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The MEMS Design Process

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MEMS Materials and Processes Handbook

Part of the book series: MEMS Reference Shelf ((MEMSRS,volume 1))

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Abstract

Today’s ubiquitous commercial MEMS devices, such as accelerometers, inkjet printheads, pressure sensors, and micromirror arrays, took 10–20 years from first report to commercialization. Timelines from initial development through product release for some successful MEMS commercial products have been getting shorter as MEMS technologies have matured. Companies can no longer afford such long development times. MEMS development time can be systematically shortened through the use of structured design methods. This chapter overviews the design process and design methods, illustrating structured design methods through case studies. We suggest reading this chapter prior to getting into the details of materials and process seletion, and applying the methods described to shorten development time.

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Acknowledgments

We dedicate this chapter to the late Professor Kos Ishii of Stanford University who championed design methodologies across engineering disciplines; he was a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration to the authors. The authors are grateful to Dr. Markus Lutz, Dr. Robert Candler, and Dr. Pete Loeppert for helpful discussions and suggestions. The authors thank the Avago Technologies FBAR development team, particularly Shane Fazzio and Atul Goel, for their assistance on the acoustic sensor work. Dr. Pruitt was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under CAREER Award ECS-0449400, COINS NSF-NSEC ECS-0425914, CPN PHY-0425897, Sensors CTS-0428889 and NER ECCS-0708031. Dr. Lamers was supported in part by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Avago Technologies, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Tina L. Lamers

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Beth L. Pruitt

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  1. Tina L. Lamers
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  2. Beth L. Pruitt
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Correspondence to Tina L. Lamers .

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  1. Dept. Electrical &, Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Reza Ghodssi

  2. Xerox Research Center, Phillips Road 147-16C, Dock 140 800, Webster, 20742, New York, USA

    Pinyen Lin

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Lamers, T.L., Pruitt, B.L. (2011). The MEMS Design Process. In: Ghodssi, R., Lin, P. (eds) MEMS Materials and Processes Handbook. MEMS Reference Shelf, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-47318-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-47318-5_1

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