Finite Element Analysis

¨ 3D models built and exported from MEMS Pro

– .ANF format: ANSYS neutral format
– .SAT format: ACIS text format (compatible with most FEA, RF &
solvers)
¨ Preprocessing in ANSYS
– Boundary conditions/loads
– Meshing
– Material/element properties
¨ ANSYS solver
ANSYS ¨ MEMS Pro add-ons in ANSYS
MEMS Features – 3D to layout
– Reduced order modeler

MEMSCAP®
Yiching Liang
March 6, 2002
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ANSYS MEMS Initiative ANSYS MEMS Related Features

¨ ANSYS/Multiphysics ¨ Electrostatics
¨ MEMS analysis requirements ¨ Electrostatic-Structural Coupling
– Devices are inherently multiphysics ¨ Trefftz Electrostatics
– System of units applicable to small scale
¨ Capacitance Matrix Extraction
– Meshing of high aspect ratio devices & features
– Unique material properties ¨ Reduced Order Macro Modeling
– Lumped parameter extraction (into SPICE, VHDL-A/MS) ¨ Piezoelectric
– Capability to model large field domains associated with ¨ Pre-stressed modal
electromagnetics & CFD
¨ Fluid-Structural Coupling
¨ Free Surface Fluids
¨ High Frequency Electromagnetics
¨ Composite Beams
¨ Initial/Residual Stress
¨ System of Units
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Electrostatics Adaptive P-Elements

¨ Important in MEMS ¨ 3D P-elements for electrostatics
– To determine both capacitance and electrostatic forces – SOLID128 Brick/Wedge elements
– Typically used to actuate devices such as comb drives and – SOLID127 Tetrahedral elements
switches
¨ Polynomial order of element
¨ Open domain modeled either using infinite boundary increased automatically to satisfy
elements (INFIN110, and INFIN111) or Trefftz domain convergence to a prescribed
technology degree of accuracy
– P-order may extend from 2 - 8
¨ Supports
– All electrostatics boundary conditions
and loads
– node coupling and constraint equations
– Trefftz Domain & CMATRIX.

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Electrostatic Analysis with P-Elements
¨ Adaptive P-element study on comb drive structure
– Color code on elements: polynomial orders
– Electrostatic field contour plot
Electrostatic-Structural Coupling
¨ Allows the actual electrostatic actuation of a MEMS
device to be simulated
¨ Three methods for electrostatic -structural simulation
– ESSOLV macro tool: a sequential coupled field macro
– TRANS126: Reduced order macro model element
– Manual sequential coupled: using the ANSYS APDL macro
language

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ESSOLV Macro Trans126 Element

¨ Solves coupled electrostatic-structural static analysis
¨ Macro automates a sequential solution process:
– Electrostatic solution
– Structural solution (LDREAD of forces from electrostatics)
– Automatic mesh morphing of electrostatic mesh
– Convergence monitoring
¨ Electrostatic field mesh morphs to accommodate the
deformed structure
¨ Useful for obtaining “pull-in” voltages, deflections,
fields, forces, etc.
¨ Electromechanical transducer (EMT) macro element
for electrostatic-structural simulation
¨ Characterized by capacitance vs. displacement curve
¨ Couples directly to:
– FEA Solid models (solid elements, shell elements, beams)
– Other macro models
– FEA substructure models

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Resonator Example Electrostatics: 3D Trefftz Domain

¨ Electrostatic analysis with EMT elements ¨ For handling open boundary domains in electrostatics
– Perform electrostatic analysis and capacitance extraction on one ¨ Hybrid FEA - BEA technology
comb drive
– The open domain is not meshed
– Table or curve fit results to define displacement vs. capacitance
– Substantial reduction in the size of model -> solution time
function, apply to TRANS126
– Replace full model with TRANS126 elements

– Comb drive: 250k DOF’s -> 2 DOF’s

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Trefftz Method Trefftz Example
¨ May be used to connect multiple finite element ¨ Example: charged, isolated sphere in free space
electrostatic field domains – 200 DOF’s
– Eliminating the need to mesh the field regions between – Within 3% of closed form solution
component regions
¨ Electrostatic field around two charged spheres:

Spheres with individual finite element meshes “connected” by a

Trefftz domain.

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Trefftz Convergence Characteristics CMATRIX Macro

¨ Infinite elements vs. Trefftz domain ¨ Automates computation of systems capacitance matrix
– Extracts capacitance change as a function of device
displacement
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¨ Applicable to any number of conductors/dielectric
materials
8
% Error (Capacitance)

7 Infinte Elements
6 ¨ Derives ground and lumped matrices
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Trefftz Domain – Lump matrix provides the self and mutual capacitance between
4 conductors.
3
¨ Useful for extracting lumped capacitance for use in
2

1
system level circuit-simulations
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mesh Refinement Parameter

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Comb Drive Example CMATRIX Example Output

¨ Cross-section electric field contour plots for an
analysis on a small section (2 teeth) of a comb drive
¨ Contour plots shows electric fields used to compute
the self and mutual capacitance

P12

P11 P22 ¨ The results can be listed on screen, output to a file, or

accessed by the ANSYS APDL macro language
¨ Lumped capacitance can be used in
– System level simulation
– Input to ANSYS Trans126 EMT element

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Macro Model Elements Resonator Example
¨ Simplified representations ¨ Comb drive resonator
– Enable rapid simulation of complex MEMS structures – Comb drives: 2 Trans126 elements (EMT1 & EMT2)
¨ Mechanical elements: – Folded springs: 1 spring element (K1)
– Springs, lumped mass, dampers – Proof mass: 1 mass element (M1)
– Squeeze film damping: 1 damper element (D1)

¨ Circuit elements:
– Resistors, capacitors, inductors, transformers, diodes, V/I
sources

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Piezoelectric Analysis Beam Steerer Example

¨ MEMS piezoelectric transducers ¨ The two support arms have a layer of piezoelectric
– Large deformations material that move the square-shaped reflecting
– Typically more efficient actuator performance than both surface
electrostatic and thermal actuators
¨ Piezoelectric capabilities:
– Geometric nonlinearities: large deflections/rotations
– Stress stiffening
– Pre-stressed modal and harmonic analyses
– Accurately accounts for changes in the electromechanical field in
bending motion
– Direct input of the piezoelectric strain matrix [d]
– Calculation of the correction to the permittivity matrix [epsT]-
[epsS]

Courtesy Waveprecision, a division of GSI Lumonics

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Pre-Stressed Modal Analysis Pre-Stressed Examples

¨ In MEMS, pre-stress is sometimes used to adjust or ¨ Piezoelectric pre-
fine tune the response of the structure stressed modal
– Can compensate for variations in device geometry and material analysis
properties (primarily due to fabrication process variations) – First four modes
¨ ANSYS/Multiphysics supports the following types of
pre-stressed modal analysis:
– Mechanical pre-stress directly applied as a mechanical load
– Electrostatic pre-stress applied via Trans126 EMT element
– Piezoelectric pre-stress applied as a voltage to the piezoelectric ¨ Electrostatic pre-
stressed modal
analysis
– First mode

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Coupled Fluid – Structural Analysis Mirror Example
¨ Fluidic-structural damping ¨ End view of a parallel plate capacitor/mirror assembly
– At higher velocity the fluid does not have enough time to move – Upper plate rotates
and is simply compressed – Blue areas is the meshed fluidic domain
– Fluid damping changes drastically when the transition from
compressible to incompressible flow occurs Pressure contour
– Can change the structural response of MEMS devices
¨ FSSOLV macro automates the simulation
– Mesh morphing
– Convergence monitoring
¨ Capabilities
– Allows for large deformations
– Time transient problems: user-specified displacement & velocity
time history for moving body
– Computes both lift and drag forces
– Incompressible and compressible flow
– Equivalent resistance and damping terms can be extracted as
macro models
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Free Surface Fluidics Inkjet Nozzle Example

¨ Simulates capillary forces & surface tension ¨ 3-D visualization of an inkjet printer nozzle droplet
¨ Volume of Fluids (VOF) technology formation
– Models time transient problems involving moving liquids with a
free surface
– Fluid moves through the mesh
– No mesh morphing is required
¨ Gas and liquid interface: continuum surface force
(CSF) method to model the surface tension
¨ Surface tension material properties can be
temperature dependent
¨ Available results
– Contour plots of the fluid boundaries
– Pressure distributions within the fluid

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High Frequency Electromagnetics Bandpass Filter Example

¨ Full wave, frequency domain solvers allow RF MEMS ¨ S11 scattering parameter vs. frequency for a
devices to be easily analyzed bandpass filter
¨ Solves Maxwell's equations in the frequency domain – Good correlation with alternative analysis methods such as finite
difference time domain (FDTD)
– Interior class problems such as wave guides and cavities
– Exterior problems such as antenna radiation patterns
¨ Includes dielectric and eddy current losses
– Can compute heat generation rates that can be sequentially
coupled into thermal and thermal-structural physics
¨ Perfectly Matched Layer/absorber (PML) for open
boundaries
¨ Near and far field post-processing tools

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Composite Beams Composite Resonator Example
¨ Arbitrary beam cross sections with multiple materials ¨ Comb drive fingers & frame are modeled using
– Multi-layered nature of surface micromachined MEMS devices composite beams
¨ Eliminates the need to mesh the volume of a complex – Model consists of ~100 beam elements
geometry for a structural analysis
– Dramatically reduces model size and computation time
¨ For structural analysis only
– Static displacement
– Time transient
– Dynamic analysis

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Initial Stress Optical Grating Device Example

¨ Residual stresses: different thermal properties of each ¨ The effect of initial stress in the structural polysilicon
material/layer layer of a optical grating device
– Sometimes used as a design feature – Deformation ~ 50 nm
¨ Allows direct specification of a constant state of
residual stress in each material
– GUI or text file input

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Systems of Units Analysis Example: Thermal actuator

¨ MKS units are not suitable for MEMS ¨ Beam actuated by thermal
¨ ANSYS provides two systems of units suitable for expansion
MEMS simulation:
– uMKSV (micrometer, kilogram, second, volt, pico-ampere)
– uMVSfA (micrometer, volt, second, femto-ampere, gram)
¨ Unit of length is in µm
– Material properties are scaled
¨ Sample conversion tables

SEM Image courtesy of Victor

Bright, U Col. Boulder.
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Analysis Example: Electrostatic Mirror Analysis Example: Accelerometer
¨ Electrostatically actuated ¨ Time transient analysis
mirror
– Surrounding air also meshed

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Analysis Example: Linear Resonator Analysis Example: Linear Resonator

¨ Modal analysis ¨ Electrostatic-structural analysis

Images courtesy of Russell DeAnna, NASA.

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Analysis Example: Microfluidic Channel Analysis Example: Microfluidic Valve

¨ Non Newtonian flow ¨ Microfluidic valve / resonator

120 µm

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