Behavioral Modeling of MEMS Sensors for System Level Design

新设备和系统的宏观行为是由纳米尺度的物理现象驱动的，只有通过结构良好的工程设计方法对这些系统进行智能设计和分析才能实现。这项工作的目标是开发这样一种方法和工具，以支持从纳米到宏观尺度的多层次这些系统的设计和分析。这些系统所基于的新兴纳米技术的复杂性推动了对设计方法的需求。首先，系统跨越工程学科（如机械、电气和生物）和能源领域（如电气、机械、流体和化学）；因此，设计、仿真和分析工具必须跨多个领域工作。其次，这些系统的运行速度差别很大，从飞秒到小时不等，因此在时间尺度上跨越了几个数量级。最后，这些系统的独特性质是分子或纳米尺度上的电化学现象在宏观或人类尺度上设定了系统的性质并控制了系统的行为。因此，有必要为设计工程师提供跨越能量域、时间和长度尺度的工具，以便设计和分析这些系统的集成行为。因此，本研究的目标是创建一个计算机辅助设计（CAD）框架，用于多域、微纳米级系统的智能设计和分析。我们将首先关注传感器和执行器系统。这些系统的独特之处在于，它们利用超大规模集成电路的制造基础设施和定向化学自组装，以及利用复杂电子设备将传感元件与数字信号处理接口的能力。非常小的物理变化（飞焦耳量级的能量）可以被检测、放大，并输入到数字信号处理计算机。类似地，设备的小尺寸使高频能量转换或调制由传统的数字电子控制。这项工作的结果将是新的行为建模方法和系统级仿真工具，以实现基于已被证明在电子微系统设计中成功的技术的多领域设计流程。有了这些工具，微纳米系统设计人员将能够预测这些复杂系统的行为，而无需求助于耗时和昂贵的原型。这将增加新系统的设计数量，并缩短下一代基于微纳米技术的系统的上市时间。除了这项工作的直接结果之外，这项研究的更广泛影响将来自三个方面。首先，将开发一门新的课程，并教育一群跨学科工程的研究生和本科生：开发CAD工具，使用这些工具进行设计和分析，制造和测试完成的设计。第二，将在匹兹堡大学与约翰·斯旺森微纳米系统中心合作的基础上扩大基础设施。第三，将传播设计多领域微纳米系统的工具、技术和方法。

The promise of new devices and systems whose macroscopic behavior is driven by physical phenomena at the nanometer-scale can only be realized by the intelligent design and analysis of these systems with a well-structured engineering design methodology. The goal of this work is to develop such a methodology and tools that support design and analysis of these systems at multiple levels, from the nano- to the macro-scale.The need for a design methodology is driven by the complexity of the emerging nano-technologies on which these systems are based. First, the systems span engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical, electrical, and biological) and energy domains (e.g., electrical, mechanical, fluidic, and chemical); therefore, design, simulation and analysis tools must work across a multitude of domains. Second, the systems have processes that work at vastly different rates, from femto-seconds to hours, and thus span orders of magnitude in time scales. Finally, the unique property of these systems is that electro-chemical phenomena at the molecular, or nano-scale sets the properties and controls the behavior of systems at the macro, or human-scale. Thus, it is necessary to provide the design engineer with tools that span energy domains, time and length scales in order to design and analyze the ensemble behavior of these systems. Therefore, the goal of this research is to create a computer aided design (CAD) framework for the intelligent design and analysis of multi-domain, micro- and nano-scale systems. We will initially focus on sensor and actuator systems. These systems are unique in that they leverage the manufacturing infrastructures of VLSI circuits and directed chemical self-assembly together with the ability to utilize sophisticated electronics to interface sensing components with digital signal processing. Very small physical changes (energies on the order of femto-Joules) can be detected, amplified, and fed to digital signal processing computers. Similarly, the small dimensions of the devices enable high-frequency energy conversion or modulation controlled by conventional digital electronics. The results of this work will be new behavioral modeling methodologies and system-level simulation tools to enable multi-domain design flows based on techniques that have proven successful for electronics micro-systems design. Given these tools, micro and nano-system designers will be able to predict the behavior of these complex systems without recourse to time consuming and costly prototyping. This will both increase the number of new systems designed as well as reduce the time-to-market for the next generation of micro and nano-technology based systems.Beyond the direct results of this work, the broader impact of this research will come from three efforts. First, will be the development of a new course and education of a group of graduate and undergraduate students in interdisciplinary engineering: developing CAD tools, using those tools to perform design and analysis, fabricating and testing completed designs. Second, will be an expanded infrastructure at the University of Pittsburgh based on collaborations with the John Swanson Center for Micro-and Nano-Systems. Third will be the dissemination of tools, techniques and methodologies for design of multi-domain micro and nano-systems.