Integrated CAD Tools for Thermo-Fluidic- Mechanical-Electrostatic Design of MEMS Devices

摘要

The objective of this effort was to develop advanced, multi- disciplinary Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools to prototype design Micro- Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The approach was to develop/validate electrostatics model (based on Finite Volume Method/Boundary Element Method), implement electrostatic model in thermo-fluidic-mechanical software, develop communication protocol between model and microtomography imaging data, and apply it to industrial MEMS. Thus, the work described in this report focuses on the development of a CAD tool, CFD-ACE+MEMS, for simulating microsystem operation. CFD-ACE+MEMS is based on a flow, thermal, mechanical CAD tool, CFD-ACE+ which has been modified to include electric and magnetic physical models. CFD Research Corporation used the results of this effort to perform modeling studies of industrial microdevices for MEMS companies using the CFD-ACE+MEMS coupled simulation capability. In addition to demonstrating the CAD tools simulation capability on several tests cases, validation was also pursued using experimentally measured flow fields and displacements obtained through a subcontract with Sarnoff Corporation. The results of this effort have been incorporated into CFD Research Corporation's commercial software and is being used by companies working with MEMS and microelectronics.