Structural Layout Optimization for MEMS Sensors and Actuators via Coupled PDEs

微系统技术的设计过程仍然在很大程度上基于直觉。这与其他工程工作形成对比，这在很大程度上归因于这样一个事实，即组件微传感器和微执行器本质上是多物理设备，因此在行为上往往与直觉相反，并受到与复杂制造工艺相关的设计限制。在这个项目中，我们希望为纠正这种情况做出贡献。基于一种将多物理场景的布局优化问题转化为一组偏微分方程组的方法，我们及时地将设计向最优方向演化。要解决的关键问题是对约束的灵活和通用的处理，正确表达敏感度分析，以网格自适应保持精度，最后在为反馈提供物理测量数据的制造设备上测试算法和程序的预测。我们相信，实现这些目标将极大地造福于微系统社区，并将为拓扑优化提供新的见解。

The design process in microsystem technology is still largely based on intuition. This is in contrast to other engineering endeavours, and is largely attributed to the fact that the component micro sensors and micro actuators are inherently multiphysical devices and hence often counter-intuitive in behaviour and subject to complex manufacturing process related design constraints. In this project we want to contribute to remedying this situation. Based on a method to cast the layout optimization problem of a multiphysics scenario in terms of a set of partial differential equations, we evolve the design in time towards optimality. Key questions to address are the flexible and general handling of constraints, expressing the sensitivity analysis correctly, maintaining accuracy with mesh adaptivity, and finally testing the predictions of the algorithms and procedures on manufactured devices which provide physical measurement data for feedback. We believe that achieving these goals will greatly benefit the microsystem community, and will provide new insights into topology optimization.