Concurrent Design, Modeling and Analysis of Microelectromechanical Systems Products - Design for ‘X’ Abilities

In this paper, we present the need for concurrent engineering in Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) device and product development. MEMS system is considered as six subsystems: micromachined element design subsystem, microelectronics circuit design subsystem, fabrication subsystem, packaging subsystem, materials subsystem and environment subsystem. Design for ‘X’ abilities is addressed by considering six subsystems/abilities. A concurrent model is developed using graph theory to show the interaction between subsystems. This work utilizes the advantages of the graph theoretic approach to consider all design aspects together in a single methodology with the help of a multinomial defined using matrix algebra. The design index developed using the proposed methodology shows the interaction among the subsystems and indicates whether the overall design is acceptable or not, by considering all the aspects related to micromachined element design, microelectronics circuit design, fabrication, packaging, materials, environment etc. A MEMS based RF power sensor is designed and the proposed methodology is explained. Simulated results of the RF MEMS power sensor are presented to validate the proposed methodology. A power sensor with VSWR of 1.08002 is reported.