Dynamic fault injection for system level simulation of MEMS - A design method for functional safety

In this paper a method for dynamic fault injection and fault simulation as well as its application to MEMS based sensor systems is described. The prerequisite for this approach is the availability of accurate, but likewise numerically efficient models for the MEMS element. Simulations based on SystemC and SystemC AMS are suitable to analyze the nominal behavior of complex systems including electronics and the mechanical behavior of the MEMS elements [1], [2]. They offer capabilities to represent analog and digital hardware as well as software and nonelectrical components in one simulation environment. Especially for the modelling of mechanical structures, dedicated modelling algorithms like model order reduction [3], [4] have to be applied to ensure high numerical efficiency.