Development of microelectromechanical system fabrication emulator by solid modeling technology

Computer aided design (CAD) is a key issue for the development of all engineering products in order to reduce the cost and to accelerate updating of products. Unlike mechanical design, which usually yields truly 3-D objects, the 2-D extruded nature of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication process makes itself is extremely suitable to represent the MEMS fabrication by using automatic solid modeling flow. This paper presents the detail for modeling key MEMS fabrication processes and the development of a MEMS fabrication simulation tool from geometrical modeling perspective. A fabrication process emulator, called the Z-fabricator, based on solid modeling is designed to simulate MEMS fabrication process. This utility contains a process complier to convert user's design to I-DEAS animation files. Successful surface microfabrication process has been demonstrated by using a digital mirror example. This allows the establishment for virtual microfabrication in order to accelerate the development of MEMS product by reducing the cost and development cycles.