MEMS design, realisation and characterisation in an educational context

This paper reports some early experiences in organising a practical training programme for students of electrical engineering on the design, realisation and characterisation of microsystems. After students have been given an overview of CAD tools dedicated to microsystem technology, an electrothermal actuator is designed for implementation using one of two different technologies and simulated. The students then realise an actuator in clean rooms using a simple surface micromachining process. The paper presents some electron microscope pictures of their devices. Results of practical device characterisation are compared to simulation results