Design case-study

The project in this course will be a case-study that each student will do individually. Guidance for doing this will be given throughout the duration of the course. The case-study determines 30% of the course-grade. The final outcome of the project is a formal document that resembles the case-study chapters in the textbook used for this course. Although not required, simple microfabrication will be encouraged.

To help you understand the goals, the method of attack, and writing the report, etc. for your case-study, we will discuss the following one in the lectures. This will happen at a pace you should do your case-study.
The device for the sample case-study would be the resonant-mode pressure sensor.

In order to choose a topic for your design case-study, you should refer to journals, web, conference proceedings (I will leave four in the library reserve for your convenience), and talk to me.

Keep the following in mind as you make your decision.

• Your case-study should not be merely descriptive. That is, it is not enough to describe how a device operates, how it is useful, and how it is made. It must include modeling and/or design of some kind.
• If you pick a device on which there is not much literature on modeling and you do not think that you can do some modeling yourself, don't pick that.
• You are expected to do some simulations of your own. This can either be re-creating what has been done in the literature or something new.
• Your case-study should teach something new to the class.

Here are some ideas you can choose from. You are not required to choose only these. If you intend to choose from this list, you should let me know immediately because we will follow the first-come-first-serve policy.

Those topics that are already picked by others are in blue as of Nov. 26th.

1. Simulation of the electrostatic bi-directional pump (we had briefly talked about it in the class).
2. Micromechanical filters (we had a homework problem on it)
3. Magnetic actuator (the handout was given in the class)
4. "Heatuator" array -- a novel type of electro-thermal actuator-based device. It combines electrical, thermal, and elastic domains.
5. Redwood Microsystems valve -- combines thermal, fludic, and elastic domains. See a pdf file on the company's website for some information. There are also technical papers in conferences and journals on this valve or a variation of this valve.
6. A rate gyroscope -- combines elasto-dynamic and electrostatic domains. Lot of people have worked on it. Understanding the literature and re-creating the simulations will be needed. There is also case-study in the book but that uses piezoelectric effect.
7. A valveless diffuser micro-pump -- there are two recent papers that describe modeling.
8. Thermal inkjet modeling -- there is a paper describing its modeling. It combines thermal and fluid domains.
9. Micro-optical distance sensors -- there is a paper on its modeling.
10. An RF MEMS switch -- there is a wealth of literature on this.
11. A survey of macromodeling techniques.