ENMA 490: Materials Design (Capstone)

Project Goal

This is the senior capstone design course for materials science and engineering. Design is a key theme in materials science and engineering, delivering solutions from the understanding achieved by analysis. Design also opens the door to creativity and invention. New materials are revolutionizing many areas of advanced technology. This is a design project course in which the students will work as a team. They will survey some of the exciting areas of new materials and microsystems, and they will identify opportunities where the inclusion of new materials can markedly advance microsystem design.

The goal is to develop a design for a microdevice, including materials choice and process sequence, which capitalizes on the properties of new materials.

Syllabus

Because this is entirely a project course, there is no formal syllabus. The class will survey the project goal posed by the instructor, search for background knowledge and prior work, develop requirements for a solution to the problem, identify and analyze candidate designs, use modeling and possibly experimental approaches to evaluate key issues, and generate a final presentation and final report for the project. The class will organize itself into subgroups as appropriate through the semester, and each student will regularly report to their subgroup and the class in written and oral form, using Blackboard and class and subgroup meeting times for communications. The class will keep records of its task organization, progress, and individual and group assignments, so that the development process for the project can be monitored continuously and evaluated at the end of the semester. Finally, students will complete an evaluation at the end of the course, a self-assessment, a peer assessment, and an assessment of the instructor and the course; the template used for this evaluation is available here (Word file).

Given the topic assigned by the instructor, the class will investigate materials, processes, and structures for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and a variety of smart materials that could be the nucleus for the project. Students are expected to exploit their knowledge and experience from prior courses in materials and related domains.

Results

After surveying a number of devices and applications for MEMS and the range of smart materials now available for application in MEMS, the class focused on the design of a latching actuator based on shape memory alloys (SMA's). SMA's present the advantage that transient energy input can be used to induce shape change, enabling a microactuator device to switch states (i.e., latch) with power applied only to cause the change in state. The low power consumption of such a latching device is a significant benefit for diverse applications.

Sample Project Results from Prior Semesters

• Fall 2002
  Final presentation (PDF)
  Final report (PDF)
  Simulations (.vsm file)
• Fall 2003
  Final presentation (PDF)
  Final report (PDF)
  Fluid Flow (.xls)
  Gannt Chart (.xls)
• Fall 2004
  Final Presentation (PDF)
  Final Report (PDF)
• Spring 2006
  Final Presentation (.ppt)
  Final Report (PDF)
• Spring 2007
  Final Presentation (.ppt)
  Final Report (.ppt)
• Spring 2008
  Final Presentation (PDF)
  Final Report (PDF)

Evaluation

The class investigated possible strategies for materials, processes, and device designs which would enable multilevel microfluidics transport and control in bioMEMS systems. Students carried out experimental work to construct and test a prototype PDMS-based microfluidic system involving two layers of horizontal/lateral microfluidic channels connected by vertical interconnects, and they also designed and built a second test structure using SU-8, PDMS, and valves controlled by gas-filled control lines. The project included emphasis on materials properties, associated processes, process flow and integration, test site design, experimental fabrication and test, and modeling. Since the project depended on the application of materials to devices and structures, students became familiar with the MEMS world as well as with the real experience of working in a team and managing their resources toward a goal with a deadline.