Miniaturized sensors and actuators, also referred to as Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), play a critical role in information technology revolution. For example, the development of wireless internet, complex systems on a chip for aerospace, medical, health and various other industries is enabled by the MEMS technology. Over the past decade, advances in microfabrication technologies have enabled breakthrough developments in miniaturized sensors, actuators, devices and systems (collectively called MEMS). Some of the most recent innovative applications include accelerometers in navigational-grade guidance systems, rate gyroscopes in antilock-braking systems, and chemical sensors in complex biomedical instrumentation. MEMS based sensors are more attractive as they are often less expensive and perform better than traditional devices and they can more easily be integrated with control electronics to enable the concept of systems-on-a-chip. The lack of efficient and accurate computational prototyping tools has thus far been a significant barrier to the development of MEMS, because most existing electronic and mechanical computational prototyping tools do not have the ability to analyze microscopic phenomena adequately. As a result, MEMS manufacturers have been forced to develop and test prototypes, both of which have been time-consuming and very expensive.
In this proposal we focus on a particular class of MEMS - referred to as microelectrofluidicmechanical systems (MEFMS). MEFMS are miniaturized sensors, actuators, devices and systems, where mechanical, electrical and fluidic energy domains play a central role. Many electrofluidicmechanical devices have been designed and fabricated - e.g. pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, digital micro mirrors, microphones and other devices. While fabrication approaches for these devices are mature enough, investigation of design alternatives for many of these devices is currently limited because of the lack of computational design tools. While computational research primarily addresses engineering analysis, in this proposal we focus on computational research for design and analysis of microelectrofluidicmechanical systems.
We expect this work to break new grounds in the areas of software tools with advanced computational methods for MEMS. Graduate students will be trained on the MEMS technology, advanced computational methods and design methodologies for MEMS. We anticipate that the design of miniaturized systems based on MEMS will progress rapidly with the availability of efficient, accurate and robust computational prototyping tools. Aggressive designers, who are currently handicapped because of the limited computational analysis tools for MEMS, will be able to challenge their design skills when computational prototyping tools for MEMS are in place.
