Design and System-Level Simulation of a Novel On-Chip Test Based on Macromodels

Abstract

The methods of on-chip integrated testing have a wide application with the development of the study for MEMS materials properties measurement in microscale. A novel on-chip integrated micro-tensile testing system is designed through system-level simulation based on macromodels to measure the fracture strength and fatigue mechanical properties of polysilicon thin films. The structure of testing instrument consists of V-beam electrothermal actuator, differential capacitance sensor, supporting spring and specimen. The capacitance signal is sensed and controlled by a second sigma-delta modulator circuit. The analytic macromodel of polysilicon thin film specimen considering geometric nonlinearity and the numerical reduced-order model of V-beam electrothermal actuator based on Krylov subspace projection are created separately and described in the MAST hardware language. The mechanical structure dimension size and circuit components parameters are determined and optimized according to system-level simulation. The computing result has shown that the self-build macromodels and the on-chip integrated test system are efficient and reliable.

System-Level Simulation and Fabrication of On-Chip Fatigue Bending Test Structure for Micro-Scale Polysilicon Films

“…It is based on the formal conversion of governing partial differential equation (PDE) systems to low-dimensional ordinary differential equation (ODE) systems. The analytic macromodel of polysilicon thin film specimen considering geometric nonlinearity and the numerical reduced-order model of V-beam electrothermal actuator based on Krylov subspace projection are created separately described with the MAST hardware language and then introduced into Architect module of Coventorware [5], shown as Fig. 4 and Fig.…”

“…The dimension parameter and symbol described by MAST of nonlinear beam model [5] Fig5. The dimension parameter and symbol described by MAST of V-beam actuator [5] Fig6. Schematic of Electrically-Actuated Testing Systems in ARCHITECT…”