Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

BOOKS:
1) MEMS Mechanical Sensors by

Stephen Beeby, Graham Ensell, Micheal Kraft & Neil White.

2) An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering (2nd Edition) by Nadim

Maluf & Kirt Williams

3). Fundamental of machine elements MC Graw Hill 2nd edition, Bernardd J. Hamrock , steven
R Schmid , B O Jacobson

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

 The term micro-electromechanical system (or MEMS) refers to a machine that is
mechanical in nature , has microscopic length scales and is fully integrated with an
electrical system in the form of an integrated circuit that controls the machine
 MEMS are small and integrated devices, which combine electronics, electrical as well as
mechanical elements to meet the control related functional requirements such as sensing and
actuation
 A technology that considers manufacturing of microscale , transducers, probes, capacitors,
inductors, actuators, valves, gears ,pumps, switches and so on
 Multitude of micro scale electro-mechanical devices ranging from a single device to
complex combination of devices fabricated on a base substrate through microfabrication
techniques.
 Scales in MEMS: 0.1 µm to few mm

Applications:
They are used for controlling micromanipulator, micro-handling equipment and micro-robots.
Many MEMS devices are used in clock, ink-jet printer head, display systems and scanning probe
equipment. MEMS technology also design many types of sensors including pressure, temperature,
and vibration sensors

Broadly the application sectors are:

• Computing (Data Storage devices , display , printing head)

• Communications

• Aircraft industries

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• Automotive sensors (force, pressure, gas, chemical, fluidic, motion etc)

• Health sciences , Medical diagnostic sensors (blood pressure, glucose, cardiac, neural)

• Microfluidics (handling of 10-9 to 10-18 liters of fluid volume with µm scale channels)

• Defense and space applications

• Miniaturized devices (micro motors, micro pumps, micro turbines, micro gears etc)

• MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes

• Energy harvesting

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 MEMS Elements:
 The MEMS elements include structural components such as beams and plates , electrostatic
and piezoelectric actuators ,gears and gear trains ,fluid flow devices and a number of
sensors

1. Spring:
Traditional macro-scale machine elements are often mounted on shafts or bolted on to the
beams or columns .This is not possible with MEMS because of unavailability of long lived
bearings .A common approach with MEMS devices is to mount elements on to elastic
spring supports which deflect sufficiently to allow for proper operation

2. Beams
Cantilevered and simply supported beams are commonly mounts for MEMS devices . They
are commonly used with accelerometers
3. Plates
Plates are often used to support devices but in such cases they are relatively thick and rigid
with low stresses and strains under normal loads. Square plates are commonly used for
pressure sensors because they can be easily machined

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 Micro –actuators:

 The process of micro movement is called micro actuation

Examples :

1. Printing applications ,
2. Driving of cutting tools for microsurgical applications ,
3. Driving of micro pumps and valves for fluid and gas transportation ,
4. Actuation of micro-mirrors to scan laser beams

Actuators used in macromachines are usually power screws ,pneumatic cylinders ,cams or other
common arrangement . These machine elements are difficult to manufacture for MEMS devices
and are very inefficient at the small length scales involved

Similarly the types of actuators used in MEMS are not suitable for macro machine application

1. Electrostatic Actuators
2. Piezoelectric Actuators
3. Gears
4. Fluid Flow devices

1. Electrostatic Actuators
Electrostatic drive is based on electrostatic coulmb forces that develop between capacitive-
coupled microelectrodes that differ in voltage

Consider two parallel plates shown in fig . According to electrostatics , the attractive force b/w two
plates when a potential voltage V is applied is given by :

𝜀 𝜀𝑟 𝑉 2 𝐴
Fy =
2 ℎ2
𝜀 𝜀𝑟 𝑉2 𝐴
Fx =
ℎ

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where

F = attracrive force

ε = Permitivity of air

εr = relative permittivity of gap material

V = applied voltage difference between plates

A = cross –sectional area of plates

h=gap clearance

The micromotor can be constructed using the same principle of electrostatic attraction

Micromotor produced through LIGA process

2. Piezoelectric actuators
 A material exhibiting the piezoelectric effect generates a voltage potential when subjected to
stress or strain
 The behavior is reversible i.e ; application of a voltage will cause a strain in a piezoelectric
material
 Many material exhibit a piezoelectric effect including quartz , tourmaline , sodium potassium
tartrate , barium titanade and lead zirconate titanade (PZT)
 Piezoelectric material can be used as an actuator , where it serves as a structural support or it
can be a sensor to measure strains or stresses
 The efficiency of piezoelectric device is determined by the electromechanical conversion factor
K defined as

𝑂𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓

𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙
𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
K= √ 𝐼𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 = √ 𝐼𝑛𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓
𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙
𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦

The voltage produced by a stress is given by

𝜀𝑙 𝜎𝑙
V= = 𝑑𝐸
𝑑

Where ,
V =applied voltage
L = length of piezoelectric material in the direction of strain
E =Young’s modulus
d=material constant in m/V or in/V

3. Gears
Spur gears have been widely applied in MEMS to achieve complicated motion
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4. Fluid Flow devices:
For many MEMS and micromechanical devices , its is important to be able to pump fluid
through small micro channels for various reasons , including sensing of chemicals ,
generation ink droplets or delivery of drugs for bio-MEMS devices conventional pumps are
not suitable for microcavity pumping , the pressure drop in a fluid flowing in a chaanel

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 Microsensors:
 The most important application of MEMS and MEMS devices is for sensors of all types.
Because of small length scales scales involved , these sensors can give extremely fast
response times and can be embedded into small volumes

 The basic building block of a sensor is a transducer, which is a device that produces a
measureable response to change in a physical condition such as temperature , vibration
,pressure , humiditylight sensitivity and magnetic field etc. They transform the response into
electrical signal , adopting various transduction principles such as thermoelectric ,
photoelectric , electromagnetic , thermoelastic, pyroelectric and thermomagnetic etc
 Transducer is a device which converts one form of energy into another form of energy

 Below is the list of MEMS based sensors used in typical car

 Fuel sensor
 Air conditioning compression sensor
 Pressure and initial sensor for braking control
 Force sensor
 Tire pressure sensor
 Crash Sensor
 Air-bag side impact sensor
 Exhaust gas sensor
 Nozzle sensor for checking fuel injection

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 Introduction to MEMS manufacture:
The manufacture of MEMS device is a broad topic .

Lithography :
 LIGA stand for the German words LIthographie
 Printing process used to transfer copies of a mask pattern onto the surface of silicon or other
solid material (e.g., silicon dioxide).
 Lithography is a process by which the geometric patterns that defines the devices are
transferred from a mask to the surface

Micromachining
It can be used to construct cantilevers, overhangs, and similar structures on a silicon substrate

Wet etching (Layer removal)

 Application of a chemical etchant in aqueous solution to etch away a target material, usually
in conjunction with a mask pattern.
 3-D features can be produced in single-crystal silicon by wet etching
 The term bulk micromachining is used for the relatively deep wet etching process into
single-crystal silicon substrate (Si wafer);
 Bulk micromachining can be used to create thin membranes in a microstructure

Dry etching (Layer removal)

 Dry plasma etching using an ionized gas to etch a target material.