Design MEMS/MOEMS for Reliability

Susanne Arney, Arman Gasparyan, and Martin Haueis
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs

This course will provide attendees with a basic working knowledge of how to design MEMS/MOEMS for reliability. The course will concentrate on MEMS design, reliability physics, MEMS-specific fundamental reliability phenomena and failure mechanisms, and accelerated testing protocols. Practical and useful examples from various arenas of MEMS application will be provided. LEARNING OUTCOMES This course will enable you to:

  • Develop a design-for-reliability mentality
  • Become fluent with the many aspects of MEMS reliability physics and failure mechanisms
  • Learn how to efficiently construct a MEMS reliability test plan to expand beyond qualification-based knowledge
  • Evaluate specific MEMS designs for reliability investigations
  • Understand the importance of fundamental models of MEMS failure mechanisms in designing accelerated testing strategies
  • Assess reliability test results to obtain truly robust MEMS designs.
INTENDED AUDIENCE Anyone who needs to learn how to design reliable MEMS. This course will be of value to those who either design their own MEMS or those who work directly or indirectly with MEMS designers. MEMS Materials, Fabrication, Packaging, Design, Reliability and Test engineers will benefit from this overview of MEMS Reliability physics.

Susanne Arney

Susanne Arney received the B.S. in materials science and engineering from MIT, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University. From 1982 to 1984 she worked on trench isolation for the Bipolar Integrated Circuits Group of Motorola in Phoenix, AZ. In 1992 she joined the Microstructure Physics Research department at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. She is currently conducting MEMS reliability research to facilitate commercialization of optical, rf, acoustics, and physics MEMS research concepts for telecommunications applications.