Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

1. S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
MEMS - Small Devices for Large Jobs
S. Meenatchisundaram
Faculty
ICE, MIT, Manipal
meenasundar@gmail.com
1

2. S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal
Lecture #01
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
– An Overview
2

3. S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal
Reference Books & Materials
Tai Ran Hsu, MEMS and Microsystems Design and Manufacture, Tata Mc
Graw Hill, 2002.
Chang Liu, Foundations of MEMS, 2 ed., Prentice Hall, 2012.
M. Bao, Analysis and Design Principles of MEMS Devices, 1 ed., Elsevier,
2005.
S. Beebey, G. Ensell and N. White, MEMS Mechanical Sensors,
Boston: Artech House, 2004.
Stephen Senturia, Microsystem Design, Springer, 2001.
An Introduction to MEMS, Prime Faraday Technology Watch – January 2002
3

4. S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal
Contents
1. What is MEMS?
2. Evolution of MEMS
3. Moore’s law and beyond
4

5. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of
mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common
silicon substrate through micro fabrication technology.
A technology to create any integrated devices or systems that combine
mechanical and electrical components. These devices have the ability to
sense, control and actuate on a micro scale and generate effects on macro
scale.
A device that consists of micro machines and microelectronics where micro
machines are controlled by microelectronics.
A system or a device that has static and movable components with some
dimension on the scale of micron.
By combining IC’s with mechanical parts, MEMS are complete systems on
a chip.
What is MEMS?
5S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

6. What is MEMS?
6S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

7. In the most general form, MEMS consist of mechanical
microstructures, microsensors, microactuators and microelectronics, all
integrated onto the same silicon chip.
What is MEMS?
7S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

8. What is MEMS?
8S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

9. What is MEMS?
9S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

10. Evolution of MEMS
10S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

11. 1950’s
• 1958 Silicon strain gauges commercially available
• 1959 “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” – Richard Feynman gives a
milestone presentation at California Institute of Technology. Issues a public
challenge by offering $1000 to the first person to create an electrical motor smaller
than 1/64th of an inch.
1960’s
• 1961 First silicon pressure sensor demonstrated
• 1967 Invention of surface micromachining. Westinghouse creates the Resonant
Gate Field Effect Transistor, (RGT). Description of use of sacrificial material to
free micromechanical devices from the silicon substrate.
1970’s
• 1970 First silicon accelerometer demonstrated
• 1979 First micro machined inkjet nozzle
History of MEMS
11S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

12. 1980’s
• Early 1980’s first experiments in surface micro machined silicon. Late 1980’s
micromachining leverages microelectronics industry and widespread
experimentation and documentation increases public interest.
• 1982 Disposable blood pressure transducer
• 1982 “Silicon as a Mechanical Material”. Instrumental paper to entice the scientific
community – reference for material properties and etching data for silicon.
• 1982 LIGA Process
• 1988 First MEMS Conference
1990’s
• Methods of micromachining aimed toward improving sensors.
• 1992 MCNC starts the Multi-User MEMS Process (MUMPS) sponsored by
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• 1992 First micro machined hinge
• 1993 First surface micro machined accelerometer sold (Analog Devices, ADXL50)
• 1994 Deep Reactive Ion Etching is patented
• 1995 BioMEMS rapidly develop
• 2000 MEMS Optical-networking components become big business
History of MEMS
12S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

13. History of MEMS
13S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

14. Moore’s Law
Gordon Moore (Co-founder of Intel) predicted in 1965 that the transistor density of
semiconductor chips would double roughly every 18 months.
14S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal

15. Beyond Moore’s Law
MOSFETs using new materials must be fabricated on Si substrates in order to fully
utilize Si CMOS platform, meaning the necessity of the co-integration of III-V/Ge on Si.
15S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal