General course information

BRIEF SUMMARY

The course is designed as a “hands-on” project course for students who would like to deepen their understanding of nano/microelectromachnical systems (NEMS/MEMS), by actively designing, fabricating and evaluating different microacuator concepts.

The course targets MSc level students, preferably with background in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Engineering Physics. Pre-knowledge in microsystems, nanotechnology, or semiconductor technology is advantageous for some course parts, for instance the fabrication, but not necessary at all. General understanding of physics, and curiosity for the application of physical effects on a micro/nano-scale, is the best starting point for designing your own moving microsystem!

This course is given annually, in the 2nd period of every autumn term at KTH (HT-P2; October to December).

Promotional flyer to the course of 2012

In recent course runs, the students had to design:

• 2010: micro-optical switch for fiber-optic telecommunication networks
• 2011: micro-optical switch for fiber-optic telecommunication networks
• 2012: micro-gripper for manipulating cells

FURTHER INFORMATION

Course participants: Typically, 20% of the students are PhD students. Under certain circumstances, PhD students may create and carry out their own task in the world of microsystem technology.

Results of previous course evaluation: During 2011, 14 students took the course, of which 4 were PhD students. Course evaluation results from 2011 (only given for MSc students): 30% of the students consider the course as among the top 10% of KTH's courses, and 70% of the students consider the course as among the top 25% of KTH's courses.

Course language: English.

Course coordinator: Assoc.-Prof. Joachim Oberhammer, KTH School of electrical Engineering, Microsystem Technology Laboratory.

Supervision: The progress of the work will be supervised by the course responsible. Additional, 2 PhD students tutor the course participants during the design phase, 2 PhD students will tutor during the fabrication phase, and 1 PhD student will tutor during the evaluation phase.

Place of the course events: The first (compulsory!) meeting and the final project presentations are held in lecture halls as specified in the course schedule (see link to the right), the other meetings, lectures, review meetings, and the design work will be carried out in the students lab at KTH's downtown campus, Osquldas väg 10, 2nd floor, room A:213. Students will get unrestricted access to that lab during the project work. The fabrication will be done in KTH's cleanroom laboratory in Kista (Isafjordsgatan 22-24). The evaluation will be done at the Microsystem Technology Laboratory at the KTH downtown campus, Osquldas väg 10, 5th floor.

Official course description: Original course description in the KTH databas, last update 2010. (information on the course on KTH Social is more frequently updated)

Course office for students: STEX (Osquldas väg 10, ground floor).

Course content: The course consists of three introductory lectures (there the dates for the lectures 2 and 3 will be decided at the first meeting) followed by the course work, which is framed by weekly progress meetings with the course responsible and his teaching assistants. The student will be able to to design thier own microsystem devices using simulation and CAD tools, to fabricate the devices in a clean-room laboratory, to characterize the devices, and to analyse failure mechanisms as well as propose design improvements. The course starts with lectures introducing the student to MEMS design tools, and providing them with specifications of the real-world problems they have to solve. Then, the students will work in groups of 2–3, develop device concepts, and verify these using state-of-the art FEM simulation tools, and then design the devices with CAD software. In the next step, the students will fabricate their own devices with state-of-the-art micromachining/semiconductor manufacturing tools in the the KTH clean-room laboratory. Afterwards, the students will evaluate their devices by characterizing them with various test setups to find out which of their designs has best performance according to the given specifications. In the final step, the students will analyze the failure mechanisms of their devices, and have to propose design improvements for a potential next development cycle.

For any questions, in particular on the suitability of your background to the course, please contact the course coordinator.

For course material, schedule, etc. for the current academic year click at the items of the respective year in the menu to the right. Most items are only visible if you are logged-in/registered to this course.

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