Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

MEMS - Small Devices for Large Jobs

S. Meenatchisundaram
Faculty
ICE, MIT, Manipal
meenasundar@gmail.com

S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal 1

 Lecture #01

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

An Overview

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 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

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 Contents

1. What is MEMS?

2. Evolution of MEMS

3. Moores law and beyond

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 What is MEMS?

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 ICs with mechanical parts, MEMS are complete systems on

a chip.

S.Meenatchisundaram, Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering, MIT, Manipal 5

 What is MEMS?

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 What is MEMS?

In the most general form, MEMS consist of mechanical

microstructures, microsensors, microactuators and microelectronics, all
integrated onto the same silicon chip.

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 What is MEMS?

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 What is MEMS?

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 Evolution of MEMS

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 History of MEMS

1950s
1958 Silicon strain gauges commercially available
1959 Theres 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.

1960s
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.

1970s
1970 First silicon accelerometer demonstrated
1979 First micro machined inkjet nozzle

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 History of MEMS
1980s
Early 1980s first experiments in surface micro machined silicon. Late 1980s
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

1990s
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

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 History of MEMS

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 Moores Law

Gordon Moore (Co-founder of Intel) predicted in 1965 that the transistor density of
semiconductor chips would double roughly every 18 months.

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 Beyond Moores 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.

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