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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading Edge Engineering from the 1996 NAE Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Frontiers in MEMS Design
Pages 63-66

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From page 63...
... An hour's worth of technical discussion can generate several man-decades' worth of research ideas. MEMS engineers are in the enviable position of regularly having to choose from dozens of research or development projects, each of which is clearly worthy of effort and will clearly lead to new and useful products or tools.
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From page 64...
... This sequence of material deposition, photolithographic pattern transfer, and etching is applied repeatedly to build up the desired materials and shapes. The collection of glass plates is known as the mask set, and the specification of deposition and etching parameters is known as the process flow.
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From page 65...
... Both approaches promise to greatly decrease the design-cycle time and to increase the probability of generating working devices in "first silicon," the first attempt at production, even for the novice designer. The Holy Grail for the process and device CAD is the ability to take a mask set and process flow, simulate the three-dimensional geometry and material properties, and solve the partial differential equations (PDEs)
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From page 66...
... Design-cycle times can be reduced to minutes, and the probability of a functional part increased dramatically. The intent of this latter approach is to bring MEMS design to a point comparable to IC design, which will enable first-year graduate students or senior undergraduates to learn significant MEMS design skills in a single semester course.
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Key Terms

  • process flow
  • mask set
  • energy domains
  • material properties
  • mems devices

  • material deposition
  • glass plates
  • mems process
  • device physics
  • pattern transfer

  • standard ordinary
  • partial differential
  • work currently
  • learn significant
  • devices store

  • tightly coupled
  • mems technology
  • marina del
  • single semester
  • broader audience

  • mems industry
  • significant mems
  • own deposition
  • dynamic performance
  • subsequent processing

  • mems fabrication
  • basic devices
  • technology easily
  • analysis approach
  • exchange energy


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