Fast identification of the pull-in voltage of a nano/micro-electromechanical system

The pull-in voltage is crucial in designing an optimal nano/micro-electromechanical system (N/MEMS). It is vital to have a simple formulation to calculate the pull-in voltage with relatively high accuracy. Two simple and effective methods are suggested for this purpose; one is an ancient Chinese algorithm and the other is an extension of He’s frequency formulation.

Low Cost, Contamination-Free, and Damage-Free Fabrication of PZT MEMS on SOI Substrate

This paper reports a generalised process flow for the fabrication of Lead Zirconate Titanate based Piezoelectric Micro Electromechanical System devices. The optimised process can be used to realise several devices with different 1-D and 2-D geometries on a single wafer. All the state-of-the-art fabrication methods introduce some damage to the active piezoelectric material. This damage entails the need for an additional step of recovery anneal in the fabrication process. Our process was designed and optimised to avoid any such damage to the PZT layer. Remnant polarisation and effective transverse piezoelectric coefficient (e31,f) were used as metrics to quantify the damage to the PZT layer. It is shown that our process does not damage the PZT thin film during the fabrication, and hence no recovery anneal is required. We observe a ~3x improvement in remnant polarisation and ~2x improvement in e31,f of PZT thin film compared to the PZT thin film subjected to our previous fabrication process. Moreover, the process explained here uses only wet chemical methods for patterning of contaminating agents (PZT and platinum), making it a cost-effective process.

AZO-Based ZnO Nanosheet MEMS Sensor with Different Al Concentrations for Enhanced H2S Gas Sensing

The properties of H2S gas sensing were investigated using a ZnO nanostructure prepared with AZO (zinc oxide with aluminium) and Al surfaces which were developed on a MEMS (Micro Electromechanical System) device. Hydrothermal synthesis was implemented for the deposition of the ZnO nanostructure. To find the optimal conditions for H2S gas sensing, different ZnO growth times and different temperatures were considered and tested, and the results were analysed. At 250 °C and 90 min growth time, a ZnO sensor prepared with AZO and 40 nm Al recorded an 8.5% H2S gas-sensing response at a 200 ppb gas concentration and a 14% sensing response at a gas concentration of 1000 ppb. The dominant sensing response provided the optimal conditions for the ZnO sensor, which were 250 °C temperature and 90 min growth time. Gas sensor selectivity was tested with five different gases (CO, SO2, NO2, NH3 and H2S) and the sensor showed great selectivity towards H2S gas.

RF MEMS electrostatically actuated tunable capacitors and their applications: a review

This paper reviews the recent developments of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) based electrostatically actuated tunable capacitors. MEMS based tunable capacitors (MBTCs) are important building blocks in advanced radio frequency communication systems and portable electronics. This is due to their excellent performance compared to solid state counterpart. Different designs, tuning mechanisms, and performance parameters of MBTCs are discussed, compared, and summarized. Several quantitative comparisons in terms of tuning range, quality factor (Q factor), and electrodes configurations are presented, which provide deep insight into different design studies, assists in selecting designs, and layouts that best suit various applications. We also highlight recent modern applications of tunable capacitors, such as mobile handsets, internet of things, communication sensors, and 5G antennas. Finally, the paper discusses different design approaches and proposes guidelines for performance improvement.

Design, Evaluation and Analysis of a Novel H-Shaped Capacitive RF MEMS Switch

In this paper, absolute evaluation of Radio Frequency Micro Electromechanical System (RF MEMS) to improve parameters like high actuation voltage and low switching time, by introducing a new fixed - fixed RF MEMS capacitive switch. The proposed switch designed step-by-step evaluation of the plane beam, a novel structure of beam, and deposit the perforations and meanders to reducethe pull-in voltage. All the RF MEMS switch design parameters arestudy using the COMSOL Multiphysics FEM (Finite Element Model) tool. The proposed RF MEMS switch express low pull-in voltageof 4.75V and good return, insertion, and isolation losses in both upstate and downstate conditions are >10dB, below 0.1dB and 60dB, respectively. The dielectric layer as silicon nitride (Si3N4), beam as a gold material. The RLC values are extracted by using lumped model design. The RF MEMS shunt switch (capacitance, inductance, and resistance) of the MEMS bridge are accurately evaluated from the S-parameter analysis. The computational and simulated results are good agreement with each other, which indicates the validity of the proposed switch for K (18-26) GHz band applications.

Innovative and Robust Application of Automation for Unit Level Traceability on Dual Die configuration of Micro Electromechanical System Products

Strip mapping for unit level traceability on die attach process of semiconductor companies provide quality driven impression for end users on the market. On processing of Micro electromechanical system packages, strip map generated by operators manually, certain errors and discrepancies are encountered and inevitably experienced by the production line. This causes misleading analysis on manufacturing problems and may lead to inappropriate and incorrect solutions hurting the process line. The application of modern technology and internet of things have been considered as an improvement. This is to eliminate human intervention errors caused by manual practice and promoted fool proof design of procedures. Having a user-friendly application with integration of modern technology drives significant improvement provide benefits to both supplier and customer of the manufacturing world.

Landslide Monitoring using Inclinometer with Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS)

Being located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and a tectonically active country, Indonesia has to cope with the constant risk of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and landslides. Landslides and other mass movements are serious geo-environmental hazards in Indonesia. Following report from the Indonesia National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB), landslides are among high disaster death toll throughout the archipelago. It claimed 248 lives last year alone. The number of landslides in Indonesia increase steadily to 376 in 2014 from 291 in 2012. Hence, landslide monitoring system is required to determine style of landslide movement, for risk and even emergency risk management assessments and to assist with the design of mitigation works. A landslide instrumentation program including an inclinometer is designed for landslide monitoring. The inclinometer, or tilt sensor, is an instrument used for measuring slope, tilt, or inclination. In this paper we use Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS) as a sensor to measure changes in an angle. Then information is transferred to a central server soon after real-time accelerations are monitored. A data logger also used as a data recording. With low-cost MEMS accelerometers, the results show this instrument is able to provide reliable ground-motion data in network-scale deployments.

FPGA-Based High-Performance Phonocardiography System for Extraction of Cardiac Sound Components Using Inverse Delayed Neuron Model

The study focuses on the extraction of cardiac sound components using a multi-channel micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) microphone-based phonocardiography system. The proposed multi-channel phonocardiography system classifies the cardiac sound components using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and synaptic weights that are calculated using the inverse delayed (ID) function model of the neuron. The proposed ANN model was simulated in MATLABR and implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The proposed system examined both abnormal and normal samples collected from 30 patients. Experimental results revealed a good sensitivity of 99.1% and an accuracy of 0.9.

Analysis of Distortion Based on 2D MEMS Micromirror Scanning Projection System

To analyze the distortion problem of two-dimensional micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) micromirror in-plane scanning, this paper makes a full theoretical analysis of the distortion causes from many aspects. Firstly, the mathematical relations among the deflection angle, laser incidence angle, and plane scanning distance of the micromirror are constructed, and the types of projection distortion of the micromirror scanning are discussed. Then the simulation results of reflection angle distribution and point cloud distribution are verified by MATLAB software under different working conditions. Finally, a two-dimensional MEMS micromirror scanning projection system is built. The predetermined waveform can be scanned and projected successfully. The distortion theory is proved to be correct by analyzing the distortion of the projection images, which lays a foundation for practical engineering application.