MEMS design for fabrication

Process expertise and material characterization uncertainties are identified as the major obstacles for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) commercialization. In this paper, a modeling framework to design MEMS for fabrication is presented. The main focus is to simulate the variations generated at different stages of the microfabrication process and to study its effect on the future performance of the device. The framework is applied on a micro gas sensor. Different alternatives for sensor fabrication were studied in terms of the generated uncertainties with different process parameters. An automated substructuring code has been generated to reduce the computational cost of the parametric analysis. The main affecting design parameters as well as the necessary variation limits have been identified.