Enabling technologies for system-level simulation of MEMS

The rapid progress in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and the evolution from a limited set of well-established applications, examples, in automotive industry, print heads, and digital light projection, to other fields mainly driven by consumer applications (such as image stabilization, smart phones, game consoles, etc.) opens a new market for these devices. It simultaneously creates the need for fast, efficient, and adequate design and optimization tools not only for stand-alone devices, but also for entire multiphysics microsystems comprising the MEMS component, the attached control and read-out circuitry and the package, while additionally considering environmental impacts potentially affecting the system functionality. This paper provides an overview of system-level modelling methodologies and tools.