In this paper, we reviewed some of the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) research efforts for high frequency applications. The efforts can be generally divided into two areas: planar reconfigurable transceivers and phased arrays using MEMS devices. For the planar transceivers, the interest is in demonstration of RF MEMS devices with a focus on integration issues including architectures and f...

Widespread acceptance of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) depends highly on their reliability, both for large-volume commercialization and for critical applications. The problem of multiple dependent failure processes is of particular interest to MEMS researchers. For MEMS devices subjected to both wear degradation and random shocks that are dependent and competing, we propose a new reli...

A hierarchical MEMS synthesis and optimization architecture has been developed for MEMS design automation. The architecture integrates an object-oriented component library with a MEMS simulation tool and two levels of optimization: global genetic algorithms and local gradient-based refinement. An object-oriented data structure is used to represent hierarchical levels of elements in the design l...

The microelectronic department at LIRMM has developed, in the past few years, various types of MEMS sensors. The particularity of our group is to design MEMS that can be integrated either in a System on Chip (SoC) or in a System in Package (SiP) approaches. Therefore, the purpose of this demonstration is to show the feasibility of a silicon attitude sensor using 2 MEMS magnetometers, 2 MEMS the...

GPS-aided MEMS-based inertial navigation systems is a topic of intense interest. In this paper a MEMS-IMU/GPS integrated system based on the PC104 platform is implemented and the time synchronization solution is discussed. Because of the analogue constant voltage outputs of the MEMS-IMU in the process of calibration, a method of testing the accuracy of time synchronization was developed. Some e...

We describe a method to speed up microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirror scanning by > 20x, while also improving scan accuracy. We use Landweber deconvolution to determine an input voltage which would produce a desired output, based on the measured MEMS impulse response. Since the MEMS is weakly nonlinear, the observed behavior deviates from expectations, and we iteratively improve our inpu...

for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) emerge, research efforts shift toward the design of systems of increasing complexity. Focusing on higher-level design issues is being made possible by the development of hierarchical cell design methodologies, libraries of characterized MEMS elements, mixed-technology simulators, layout synthesis tools, and design rule checking tools. By incorporating a...

Hitherto the MEMS field has evolved with the semiconductor industry where silicon is the predominant material. As the MEMS sector expands and diversifies, research focuses on new optimised materials with respect to the functional requirements (e.g. low cost, flexibility, optical transparency, biocompatibility and large surface) of future electronic devices [1]. To this end, substituting rigid i...

MEMS technology offers some unique product opportunities for optical networking applications. One of the critical factors that determine the commercial success of any optical MEMS components is the cost for packaging and optical fiber alignment. Small form factor MEMS components such as protection switches and variable optical attenuators require the integration of optical fibers and lenses wit...

In this paper we focus on electromechanical modeling of high-tuning range MEMS varactors with a focus on failures caused by residual compressive stress. In particular, we quantitatively evaluate for the first time a high-tuning range parallel-plate MEMS varactor in the presence of residual compressive stress. A 3D model generated in ANSYS agrees very favorably with the measured data and explain...