Gaetano LEpiscopo

Introduction to MEMS and NEMS

Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Going to nanoscale: NEMS
Course outline
Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Going to nanoscale: NEMS
Course outline
Topics of the course
MEMS/NEMS properties, definitions and examples
Scaling laws
MEMS technology: materials and processes
Techniques for fabricating microstructures
Design of microdevices
Transduction mechanisms
Microsensors and Microactuators: physics and laws



Resources 1/2
Books:
James J. Allen. Micro Electro Mechanical System Design. CRC Press.
Jan G. Korvink, Oliver Paul. MEMS - A Practical Guide to Design, Analysis, and
Applications. Springer.
Mohamed Gad-el-Hak. The MEMS Handbook. CRC Press.
Bharat Bhushan. Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology. Springer.
Scientific Journals:
IEEE/ASME, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.
Elsevier, Sensors and Actuators.
IoP, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.
IEEE, Sensors Journal.
International Scientific Conferences:
IEEE MEMS
SPIE Smart Structures and Systems Smart electronics and MEMS
Eurosensors
IEEE Sensors






Resources 2/2
Websites:
http://www.memsnet.org
https://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu
https://www.mems-exchange.org/
http://memscentral.com/
http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/microeng/
Industries:
MEMSCAP
STMicroelectronics
Texas Instruments
Analog Devices
Bosch
Maxim
Freescale
Qualcomm
Omrom
Sensirion
Murata
Software:
Comsol
ANSYS
Coventor
SoftMEMS/MEMSPro
Intellisense
MEMS associations/services:
MEMS Industry Group (North America)
NEXUS (Europe)
Europractice (Europe)

Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Downscaling to Nanotechnology: NEMS
Course outline
What are MEMS?
Micro
Electro
Mechanichal
Systems
MEMS are integrated devices, or
systems of devices, with
microscopic parts, such as:
Mechanical Parts
Electrical Parts

MEMS devices have typical sizes
from micrometer to centimeter
with individual features of a few
micrometers or less.
Acronyms
Micro Small size, microfabricated structures
Electro Electrical signal / control (IN/OUT)
Mechanichal Mechanical functionality (IN/OUT)
Systems Structures, devices, systems control
In Europe and USA, the acronym MST (Micro-System Technology)
is also used.
MEMS: Definitions
MEMS is an engineering discipline that studies the
design and fabrication of micrometer to centimeter
scale mechanical systems.
MEMS devices are in widespread use, and are often
referred to as solid state sensor and actuators, or solid
state transducers.
MEMS fabrication is commonly referred to as
Micromachining.
MEMS design is often referred to as micro-systems
Engineering.
MEMS: Why?
An effort to miniaturize sensors and actuators for the
purposes of:
Reducing size, weight, energy consumption, and
fabrication cost for mass production
Integrating micromachines and microelectronics
on the same chip
Replacing electronics with mechanical equivalent
In many cases, obtain better device performance
than macro equivalent

Making small things is new and cool, but not always the
best solution
Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Going to nanoscale: NEMS
Course outline
MEMS: Properties
Micro Electro Mechanichal Systems:
Integrated microdevices or systems combining electrical
and mechanical components.
Fabrication using integrated circuits (ICs) compatible
batch-processing techniques and silicon-based
technologies.
Size from micrometers to millimeters.
Sensing, computation and actuation onto a single silicon
die.
Combination of two or more of the following: electrical,
mechanical, optical, chemical, biological, magnetic or
other properties, integrated onto a single or multichip
hybrid
MEMS: Dimensions
MEMS allow us to create
artificial systems that are on
the same scale and
functionality as insects.
MEMS: scale of objects
Definition of size scale terminology
Transducers: sensors and actuators
Transducer
INPUT OUTPUT
A transducer is a device that converts a signal in one form of energy to another
form of energy through a transduction mechanism.
Energy types include electrical, mechanical, electromagnetic (including
light), chemical, acoustic and thermal energy.
Transduction mechanisms are implemented and modeled exploiting physical,
chemical and/or mathematical laws.
Sensor Actuator
A sensor is a transducer that
measures/detect a physical quantity and
converts it into a signal (usually
electrical) which can be read by an
observer or by an instrument.
An actuator is a transducer that energy
and produces actions, sometimes
movement for moving, positioning or
controlling a mechanism or system
Physical
quantity
Electrical
signal
Energy or
Control signal
Action
(movement)
Example of sensor
Sensor
Pressure
(force on surface)
Strain
Pressure sensor
Side view Top view Conditioning circuit
Changing of
electrical
resistance
Electrical
signal
Example of actuator
Electric
voltage
Electrostatic
forces on
capacitor
Electrostatic actuator
Movement
Force
Actuator
Electric field
Comb drive
Sensing Processing - Actuation
The combination of Sensors and Actuators with Integrated Circuits
completes a loop allowing completely interactive systems.
PROCESSING
Brains
OUTPUTS
Hands
and
mouth
INPUTS
Eyes
and
ears
Sensors Circuits Actuators
Sensing Processing - Actuation
The combination of Sensors and Actuators with Integrated Circuits
completes a loop allowing completely interactive systems.
Physical
event
Sensor Actuation Processing
Physical
response
Micro-Electro-Mechanical System
MEMS: Design
For MEMS purposes, design means to create a device or system:
with quantitative performance parameters (e.g., sensitivity)
subject to constraints like size, price, materials, physicssome
clearly definedsome not
This is hard no matter what the device is, because:
The manufacturing technology is actually quite imprecise
10% tolerance on in-plane dimensions is typical
Out-of-plane tolerances may be much better.or much worse
Fabrication success is NOT a given AND is tied to the design
The material properties are unknown or poorly known
The physics are often different. Not the traditional size scales
The system must be partitioned (e.g. which parts can you integrate
on-chip?)
Packaging is non-trivial
MEMS Design: solutions to this challenge
Approach #1
Make something easy or not useful, etc..
Approach #2
Do incorrect back-of-the-envelope design and then proceed
Approach #3 (favored by many newbies)
Create a large range of structures: one of them will work,
hopefully
Approach #4 (The MEMS designer way)
Predictive design of all you know to enable chance of first round
success
Determine necessary modeling strategies for a given problem
Be aware of what you dont know, cant control, and what your
assumptions are
MEMS Design Levels
Different level of design:
Analytical design
Abstracted physics
ODEs, Scaling, Lumped-element models
Numerical Design
Intermediate approach between physical and analytical
Physical level
3D simulation of fundamental physics
FEM
PDEs

Tradeoff between accuracy and effort/time
Always limited by fundamental knowledge of properties or
specifications
MEMS: Fabrication
MEMS are fabricated using integrated circuits (ICs) compatible
batch-processing techniques and silicon-based technologies.
Microfabrication
Microfabrication
Microfabrication is a manufacturing technology
A way to make stuff
Adapted from semiconductor industry with changes
Therefore, MANY standard design principles hold
Microfabrication has unique elements:
New Materials : SU-8, PDMS
New ways to shape them: DRIE
New material properties (bulk vs. thin film)
Different physics regimes
MEMS: Fabrication steps
Front-end: production of integrated devices on silicon wafers through a series of processes.
Back-end: performing assembly, packaging and testing of device functions.
Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Going to nanoscale: NEMS
Course outline
MEMS: Products
Ink Jet Printers

Thermal Ink-Jets
Microwave
and Wireless

Switches
Filters
Components
Power sensors
Pressure

MAP sensors
Microphones
Medical
and Biological

Lab on a Chip
DNA analysis
Chem/Bio
Detection
Drug Delivery
Optics

Projection
Displays
Laser Printers
Switching
Networks
Tunable Lasers
Filters
Inertial

Accelerometers
Gyroscopes
MEMS: Industrial applications
Controls for Industry or Home:
sensors to measure external
environment and actuators for
adjustment
Instrumentation and Control
Industry uses MEMS devices
which sense pressure,
temperature, acceleration
and proximity.
Automotive Industry: pressure sensors (engine oil pressure, vacuum
pressure, fuel injection pressure, tire pressure, stored air bag
pressure), accelerometers (triggering of air bag, locking seat belt) and
temperature sensors (to monitor oil, antifreeze and air temperature)
MEMS: Manufactures
MEMS inertial sensors
Accelerometer sensor of acceleration along 1, 2 and/or 3 axes
Gyroscope sensor of rotational speed around 1, 2 and/or 3 axes
MEMS inertial sensors: Accelerometer
Accelerometer sensor of acceleration along 1, 2 and/or 3 axes
Applications: automotive, industrial and consumer.
Acceleration
Suspended mass
with springs
Force
Stress
Displacement
Mechanical
to-Electrical
transducer
F=ma
Capacitive
Piezoresistive
Piezoeletrical
MEMS inertial sensors: Gyroscope
Gyroscope sensor of rotational speed around 1, 2 and/or 3 axes
Applications: automotive, industrial and consumer.
Actuation along one axis
through comb drives.
Application of external angular
rate around one axis (to be
measured).
Resultant Coriolis Force along
the axis orthogonal to the
actuation axis and the axis of
external angular rate.
Displacement of the proof mass.
Mechanical-to-electrical
transduction.
Suspended mass + springs + comb capacitors
Coriolis Force
m = mass
= angular rate (to be measured)
v = mass actuated speed
MEMS Pressure sensors
Pressure sensor Pressure sensing.
Applications: automotive, industrial and medical
Piezoresistive or Piezoelectric
Capacitive
Optical MEMS devices
Electrostatic mirror
Applications: Optical fibers, microscopy, otpical device
Electrostatic
force
Displacement
positioning
RF MEMS devices
Applications: Telecomunication, Electronics (smaller, cheaper, better way
to manipulate RF signals).
RF Switch
RF Filter
RF Resonator
RF Variable Capacitor
Biosensors: mass sensor
Functional layer
Transduction
layer
z
x
y
Fixed
end
Cantilever beam
Free end
Biological
target material
Applications: Medicine
Applications: BioMEMS
MEMS: Biotechnology
Examples of MEMS applications in Biotechnology:
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) microsystems for DNA
amplification and identification;
Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA);
Capillary electrophoresis;
Electroporation;
Micromachined Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs);
Biochips for detection of hazardous chemical and biological
agents.
Microsystems for high-throughput drug screening and selection.
MEMS: Microfluidics
Example micro-pump
MEMS designed to handle or process minute quantities of liquids.
Devices include micro-pumps, micro-mixers, flow channels, reaction
chambers, micro-filters.
Applications: Automotive
Applications: Aeronautics
Pressure sensor belt on jet planes
Applications: Gyroscopes
Micromachined gyroscopes applications.
Applications: Nintendo Wii
Applications: smartphone
Outline
MEMS: definitions and motivations
MEMS properties
MEMS: products and applications
Going to Nanoscale: NEMS
Course outline
NEMS
Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) consist in
electromechanical devices that have critical dimensions from
hundreds to a few nanometers.
Downscaling of MEMS to nanoscale.
By exploring nanoscale effects, NEMS present interesting and unique
characteristics, which deviate greatly from their predecessor Micro-
Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS).


NEMS: Basic typical features
High fundamental frequencies (MHz-GHz) mechanical responsitvity
Mechanical quality factors in the tens of thousands, meaning low-energy
dissipation
Extremely sensitive to external damping mechanisms
Suppression of random mechanical fluctuations
Active mass in the femtogram
Force sensitivity at the attonewton level
Mass sensitivity up to attogram and subattogram
Heat capacities far below a yoctocalorie
Highly sensitive to applied forces
Extreme high integration level, approaching 10
12
elements per square centimeter
Increase in surface to volume ratio
Quantum effects are often involved


Ke, Changhong, and Horacio D. Espinosa. "Nanoelectromechanical systems and modeling." Handbook of Theoretical and Computational
Nanotechnology 1 (2005): 1-38.
NEMS: Typical problems
Great promise as highly sensitive detectors (mass, displacement, charge and
energy) but not yet widespread
An efficient, integrated, and customizable technique for actively driving and tuning
NEMS resonators has remained elusive
Transduction becomes increasingly difficult at nanoscale
Nanoscale resonators susceptible to a variety of surface related noise mechanisms
(gas molecules impinging the surface, loss due to defects and impurities, scattering
of surface acoustic waves by roughness) and detailed understanding is still missing
Casimir Effect, quantum mechanical force that strongly attracts objects a few
nanometers apart Hard to control devices
Fabrication Issues: Scale down effects in process (wave length limitations in
Lithography) and huge costs
Not yet developed as standard batch process for mass production



NEMS: How to see them?
NEMS: Examples
Nanocantilever resonator gas
sensor
Nanomechanics coupled to
superconducting microwave
resonators
Ultra High Frequency
NEMS resonator
NEMS: Examples
Nanoactuator based on carbon nanotubes