|
Last updated: 4/13/08
Overview
All students must complete a design project. This will entail the design
of a MEMS device or system (of your choosing) to be fabricated in a
standard process (also of your choosing). A writeup will be due at
the end of the semester. Some analysis and layout will be required.
You are familiar with the Poly-MUMPs process from class, but other processes
are available. Feel free to use any process that I have posted on the
homepage, or any other commercial process you can find.
Report
The final report will be due (postmarked) on
May 16. It should include the following content (the choice of sections is
left to your discretion):
- Introduction: Describe existing work related to your
project, and explain the thrust of your work in that context.
- Design: Describe the fabrication process used, and the
structures that you plan to achieve in this process. Include a top-down view,
one or more relevant cross-sections at the end of the process, plus any
intermediate cross-sections that you think may be necessary for clarity.
- Test structures: Describe a few test structures that you
could examine with a microscope or probe station to verify the functionality of
critical elements of your device and characterize their performance.
- Expected results: Analogous to the results section of a
real paper. Describe the way you expect your test structures to behave, with
graphs showing input-output behavior or some other relevant characteristic.
- Conclusion: Summarize your results and point out good
features and drawbacks of your design. Suggest directions for future work.
The report should be 3-4 pages long. Figures may be computer-generated or
hand-drawn (but should be neat and clear either way).
Milestones
I will let you pace yourself on the project, so I will not impose any
intermediate due dates. The only intermediate milestone is that I would like
to see a progress report, including at least the introduction and an outline
of the remaining sections except the conclusion, as soon as possible.
However, if you would like more feedback, feel free to send multiple progress
reports.
Topic ideas
If you have no idea what you would like to design, here are some ideas.
All of these have been the subjects of large research efforts in academia
or industry, and some are now commercially available. If you search the
literature, you will find publications on these topics.
- A micro-oven temperature control system to maintain a stable
environment for a temperature-sensitive device (such as a resonator or
gyroscope).
- A microscale cryogenic cooler. What applications would this have?
- A gas chromatography system (separation analyzer).
- A resonator (of a different style than the one that keeps showing up in
homework).
- A micromechanical switch.
- A micromirror array.
- An internal combusion engine
- A fuel cell
- An accelerometer
- A gyroscope
- A microphone
- A liquid pump or valve
|