Elsevier

Applied Soft Computing

Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 579-589
Applied Soft Computing

Structured synthesis of MEMS using evolutionary approaches

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2007.04.001Get rights and content

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the hierarchy that is involved in a typical MEMS design and how evolutionary approaches can be used to automate the hierarchical synthesis process for MEMS. The paper first introduces the flow of a structured MEMS design process and emphasizes that system-level lumped-parameter model synthesis is the first step of the MEMS synthesis process. At the system level, an approach combining bond graphs and genetic programming can lead to satisfactory design candidates as system-level models that meet the predefined behavioral specifications for designers to trade off. Then at the physical layout synthesis level, the selection of geometric parameters for component devices and other design variables is formulated as a constrained optimization problem and addressed using a constrained genetic algorithm approach. A multiple-resonator microsystem design is used to illustrate the integrated design automation idea using these evolutionary approaches.

Introduction

Due to the complexity and mixed-domain intricacy involved in MEMS design, designing MEMS remains an art in most applications, requiring a large amount of investment of human resources, time and money. Much of the investment is consumed in the iterative trial-and-error design process. Automated design synthesis helps engineers to rapidly develop optimal configurations for a given set of performance and constraint guidelines, and thus to shorten typical development cycles for MEMS (with a given fabrication technology) by a large factor and to enable design of far more complex MEMS than can be handled today. Electronic Design Automation (EDA) has achieved great success in both industry and academia. However, analogous research in design automation for MEMS seems to lag far behind, although considering the close affinity of MEMS and VLSI – MEMS actually evolved from microelectronics and inherited the fabrication techniques of VLSI – the potential for successful applications of design automation to MEMS appears to be promising. Translating the key insights of silicon evolution success into MEMS technologies is a much more challenging task than most people have expected. Major research topics to be addressed include:

  • 1.

    developing a broad base of building blocks in MEMS technologies so that huge networks of micro-devices can be assembled into arbitrary architectures with desirable functionalities;

  • 2.

    hierarchically decomposing the MEMS design process to reduce design complexity, making it more amenable to automation;

  • 3.

    improving models of computation and extending current synthesis methodologies to facilitate generation of viable design candidates and smoother transitions from conceptual and embodied designs to process fabrication;

  • 4.

    combining MEMS component layout extraction and lumped-parameter simulation and design synthesis to provide MEMS designers with a VLSI-like environment, enabling faster design cycles and improved design productivity.

This paper aims to partially address these challenges. The proposed hierarchical and evolutionary design framework for MEMS seeks to eliminate tedious and repetitive design tasks, facilitate hierarchical problem decomposition, and combine the power of multiple evolutionary computation algorithms working sequentially to generate and identify better product designs and process solutions. In particular, we divide design representations of MEMS into two levels, the system-level behavioral macromodel and the detailed-level physical geometric layout model. At the system level, we use a combination of genetic programming and bond graphs to automatically generate and search for viable design candidates represented by behavioral macromodels satisfying high-level design specifications. At the second detailed (layout) level, constrained genetic algorithms are used to optimize the geometric parameters that relate the physical device model to the behavioral macromodel and meet more detailed design objectives.

This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces a structured method of MEMS synthesis presented by Antonsson [1]. Section 3 describes the GPBG approach that combines genetic programming and bond graphs for system-level behavioral synthesis. Section 4 explains how a constrained GA approach can be used to solve the second-level physical layout synthesis problem. Concluding remarks are presented in Section 5.

Section snippets

Structured MEMS design methodology

In MEMS, there are a number of levels of designs that need to be synthesized [10]. Usually the design process starts with basic capture of the schematic of the overall system, and then goes on through layout and construction of a 3-D solid model. So the first design level is the system level, which includes selection and configuration of a repertoire of planar devices or subsystems. The second level is 2-D layout of basic structures like beams to form the elementary planar devices. In some

Genetic programming for system-level sythesis

In this research, genetic programming (GP) is used as a strong search tool to explore the topologically open-ended design space for system-level behavioral models of MEMS. The bond graphs (BG) is also used as a modeling tool to unify representations of mixed energy domains of MEMS. The overall approach is called GPBG approach. The next section gives a brief introduction to bond graph.

Second level physical layout synthesis

Layout synthesis automatically generates valid or optimized geometric sizing parameters for cell components, which in most cases are chosen from micromechanical devices with fixed topologies, according to engineering design objectives. In this research, the cell component is a resonator device in the MEMS domain. The design objectives come from either high-level specifications, such as behavioral model parameters that must be satisfied, or from layout-level objectives such as minimizing the

Conclusion

This paper has suggested a design methodology for automatically synthesizing hierarchical designs for MEMS. While there has been much research using evolutionary computation techniques to synthesize MEMS [23], [40], this is the first work reported that attempts to automates the hierarchical MEMS synthesis process in an integrated framework. Our first step is to synthesize system-level behavioral models using a combination of genetic programming and bond graphs. Then in the second step, we use a

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) through grant DMI 0084934. The authors are grateful to Ranny Sidhu and Johanna Burgueno at Red Cedar Technology, Inc., for their help in setting up and using the HEEDS software. Financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to enable Sofiane Achiche to work at Technical University of Denmark under Post-Doctoral Grant BP-328508-2006 is also gratefully

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