The Analysis and Visualisation of Metal Microstructures

This paper on "The Analysis and Visualisation of Metal Microstructures" was presented at the 5th International Conference on Reliability of Finite Element Methods for Engineering Applications - 10-12 May 1995, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Micromechanics is the design and manufacture of very small 3-dimensional parts. It combines electronic, mechanical, optical and other technologies into a single system and employs miniaturisation to achieve high complexity in a small volume. Micro engineered devices and components have major dimensions measured in micro or nano meters. An overview of microengineering will be presented together with actual examples of micromachined devices.
The analysis of microstructures is essentially the same as the analysis of larger components, however the tiny dimensions of these components does pose problems to some of the 'off the shelf analysis systems. Some of these problems are discussed together with some simple guidelines for successful analysis. A case study examples is presented detailing the finite element analysis (FEA) of a novel metal micro-accelerometer manufactured using the LIGA technique [1] . The finite element analysis software ALGOR has been used in this assessment. Special attention is given to the accuracy of results.