16-859/18-814 Microelectromechanical Systems

Instructors: Kaigham J. Gabriel, Porter Hall B25, x8-4241, kgabriel@cs.cmu.edu

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00 PM - 4:50 PM

Room: Baker Hall A51

Units: 12

Office Hours: By appointment (send email or meet after class)

TAs: George Lopez, Hamerschlag Hall 1209, x8-4405, glopez@cs.cmu.edu, (Office hours TBD)

Mike Stout, Hamerschlag Hall A203, x8-8194, mstout@andrew.cmu.edu, (OH TBD)

Secretary: Drew Danielson, Porter Hall B28, x8-2188, drew.danielson@cmu.edu

Text: Nadim Malouf, An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering, Artech House.

Website: http://courseinfo.web.cmu.edu/courses/18-814_16-859/

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in CIT or Robotics or permission from the instructor. The student is assumed to have a basic understanding of circuits and mechanics, and the willingness to cross engineering disciplines.

Course Description: The promise of better performance, lower cost, and miniaturization of sensor and actuator systems has motivated growth in the area of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS): silicon-based integrated microsystems. MEMS technology has broad applications such as inertial navigation, data storage, biochemical analysis, micromanipulation, optical displays, and microfluidic jet systems. This course is an introduction to MEMS, intended for first and second-year graduate students in CIT and Robotics who want the engineering background necessary for research in MEMS at Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere. Homework and an exam reinforce the engineering material taught in class. Students choose a research topic to work on as part of the final project. The project will take the form of a conference-quality paper accompanied by an oral presentation to the class. Laboratories provide a practical, hands-on overview and experience in MEMS design, fabrication and testing.

Course topics: Bulk and surface micromachining; thin-film properties; micromechanical design; fabrication services; computer-aided design, modeling, and simulation; electrostatic, piezoelectric, and thermal actuation; capacitive, magnetic, and thermal sensing mechanisms; sensing circuits; noise sources; inertial sensors; resonant sensors; micro-optics; microfluidics.

Grading: Homework assignments 20%, Mid-term exam 30%, Laboratories 20%, Project report 20%, Project presentation 10%

Homework: Due in class

Final Project: The final project will detail your independent design, or your extension of theory, or your extensions in modeling or simulating MEMS.

Project Report: The project report must be in IEEE journal format, which can be found at http://www.ieee.com/pubs/authors.html. A maximum of eight pages is allowed. Design oriented reports should include:

• Motivation for the work
• A survey of relevant background literature
• Description of the device design
• A process flow for fabricating the device (only if custom processing is used)
• Layout and cross-section of the device
• Analysis and simulations
• Discussion of relevant issues and difficulties
• Conclusions to be drawn from your work

Presentation: Fifteen-minute oral project presentations are scheduled for the last week of the semester. Overhead transparencies must be used in the presentations and handed in prior to the start of presentations so we can bind them together in a course technical proceedings volume.

• This course will provide an overview of the techniques, applications, and research in microelectromechanical systems. We will go into some depth in core processing and greater depth in design areas that underpin much of the present and future exciting research in MEMS.
• The primary objective of this course is to learn about MEMS processing, design tools, and applications specific to research at Carnegie Mellon, so that you can "hit the ground running" with your own research. Even if you don’t plan on doing research in MEMS, this course will give you a broad and solid overview of the technology that you can apply to other technical and non-technical interests. We will cover enough breadth in the MEMS area to understand journal articles in the field.
• Class material will come from the textbook, lecture notes, and papers. Copies of the lecture viewfoils will be provided. You will do additional reading to explore specific topics in more detail.
• Much of the interesting information in this course is embodied in concepts, not in equations. An important goal is to integrate the concepts we learn in new ways.
• The calendar in the syllabus is meant as a guideline. There will more than likely be some slight changes as the class progresses.
• The students taking this course are from various backgrounds in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and robotics. We do not assume that you have specific prerequisite knowledge about semiconductor devices, processing, mechanics, circuits, systems, or other topics touched on in this course. However, it is required that you have a basic undergraduate background in engineering or physics. Certain topics with which you have never been exposed to may require extra independent study. Please see the instructors to discuss extra reading if you are having difficulties with any of the material covered in class.
• Homework design problems may be open-ended or even ill-defined. The intent is to use the concepts learned in class to solve "real" research problems, not cookbook examples.
• The course project is a large portion of your grade. Start early thinking about possible project topics. By mid-October you should have chosen a topic to give yourself time to do a literature search, digest the material, do some creative work, and prepare your paper and talk.

Course Schedule