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0542-4722

Introduction to MEMS

Also listed as: מבוא להנדסת מערכות זעירות

Micro-electromechanical systems from cleanroom process to device model. One of the genuine research strengths of the school, and the densest course in the catalogue at five hours.

Semester
Semester B
Weekly hours
5h
Counts as
Department electives
Interest areas
Miniaturised systems and materials · Mechatronics and robotics · Structures and computational mechanics

Comes after

  • Mechanics of solids 1
  • Vibrations (recommended)

Opens up

  • Micro-systems and nanotechnology research

What it covers

Fabrication

  • Photolithography
  • Deposition: LPCVD, sputtering, evaporation
  • Etching: wet, and deep reactive ion etching
  • Bulk against surface micromachining, wafer bonding, LIGA
  • Process integration and its constraints

Devices and physics

  • Scaling laws, and why intuition from macro-scale design fails
  • Lumped-element and energy-domain modelling
  • Mechanics of microstructures: beams, plates, residual stress
  • Electrostatic actuation and pull-in instability
  • Capacitive and piezoresistive sensing
  • Piezoelectric and thermal transducers
  • Introduction to microfluidics
  • Squeeze-film damping, noise, packaging
  • Case studies: pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, resonators

Results worth carrying out

  • Pull-in voltage

    VPI=8kg0327ε0AV_{PI} = \sqrt{\frac{8 k g_0^3}{27\,\varepsilon_0 A}}
  • Parallel-plate capacitance

    C=ε0AgC = \frac{\varepsilon_0 A}{g}
  • Piezoresistive response

    ΔRR=πlσl+πtσt\frac{\Delta R}{R} = \pi_l \sigma_l + \pi_t \sigma_t
  • Squeeze-film damping

    cμw3Lg3c \propto \frac{\mu\, w^3 L}{g^3}

Figures worth knowing

  • Process cross-section flow diagrams
  • Pull-in voltage against displacement curves
  • Comb-drive and cantilever schematics
  • SEM micrographs

Related courses

We also write the summaries.

This map tells you what a course contains. The summaries, the tutoring and the people who already took it are the part you get by joining.

The topic outlines are not official syllabi. The university publishes a catalogue blurb per course, not lecture-by-lecture material, so each outline describes what a course of that name, at those hours, with those prerequisites teaches at engineering schools generally, cross-checked against the standard textbook for the subject. Treat it as an informed map, not as a transcript of the lectures.