Efficient and Accurate System-Level Simulation Compatible Macromodel for MEMS Diode-Based Micro-Pirani Vacuum Sensor

System-level simulation is significant in assisting microelectromechanical system (MEMS) optimization design due to time-saving and high efficiency. An accurate and efficient macromodel is greatly necessary for system-level simulation. Therefore, we present an energy analysis method based on decoupling and coupling energy fields to develop a parameterized macromodel, and a strongly thermal-electric coupling diode-based micro-Pirani vacuum sensor is used for demonstration and illustration. From the physics standpoint, the vacuum sensor is controlled by three energy fields (fluid field, thermal field, and electromagnetic field). As a self-heating device, the degree of electrothermal coupling in the vacuum sensor is greatly deep, and thus, diodes should first be modeled to facilitate the conversion from the electromagnetic field to the thermal field, which will simplify the order reduction process of the thermal field. Then, the state-space (ss) model of the thermal field, the parameterized behavioral model of the electromagnetic field, and the parameterized behavioral model of the fluid field are constructed. Subsequently, all models are described by Verilog-A and assembled to the macromodel based on the transfer information flow among three energy fields. To verify the accuracy of the macromodel, probe testing under forward current bias conditions, actual measurement of the vacuum sensor with the external interface circuit, and finite element analysis (FEA) are performed. The comparison results show that the steady-state results obtained by system-level simulation are in good agreement with the experimental results, and the maximum error is less than 0.63% under much the same parameters as the tested vacuum sensor.