Catalog Description: Physics, fabrication, and design of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Micro and nanofabrication processes, including silicon surface and bulk micromachining and non-silicon micromachining. Integration strategies and assembly processes. Microsensor and microactuator devices: electrostatic, piezoresistive, piezoelectric, thermal, magnetic transduction. Electronic position-sensing circuits and electrical and mechanical noise. CAD for MEMS. Design project is required.

Units: 4

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in engineering or science; undergraduates with consent of instructor.

Formats:
Spring: 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Fall: 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week

Grading basis: letter

Final exam status: Written final exam conducted during the scheduled final exam period

Also listed as: MEC ENG C218

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Class Schedule (Spring 2025):
EE C247B – MoWe 09:30-10:59, Cory 540AB – Jeronimo Segovia Fernandez
Class homepage

Class homepage on inst.eecs

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Department Notes: In the last decades, the R&D of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has advanced at an unprecedented pace, impacting a variety of disciplines that span from communication and sensing to computing and medicine. As a result, several MEMS devices have become commercially available and today play a fundamental role in many integrated systems; this is all thanks to their ability to meet critical and heterogenous needs which cannot be addressed by other technologies (e.g., CMOS). In this course, you will learn the fundamentals behind the design, fabrication, and characterization of MEMS, as well as some of their applications. We will evaluate the benefits of scaling in comparison to CMOS, such as faster speed, lower power consumption, and larger sensitivity. Microfabrication processes, including silicon surface and bulk micromachining and non-silicon micromachining, will enable the transfer of designs from CAD layouts to functional devices. The Euler-Bernoulli and Sophie-German equations that respectively determine elasticity in beams and plates will be derived in detail, and we will provide examples of equivalent stiffness calculation in multiple interconnected beams. In regards to dynamic analysis, we will look into the mathematical tools needed to compute the effective mass and natural resonance frequency of any flexural structure (e.g., the Rayleigh's energy method), and uncover the main damping mechanisms that limit Quality factor. Electrostatics and piezoelectricity will be introduced as examples of electromechanical transduction, and inertial sensors (i.e., accelerometer and gyroscopes) interfaced with operational amplifiers (OpAmps) will be become our case study for electronic characterization and thermomechanical noise. Finally, we will have an overview of the field of RF MEMS and, in particular, refer to RF switches, filters, and oscillators, as the components that generate the largest revenues in the wireless communication market. All of this knowledge will complemented with Finite Element Modeling (FEM) using COMSOL Multiphysics, and put in practice in a real MEMS technology application.