Course Description                                                                                                                                                                                                     Spring 2001

Objective
 The field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has been growing very rapidly in recent years. This trend is facilitated by the availability of a technology, the integrated circuit fabrication technology, normally used in electronic industries, for the fabrication of miniaturized structures in silicon and similar materials.
 Miniaturized devices such as actuators and sensors, manufactured by microfabrication techniques, offer the advantages of small size, new functions and ease of integration over similar conventional devices. Therefore, the goal of this course is to expose students (graduates and undergraduates) from various engineering disciplines to the basics of microfabrication processes used for fabricating devices such as transducers (sensors and actuators) used in electrical, mechanical, optical, magnetic, thermal, biological and chemical applications.
 The field of MEMS is interdisciplinary in nature, involving other fields as materials science, physics, electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering.  Students in this course are therefore advised to be eager to learn "fundamental definitions" in fields other than theirs. The interdisciplinary nature will be exploited to design experimental projects that will be carried out by a team of students from different disciplines. For example, we could assign to each team a student experienced in design and modeling, another in microfabrication, another who understands mechanical properties and dynamics, another with a background in electronics, etc. While the teams are actively pursuing their projects, we will present a series of lectures on the basic concepts of MEMS fabrication and applications.

Textbook(s)
 Most of the books written on MEMS are non-standard textbooks. Almost all the books are "qualitative" with no end-of-chapter problems. We will focus on one of the books and use the others and the library as references.
Text: "Micromachined Transducers," by Gregory T. A. Kovacs, published by McGraw-Hill  (1998).

References
1. "Fundamentals of Microfabrication," by Marc Madou, CRC Press (1997)
2. "An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering," by Nadim Maluf, Artech House (2000)
3. "Introduction to Microelectromechanical Microwave Systems, by Héctor J. De Los Santos, Artech House (1999).

Course Outline

1. Introduction
1.1 What are micromachined devices?
1.2 How are they designed?
1.3 How are they fabricated?
1.4 Markets for MEMS

2. Materials issues in MEMS
2.1 Physical properties of Si, SiO2 and Metals
2.2 Crystallographic directions and planes

3. Lithography
3.1 Photolithography
3.2 Alternate lithographies
3.3 Emerging lithography technologies

4. Pattern Transfer and Micromachining Techniques
4.1 Wet etching of silicon
4.2 Dry etching techniques
4.3 Pattern transfer with additive ("surface") processes
4.4 Bonding processes
4.5 Sacrificial processes
4.6 Sealed cavity formation
4.7 Other micromachining techniques

5. Mechanical Transducers
5.1 Basic mechanics
5.2 Mechanical properties of materials
5.3 Basic mechanisms and structures
5.4 Mechanical sensors
5.5 Micromachined mechanical sensors
5.6 Mechanical actuators
5.7 Mechanical circuit components
5.8 Mechanical relays and switches

6. Optical Transducers
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Optical Sensors
6.3 Optical Actuators
6.4 Micromachined optical structures

7. Thermal Transducers
7.1 Temperature measurement techniques
7.2 Thermo-mechanical sensors
7.3 Thermo-resistive transducers
7.4 Junction-based thermal sensors
7.5 Thermal actuators
7.6 Thermal sensor/actuator combination
7.7 Thermal gas pressure sensors
7.8 Thermal flow sensors
7.9 Other thermal sensors

8. Magnetic and Electromagnetic Transducers
8.1 Magnetic phenomena
8.2 Magnetic sensors
8.3 Magnetic actuators
8.4 Micromachined electromagnetic devices

9. Chemical and Biological Transducers
9.1 Chemical sensors
9.2 Biosensors
9.3 Biological chemical sensors
9.4 Chemical actuators

10. Microfluidic Devices
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Flow channels
10.3 Fluidic channel applications
10.4 Fluidic sensors
10.5 Valves
10.6 Pumps

Tests, Projects and Grading
 There will be a one-hour test and a final examination. The hour test is scheduled for the mid-semester. There will be a number of homework assignments. Projects involving teams of students per project will be assigned, turned in and discussed in class about two weeks to the end of semester. Grading will be based on:
 Hour test  15%
 Homework  15%
 Project   30%
 Final Exam  40%