the pressure sensor and the accelerometer, which began the MEMS revolution.
A systematic approach is developed to select manufacturing Process Chains for the generic elements of a MEMS device. A database of MEMS Process Chains and their attendant process attributes is developed from the existing literature, and used to construct Process Attribute charts. The performance requirements of MEMS beams and trenches are translated into the same set of Process Attributes. This allows for a screening of the Process Chains to obtain a list of candidate manufacturing methods.
I begin with a quick introduction to MEMS technology, micron scale and show that silicon is eminently suited for micromechanical devices and therefore the possibility of integrating MEMS with VLSI electronics. Smart cell phones and wireless enabled devices are poised to become commercial engines for the next generation of MEMS, since MEMS provide not only better functionality with smaller chip area, but also alternative transceiver architectures for improved functionality, performance and reliability.
The application domains cover microsensors and actuators for physical quantities, of which MEMS for automobile & consumer electronics forms a large segment; microfabricated subsystems for communications and computer systems.
Micromachined Electro-Mechanical Systems, also called microfabricated Systems, have evoked great interest in the scientific and engineering communities. This is primarily due to several subs…