Computer Aided Design Tools in the Development of Surface Micromachined Mechanisms

This paper describes a number of computer aided design (CAD) tools that are used in the development of surface micromachined mechanisms. It investigates the application of parametric or constraint-based CAD in the design of these mechanisms. Parametric CAD facilities are compared with conventional CAD facilities in this paper. The advantages and limitations of conventional and parametric CAD are illustrated by describing their application in designing an electrostatically actuated crescent pump mechanism, which was fabricated in five levels of silicon using Sandia.s Ultraplanar Multilevel Micromachining Technology (SUMMiT-V). The paper also describes the application of visualization and motion simulation tools in designing surface micromachined mechanisms