Behavioral Modeling of MEMS Sensors for System Level Design

其宏观行为由纳米级物理现象驱动的新设备和系统的前景只能通过使用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来实现。这项工作的目标是开发这样一种方法和工具，支持设计和分析这些系统在多个层次上，从纳米到macroscale.The需要的设计方法是由这些系统的基础上新兴的纳米技术的复杂性驱动。首先，系统跨越工程学科（例如，机械、电和生物）和能量领域（例如，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。第二，这些系统的工作速度差异很大，从飞秒到数小时，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的电化学现象在宏观或人类尺度上设定系统的性质并控制系统的行为。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整体行为。因此，本研究的目标是建立一个计算机辅助设计（CAD）框架的智能设计和分析的多领域，微和纳米尺度系统。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，它们利用了超大规模集成电路的制造基础设施和定向化学自组装，以及利用复杂的电子器件将传感组件与数字信号处理连接起来的能力。非常小的物理变化（能量在毫微微焦耳的量级）可以被检测到，放大，并馈送到数字信号处理计算机。类似地，器件的小尺寸使得能够通过常规数字电子器件控制高频能量转换或调制。 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成功的电子微系统设计技术的多域设计流程。有了这些工具，微米和纳米系统设计师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设计。这将增加新系统的设计数量，并减少下一代基于微米和纳米技术的系统的上市时间。除了这项工作的直接结果外，这项研究的更广泛影响将来自三个方面的努力。首先，将是一个新的课程和一组研究生和本科生在跨学科工程教育的发展：开发CAD工具，使用这些工具来执行设计和分析，制造和测试完成的设计。第二，将在匹兹堡大学与约翰·斯旺森微型和纳米系统中心合作的基础上扩大基础设施。第三是传播设计多领域微型和纳米系统的工具、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.