Advances in CAD for MEMS

Prabhakar Marepalli, Purdue University

Abstract

We present advances in computer aided design (CAD) for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Our advances are in the areas of design, modeling, simulation, verification, layout, and validation of MEMS. Our advances are implemented as user-friendly tools for novices or experts. The tools are easily accessible to all through a web interface with remote computation, or downloadable to a Matlab environment. At minimum, a web browser in a computer or a smart phone is all that is required to use our tools. Although the field of CAD for MEMS is well established, there are many problems to be addressed. A few problems with conventional tools are: 1) they are difficult to learn and use, 2) they require heavy hardware specifications and memory requirements, 3) most of them do not provide solutions in all the areas mentioned above, 4) they are not compatible with each other, 5) they are prohibitively expensive and cannot be afforded by a novice user who would like to learn MEMS, 6) they do not provide calibration procedures to compare experimental data with simulation results. The tools presented herein provide solutions to the above problems. Our tools are based on Sugar – a tool for design, modeling, and simulation of MEMS using lumped analysis. We address the above problems as follows: 1) Our new tool called SugarCube is the first of its kind to allows novices to parametrically investigate the static, modal, or transient performance of ready-made MEMS. This tool has a hierarchical library of popular or useful ready-made MEMS that are based on published work of experts. 2) Conversely, we have also made SugarCube to be able to provide the optimized parameters of MEMS as a function of desired performance. 3) Our new tool called Sugar2GDSII is the first to allow novice user to create a parameterized layout coupled with simulation of a microdevice online. Our layout generator is the easiest to use and fastest to produce, allowing novices to create a layout ready for fabrication in under a minute, versus hours or days with conventional tools. 4) To explore bridging the gap between simulation and experiment, we created a tool called SugarX. This pioneering tool is the first to allow remote users to perform experiment on MEMS over the web. Through SugarX, both a true device and its computer model are able to share the same performance properties. 5) To greatly expand our utility we created iSugar, which integrates finite element, network, and system-level analyses. This allows the user to explore the performance of a more complete system before finalizing the layout. In this thesis, we describe the framework and operation of each tool, provide few examples to demonstrate the features, and discuss how these tools can be useful to diverse range of users.

Degree

M.S.M.E.

Advisors

Clark, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Computer Engineering|Mechanical engineering

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