Máster Universitario en Ingeniería de Sistemas

Electrónicos y Aplicaciones - MISEA

Microsystems and Nanoelectronics

SESSION 2: Microsystem Design Fundamentals

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 Session 2. Microsystem Design. Case Studies

A. Microsystem Design.
B. Review of Some Essential Concepts for Microsystem Design.
C. Examples.

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 A. Microsystem Design.

What do we understand by Microsystem Design?

• To obtain a model (analytical or numerical) that mimics the response of the

physical components and devices for a given functionality.
• Decision on materials selection and corresponding fabrication sequence for
each component (processes), approach to integration and packaging as well
as calibration processes.

Extremely multidisciplinary field!!

• Semiconductor theory • Optics/photonics

• Electronics • Fluidics Mechanics/microfluidics

• Mechanics • Chemistry

• Electrostatics • Cell Biology

• Magnetic fields and components

• Thermodynamics • Micromachining processes

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 A. Microsystem Design.

Energy Domains

Energy domains and examples of associated magnitudes

Mechanical Thermal Radiative Chemical Magnetic Electrical
force, temperature, electromagnetic wave, concentration, field intensity, voltage, current,
pressure, entropy, intensity, phase composition, flux density, charge,
velocity, heat, wavelength, polarization, reaction rate magnetic resistance,
acceleration, heat flow reflectance, refractive moment, capacitance,
position index, transmittance permeability polarization

• The different magnitudes can be used for sensing, actuation or both.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Beams, Cantilevers and Diaphragms:

• Under a force F (or pressure)

cantelivers and diaphragms bend
and a displacement d is obtained.
• They behave as a “spring” with a
given “Spring Constant” K

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Beams, Cantilevers and Diaphragms:

I is the moment of inertia

of the beam, l the length
and E the Young’s
modulus

For a rectangular beam

(w x t):

=
12
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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Beams, Cantilevers and Diaphragms:

• Example (I): Obtain the Spring
Constant for the Cantilever of the
figure.

• Sometimes we measure the “strain”

associated to the torque and not the
actual displacement (see
piezoresistivity below)

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Dynamic systems: Resonant frequency and quality factor

• A MEMS system usually consists of a mass and supporting structures. The

supporting mechanical elements provide elastic restoring spring constants, but
several dissipative (friction) phenomena introduce damping into the system
which is a velocity-dependant resistance force.
• This is modelled with the typical mass-spring-damper system typical in
mechanical systems

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Dynamic systems: Resonant frequency and quality factor

• Second order system response.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Dynamic systems: Resonant frequency and bandwidth

• The resonant frequency of mechanical elements increases when scale down, as

the mass decreases rapidly (scale-laws).
• Thus, mechanical resonators up to the GHz ranges have been demonstrated
successfully.
• Nevertheless, as the resonance frequency depends also on device dimensions, it
is susceptible to changes in temperature. Temperature stabilization mandatory.
• Tuning is also possible acting on the structure (for example using strain).

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Electrostatic Sensing and Actuation

• Sensing.

• Actuation (Electrostatic attraction force between the two plates).

1
=
2
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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Electrostatic Sensing and Actuation

• Equilibrium Point: If the actuator is under bias, there are two forces present:
the electrostatic force that tends to bring the two plates together, and the
restoring force associated to the spring constant. At equilibrium both forces
cancel.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Thermal Sensing and Actuation

• Sensing.
• Semiconductor and metals vary their conductivity under temperature
changes (PTC and NTCs)
• Seebeck Effect (Thermocouples)

• Actuation (changes in dimensions associated to Temperature change).

• Linear (and Volumetric) Thermal expansion coefficient

∆
=
∆
• Ideal Gases
=

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Conductivity of Semiconductors: Building Resistors

1
=
+ =
where q is the electron charge, µn is the electron mobility, µp is the hole mobility
and n and p the electron and hole concentration respectively

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Piezoresistive Sensing

• The impedance of a metal wire or a semiconductor changes when the

material is mechanically deformed. This is called the piezoresistive effect and
is the origin for a widely used sensors known as strain gauges.
• In these sensors, the unitary change in resistance is proportional to the
elongation (strain) through a parameter known as gauge factor (K)

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Piezoresistive Sensing

• The torque at the end of the cantilever is F.L = M.

• The strain at that point :

=
2
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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Piezoelectric Sensing and Actuation

• If no external field is applied, the relationship between the electrical

polarization (D in C/m2) and the applied mechanical stress (σ in N/m2 ) in a
piezoelectric material is:

!= σ
• Conversely, if we apply and electric field (E in V/m) to a piezoelectric material,
the associated strain (ε in m/m) is:

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Piezoelectric Sensing and Actuation

• Example (II): consider the cantilever discussed in viewgraph 13. If the

thickness of PZT material is tpiezo, the permittivity ε, and the piezoelectric
constant (at the given direction) d, What is it the output voltage generated
under a force F applied at the end of the cantilever?
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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

• Optical Sensing: many Microsystems are based on manipulation of light

using microstructures for diffracting and routing light beams. More on this
on sessions 3 and 4.
• Field Effect Transistors (FET). If we replace the gate of a FET by a cantilever
with a given air gap (variable) between the metal and the channel, the
conduction characteristics of the FET (VT ) depend on the gap. Changes in the
cantilever position are read as changes in the drain current.
• Radiofrequency MEMS. In this case, the moving component are part of RF
resonators. The mechanical variations are read as changes in the oscillation
frequency.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Fluid Dynamics: Microfluidics

• Reynolds number: Important dimensionless number to quantify flow and

thermal characteristics of fluids.

"=

where ρ is the fluid density, V the fluid velocity, L the length scale and µ the
viscosity of the fluid (in Pa.s)

• Re << 1, laminar flow (typical to microfluidics). Viscous effects dominate.

• Re>> 1 turbulent flow. Inertial effects dominate.

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Fluid Dynamics: Microfluidics

• Pressure Driven Flow:

(
$ &' Δ
# = Δ =
% 8
where Q is the volume flow rate ( m3/s) and we have assumed a circular pipe of
radius r and length L. R is called the flow resistance of the channel.

• Example (III): consider blood (µ= 3mPa.s) flow in human capillary veins
(diameter 8 µm, length 1 mm, pressure drop 1 kPa). What is the volume flow
rate and how long does it take for the blood entering the capillary to flow
through it?

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Microfluidic systems: valves

• The typical small size of the micromechanical valves brings benefits in terms
of response time and fatigue properties (small mass), but they are prone to
clogging and often have a significant leakage flow which prevents them to
be used in applications where very accurate dosage is required (medicine
dispensing applications).

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 B. Review of some essential concepts.

Microfluidic systems: pumps

• Pumping is needed in microfluidic systems to move the fluids from one

chamber to another or through the channels.
• These are truly challenging subsystems and many mechanisms have been
tested both mechanical (using PZT disks, for example) and non-mechanical
(electrophoretic, electroosmotic, ultrasonic,…) principles.

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 C. Examples.

Membrane Parallel-Plate Pressure Sensor

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 C. Examples.

Surface Micromachined Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor

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 SUMMARY

• Microsystem Design is a multidisciplinary field involving semiconductor

theory, mechanics, electrostatics, thermodynamics and even fluid
dynamics. These concepts are needed to develop suitable analytical and
numerical models to evaluate microsystems performance.

• In this session we have revised some of the essential concepts

associated to microsystem design.

• It is very important in the end to be able to define the proper fabrication

processes and steps to replicate the model and fabricate the device.

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 RERERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Foundations of MEMS (Second Edition). Chang Liu. Prentice Hall (2012)

• Microsystem Design. Stephen D. Senturia. Springer (2001)

• Practical MEMS. Ville Kaajakari. Small Gear Publishing (2009)

• Micro Electro Mechanical System Design. James J. Allen. CRC (2005)

• http://www.memscentral.com

• http://compliantmechanisms.byu.edu/content/introduction-
microelectromechanical-systems-mems

• http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/mechman/research/ipm-
ktn/pdf/Technology_review/an-introduction-to-mems.pdf

• http://www.memsjournal.com

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