A New Method to Make Programmable Transducers in Microelectromechanical Systems (P-MEMS)

一种在微机电系统 (P-MEMS) 中制造可编程传感器的新方法

• 批准号: EP/S019960/1
• 负责人: Ali Mohammadi
• 金额: $ 25.99万
• 依托单位: University of Bath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FS019960%2F1
• 关键词: New; Method; Make; Programmable; Transducers

Modern technologies have vastly benefitted from the miniaturised transducers developed in Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS). Magnetic microdevices are one class of MEMS that demonstrate a significant potential for future applications in microrobotics, microfluidics, lab-on-chip, etc. For example, magnetic microfluidic chips can drastically reduce the costs and increase the throughput of DNA sequencing in genomic explorations and single-cell array analysis for cancer diagnosis. However, despite their great potential, the integration of magnetic material in microfabrication processes remains costly, time-inefficient and is therefore still an open research topic. For example, microtransducers manufactured by etching deposited layers have lower performance than bulk magnets of the same size. Even the most promising solutions for integrated magnetic materials in microfabrication processes, unfortunately deliver identical magnetic properties for the entire set of microdevices on a chip and cannot be individually tuned afterwards.This project will develop a comprehensive solution to these problems. It will be delivered in three work packages (WP). In WP1, this project will develop a new microfabrication process to realise on-chip programmable transducers in MEMS (p-MEMS). This process will integrate an array of magnetic microdevices with individual electrothermal microheaters. In this innovative technique the temperature of each microdevice increases in response to the applied electrical power to its corresponding heater. Applying an external magnetic field then produces the selective magnetic annealing. Therefore, exposing the entire magnetic microdevices on a chip to an external magnetic field and connecting selected heaters to electrical power will result in permanent magnetic changes only in the selected microdevices. Hence, this technique can develop various magnetic polarity patterns on a single chip by applying different combinations of external magnetic fields and selected heaters. WP1 will be carried out in close partnership with experts from BAE Systems who are particularly interested in the future micro and nano technologies. In WP2, this research work will develop a new comprehensive micromagnetism model (M-MAG) to understand the magnetic behaviour of these microtransducers. The magnetic behaviour of thick microfabricated ferromagnetic (FM) layers in MEMS is different from thin films and bulk magnets. Thick layers are different from bulk magnets due to their atomic ordering after deposition. They are also different from thin deposited layers whose thicknesses of a few atoms impose certain constraints and assumptions that are not necessarily valid for thick layers. The new M-MAG model will be used to develop a computer aided design (CAD) tool for integrating the magnetic behaviour of microdevices into the available three dimensional micromechanical modelling tools. This will provide the multiphysics finite element analysis for the design of future microtransducers in p-MEMS. In WP3, a prototype microfluidic chip will be developed using the p-MEMS process to test and verify the reliability of the process as well as the accuracy of the M-MAG model and simulations in the new CAD tool. There is a wide variety of applications for p-MEMS. Focusing on microfluidic applications will extend the cross disciplinary benefits of the proposed technique beyond Engineering and Physics. Just as programmable electronic integrated circuits enabled a wider community of non-expert users, the proposed research on p-MEMS will lead to a broader usage of these transducers emerging among other disciplines such as Biotechnology and Chemistry. Hence, WP3 will apply feedback from various end-users including experts from iGenomix UK. The p-MEMS design kit including the layer thicknesses, material properties and layout design rules as well as the M-MAG model and the CAD tool will all be made freely available on the project webs

现代技术极大地受益于微机电系统 (MEMS) 中开发的小型化传感器。磁性微器件是一类 MEMS，在微机器人、微流体、芯片实验室等领域的未来应用具有巨大潜力。例如，磁性微流体芯片可以大幅降低成本并提高基因组探索和癌症诊断单细胞阵列分析中 DNA 测序的通量。然而，尽管磁性材料潜力巨大，但将其集成到微加工工艺中仍然成本高昂、时间效率低下，因此仍然是一个开放的研究课题。例如，通过蚀刻沉积层制造的微换能器的性能低于相同尺寸的块体磁体。不幸的是，即使是微加工工艺中集成磁性材料最有前途的解决方案，也能为芯片上的整套微型器件提供相同的磁特性，并且之后无法单独调整。该项目将为这些问题开发一个全面的解决方案。它将通过三个工作包 (WP) 交付。在 WP1 中，该项目将开发一种新的微加工工艺，以实现 MEMS (p-MEMS) 中的片上可编程传感器。该过程将把一系列磁性微型器件与单独的电热微型加热器集成在一起。在这项创新技术中，每个微型设备的温度都会随着施加到其相应加热器的电力而升高。然后施加外部磁场产生选择性磁退火。因此，将芯片上的整个磁性微器件暴露于外部磁场并将选定的加热器连接到电源将导致仅在选定的微器件中发生永久磁性变化。因此，该技术可以通过应用外部磁场和选定加热器的不同组合在单个芯片上开发各种磁极性图案。 WP1 将与 BAE Systems 的专家密切合作，他们对未来的微米和纳米技术特别感兴趣。在 WP2 中，这项研究工作将开发一种新的综合微磁模型（M-MAG）来了解这些微传感器的磁性行为。 MEMS 中厚的微加工铁磁 (FM) 层的磁性行为不同于薄膜和块体磁体。厚层与块状磁体不同，因为它们在沉积后原子有序。它们也不同于薄沉积层，薄沉积层的几个原子的厚度施加了某些约束和假设，而这些约束和假设对于厚层不一定有效。新的 M-MAG 模型将用于开发计算机辅助设计 (CAD) 工具，用于将微器件的磁性行为集成到可用的三维微机械建模工具中。这将为未来 p-MEMS 微传感器的设计提供多物理场有限元分析。在WP3中，将使用p-MEMS工艺开发原型微流控芯片，以测试和验证工艺的可靠性以及M-MAG模型和新CAD工具中模拟的准确性。 p-MEMS 有广泛的应用。专注于微流体应用将把所提出的技术的跨学科优势扩展到工程和物理学之外。正如可编程电子集成电路使非专家用户群体变得更广泛一样，p-MEMS 的拟议研究将导致这些传感器在生物技术和化学等其他学科中得到更广泛的使用。因此，WP3 将采纳包括 iGenomix UK 专家在内的各种最终用户的反馈。 p-MEMS 设计套件（包括层厚度、材料特性和布局设计规则以及 M-MAG 模型和 CAD 工具）都将在项目网站上免费提供

项目成果

Asymmetric Quad Leg Orthoplanar Spring for Wideband Piezoelectric Micro Energy Harvesting

• DOI: 10.1109/mems49605.2023.10052512
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: 2023 IEEE 36th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
• 作者: Ali Mohammadi;Shamin Sadrafshari;A. Shokrani;C. Bowen

Lab-on-chip Exploiting Magnetic MEMS for Medical Diagnostics and Biotechnology

利用磁性 MEMS 进行医疗诊断和生物技术的片上实验室

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Melissa MItchell