Micromachining and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technologies can be used to produce complex structures, devices and systems on the scale of micrometers. Initially micromachining techniques were borrowed directly from the integrated circuit (IC) industry, but now many unique MEMS-specific micromachining processes are being developed. In MEMS, a wide variety of transduction mechanisms ca...

RF/microwave MEMS technology. Part one begins with a brief discussion of RF/microwave system requirements, and then introduces the enabling potentialities of the MEMS arsenal to meet these requirements. In particular, MEMS fabrication techniques are addressed, and fundamental components, including inductors, varactors, resonators and transmission lines, as well as the design/ CAD paradigm, are ...

MEMS components by their very nature have different and unique failure mechanisms than their macroscopic counterparts. This paper discusses failure mechanisms observed in various MEMS components and technologies. MEMS devices fabricated using bulk and surface micromachining process technologies are emphasized.

The microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) area has been developed extensively during the past three decades. In the 1970s, with the advancement of semiconductor microelectronics processing, researchers investigated wet anisotropic chemical etching processes for forming three dimensional silicon geometries. In the 1980s, researchers adopted the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) process to realize ...

Microelectromechanical ~MEMS! gyroscopes have wide-ranging applications including automotive and consumer electronics markets. Among them, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor-compatible MEMS gyroscopes enable integration of signal conditioning circuitry, multiaxis integration, small size, and low cost. This paper reviews various designs and fabrication processes for integrated MEMS gyroscop...

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) have already revolutionized several industries through miniaturization and cost effective manufacturing capabilities that were never possible before. However, commercially available MEMS products have only scratched the surface of the application areas where MEMS has potential. The complex and highly technical nature of MEMS research and development (R&D)...

-Micro Electro Mechanical Systems will soon usher in a new technological renaissance. Just as ICs brought the pocket calculator, PC, and video games, MEMS will provide a new set of products and markets. Learn about the state of the art, from inertial sensors to microfluidic devices[1]. Over the last few years, considerable effort has gone into the study of the failure mechanisms and reliability...

Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) have seen a very steep progression in R&D in the 1980s and 1990s, both in academia and industry. The rapid growth has been enabled by new fabrication methods derived from semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing. These are basically lithography, thin film deposition dry and wet etching, which were tailored for MEMS purposes, since MEMS often uses si...

s With the advancements of MEMS foundry services and CAD tools, MEMS devices can be costeffectively designed and prototyped. Here, four designs that utilize these tools are presented: 1) a flexure design used to reduce the device warpage resulting from the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients between the device and the substrate for flip-chip bonded MEMS, 2) a digitally positioned micro-m...