After reading the abstract on the resonanting cantilever mass detector, I think this paper might be of interest to some. My colleagues and I wrote this for a MEMS device class we took Fall 2005 at Columbia University while I was an undergraduate. It was a term design project.
Abstract – Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) often provide cost effective
It is well-recognized that MEMS switches, compared to their more traditional solid state counterparts, have several important advantages for wireless communications. These include superior linearity, low insertion loss and high isolation. Indeed, many potential applications have been investigated such as Tx/Rx antenna switching, frequency band selection, tunable matching networks for PA and antenna, tunable filters, and antenna reconfiguration.
However, none of these applications have been materialized in high volume products to a large extent because of reliability concerns, particularly those related to the metal contacts. The subject of the metal contact in a switch was studied extensively in the history of developing miniaturized switches, such as the reed switches for telecommunication applications. While such studies are highly relevant, they do not address the issues encountered in the sub 100mN, low contact force regime in which most MEMS switches operate. At such low forces, the contact resistance is extremely sensitive to even a trace amount of contamination on the contact surfaces. Significant work was done to develop wafer cleaning processes and storage techniques for maintaining the cleanliness. To preserve contact cleanliness over the switch service lifetime, several hermetic packaging technologies were developed and their effectiveness in protecting the contacts from contamination was examined.
Ninth U.S. National Congress on computational mechanics
July 22 -26, 2007. San Francisco, California
A mini-symposium on
COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR MICRO AND NANO SYSTEMS
Call for Papers
Micro and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems have recently attracted much attention from the industry and from the scientific community. MEMS are nowadays routinely met in various fields like in the automotive, aerospace and large consumer applications.
It can be said that for various micro systems the pioneering phase has been substituted by a phase of industrial applications. Hence, new challenges concerning reliability, optimization and increasing miniaturizations must be tackled by the designers. All these issues need a multi-disciplinary approach and must be supported by multi-physics numerical and experimental analyses able to contribute to the definition of a unified design and analysis methodology of MEMS and NEMS.
Dear Colleagues:
The 13th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics (ICEM13, http://www.icem13.gr) will be held on July 1-6, 2007 in Alexandroupolis, Greece. It is our pleasure to announce that the Conference will include a special symposium organized by us entitled, “Plasticity, Fracture and Fatigue at the Micro and Nano Scales,” which will focus on recent developments in this area within the larger scope of assessing research needs in a variety of applications of interest.
