Objective of the Activity

The objective of the activity is to familiarize the participants with the basics of MEMS & micro- system technology and its applications along with hands-on training in design and simulation of MEMS devices using COMSOL multiphysics. The workshop also aims at providing the participants an exposure to practical microfabrication techniques through the familiarisation of some basic lithography processes involved in fabrication of MEMS devices.

Details of the Activity

The workshop is being planned in collaboration with industrial participation from COMSOL (India Private Limited) and academic participation from IIT Kharagpur, IISc Bangalore. Initially, pioneers in field of MEMS and Microsystems will provide basic understanding of MEMS and Microsystems technique, evolution of MEMS and its revolutionized applications. Following this, experts from IISc Bangalore will conduct sessions on basic principle underlying MEMS design, development and fabrication. This will be followed by lectures on different MEMS and Microsystems-Inertial MEMS, RF MEMS, BIO-MEMS and Microfluidics with an insight to interfacial circuits for MEMS signal conditioning. Following these, COMSOL group will conduct sessions on basic design and simulation techniques in COMSOL Multiphysics. They will also extend COMSOL session by giving a understanding towards design of application oriented MEMS devices. This will be followed by a hands-on session in laboratory where participants will be familiarized with various microfabrication processes and characterization techniques. Finally, an overview of current advances in MEMS and Microsystems within the institute will be provided with application point of view.

Benefits to Members/ Community

The members will gain a firsthand perspective on the primal knowledge of emerging MEMS technology, design, simulation and fabrication of such microsystems. Hands-on sessions using MEMS design simulation tools and microfabrication in laboratory would help them to be a part of very vibrant and active domain knowledge exchange. As a result, they will be prepared in research and development projects involving MEMS.

About 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. There are a numerous possible applications for MEMS and microsystems.  Among many technologies that seem to have vast potential for application, MEMS prove to be highly promising. Coupled with the smart materials and systems technology, MEMS find applications from aerospace to automobile engineering, from environmental monitoring to biomedical health sciences. In the present era, global technologies that have a synergistic combination of Mechanical engineering, Electronic controls, Information Technologies, Biomedical and Biotechnology, are penetrating into the field of MEMS. MEMS promises to revolutionize nearly every product category by bringing together silicon, glass and polymer based microelectronics with micromachining technology, making possible the realization of complete systems-on a-chip.

About Simulation

Simulation is an important step in MEMS system, where device parameters are optimized through the simulation. There are different simulation tools available to simulate MEMS device like COMSOL Multiphysics, Coventorware, Ansys, Fluient etc. Among them COMSOL is becoming more popular tool because of its own advantage. COMSOL is a finite element analysis solver and a Simulation software package for various physics and engineering applications, especially coupled phenomena involving multiphysics. It offers an extensive interface to MATLAB and its toolboxes for a large variety of pre- and post-processing possibilities. Partial differential equations (PDEs) form the basis for the laws of science and provide the foundation for modeling a wide range of scientific and engineering phenomena. COMSOL Multiphysics applied to MEMS systems provide accurate solutions to a wide range of problems involving the application of microsensors, microactuators and microfluidics.