Material selection for MEMS devices

Pratap, Rudra and Arunkumar, A (2007) Material selection for MEMS devices. In: Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics, 45 (4). pp. 358-367.

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Abstract

As MEMS design matures and migrates from process centric design to performance based design, MEMS designers would need a rational method for selecting an appropriate material that is not based on ease of processing alone. While there is a growing number of thin film materials that can be used in micromachining for MEMS devices, the selection of a particular material is rarely based on quantifiable criterion that relates directly to the optimum performance of the device. In this study, we present a methodology for creating material related device: performance indices that can be used for selecting best possible material for a device. This study is inspired by the Ashby approach and its extension to the microworld in recent studies, where materials are graded on material performance indices and the most appropriate material is selected from the Ashby charts so created. We extend this concept further in this paper and create device performance indices that can be used to grade MEMS materials in performance parameter space. We first create and discuss a material index for thermoelastic damping, an important index for vacuum packed dynamic MEMS devices that has been missing from the list of performance indices previously considered. We present two case studies of material selection, for a MEMS gyroscope and a MEMS ultrasound transducer, to illustrate the methodology and show two different approaches for creating optimality criterion in the presence of several competing performance indices.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics
Publisher:	National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	17 Oct 2007
Last Modified:	03 Feb 2012 06:25
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/11720

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