Part to Art: A Comprehensive Geometric Modeling Paradigm for the Design of Micro-Electromechanical Systems

这项资助支持的研究重点是开发用于设计微机电系统（MEMS）的综合几何建模范例。MEMS的新几何建模方案将解决不寻常的纵横比问题;多层;异质材料成分;以及由光刻、保形和其他沉积以及各向同性和各向异性蚀刻带来的几何复杂性。艺术到部分的问题，即建立准确的物理模型，使用光刻掩模的艺术品和工艺信息，将首先解决。精确的物理模型，真正代表了微制造的设备是有用的，在执行计算行为模拟。部分到艺术的问题，即，对于给定的工艺，从3-D模型生成掩模将在下面讨论。在这项工作中开发的几何建模框架将采用一个组成元素表示和合适的图像处理算法，自然地模仿沉积和蚀刻过程。腐蚀和膨胀的集合论基础将被用来解决艺术到部分和部分到艺术的问题。通过适当地选择本构元素和结构元素，将模拟几种类型的晶体取向、蚀刻和沉积。用于验证已经创建的三维模型的设计规则，以及帮助MEMS设计人员为所选工艺创建对象的生成规则也将在新的几何建模框架中开发。微制造的测试结构将被用来验证在这项工作中开发的算法。 从掩模创建精确模型的过程将是新兴的MEMS计算机辅助设计工具的一个值得注意的补充，并将对MEMS行业产生有利的影响。如果成功解决零件到工艺的问题，将显著改变MEMS器件的设计方式。然后，MEMS设计人员将不再需要从制造信息（掩模）开始，而是可以专注于使用行为仿真直接创建实体模型。生成规则将加快MEMS设计过程，并将导致更好的可视化，而不必知道微细加工过程的微小细节。

The research supported by this grant focuses on the development of a comprehensive geometric modeling paradigm for designing Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The new geometric modeling scheme for MEMS will address the issues of unusual aspect ratios; multiple layers; heterogenous material composition; and geometric intricacies brought about by photolithography, conformal and other depositions, and isotropic and anisotropic etches. The art-to-part problem, that is, building accurate physical models using the artwork of photolithography masks and the process information, will be addressed first. Accurate physical models that truly represent the microfabricated devices are useful in performing the computational behavioral simulations. The part-to-art problem, i.e., generating the masks from the 3-D model for a given process, will be addressed next. The geometric modeling framework to be developed in this work will employ a constitutive element representation and suitable image processing algorithms to naturally mimic the deposition and etching processes. The set-theoretic basis of erosion and dilation will be used to solve the art-to-part and the part-to-art problems. By a proper selection of constitutive elements and structuring elements, several types of crystal orientations, etches and deposits will be simulated. The design rules for validating an already created 3-dimensional model, and generative rules to aid the MEMS designer to create an object for a chosen process will also be developed in the new geometric modeling framework. Microfabricated test structures will be utilized to validate the algorithms developed in this work. The process of creating an accurate model from the masks will be a notable addition to the emerging computer-aided design tools for MEMS and will favorably impact the MEMS industry. The part-to-art problem, if successfully solved, will significantly change the way MEMS devices are designed. Then, MEMS designers will no longer need to start from manufacturing information (masks), but instead can focus on directly creating the solid model using behavioral simulations. The generative rules will expedite the MEMS design process and will lead to better visualization without having to know the minute details of microfabrication processes.