Simulation environment for MEMS sensors and actuators

The design of modern sensors, actuators as well as sensor-actuators systems, which are often Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), strongly depends on the availability of appropriate computer aided engineering (CAE) tools, since the fabrication of each prototype is quite costly. We preset such a CAE tool, which solves the underlying system of partial differential equations (PDEs) by the Finite Element (FE) method. As a practical example we present investigations for a capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers (CMUTs) as used for ultrasound imaging. Furthermore, we discuss a homogenization approach for the integrated power electronic structures on such a MEMS transducer to allow for a thermal simulation of the whole device.