Film damping caused by microfluids has important effects on the dynamic characteristics of moving elements of microelectromechanical system devices. There are two kinds of film damping existing in microelectromechanical system devices, for instance, slide film damping and squeeze film damping. This article presents an overview on the recent research progress on the slide film damping in microel...

Curriculum development in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) Department at the University of Michigan is presented. A course curriculum structure that integrates both mechanical and electrical engineering courses is proposed for mechanical engineering students. The proposed curriculum starts from undergraduate study and finishes at t...

Many of the tools and techniques used to evaluate and characterize ICs can be applied to MEMS technology. In this paper we discuss various tools and techniques used to provide structural, chemical, and electrical analysis and how these data aid in qualifying MEMS technologies.