【MEMS】🧠 01. Design Philosophy and Overall Architecture of mems-ana

A Lightweight ROM-Based Analysis Tool for MEMS

topics: [“MEMS”, “analysis”, “ROM”, “Python”, “simulation”]

📌 Introduction

In MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) design,
analysis is indispensable because structure, materials, and actuation methods are tightly coupled.

At the same time, rigorous FEM-based analysis often comes with drawbacks:

Time-consuming model construction
Heavy parameter studies
Excessive complexity for early-stage design exploration

This article introduces the lightweight MEMS analysis tool mems-ana, developed with these challenges in mind, and provides a high-level overview of:

The design philosophy behind it
What it is intended to do
What it deliberately chooses not to do

🧩 What Is mems-ana?

mems-ana is a lightweight MEMS analysis tool based on Reduced Order Models (ROMs).

Its primary goals are:

To complement, not replace, FEM
To support sensitivity analysis and behavioral understanding in early design stages
To serve as a tool for education, PoC development, and design thinking training

Rather than pursuing maximum accuracy, mems-ana prioritizes:

Lightweight computation, speed, and structural interpretability

🧮 Why ROM?

Many MEMS structures share common characteristics:

Thin-film structures
Simple geometries (rectangular, circular)
A small number of dominant modes

In such cases, displacement $u(x,y,t)$ can be expressed as:

\[u(x,y,t) = \sum_{n} q_n(t)\,\phi_n(x,y)\]

That is, the essential behavior can be captured by a limited set of modes.

mems-ana is built on this assumption:

The number of modes is intentionally restricted
The system is reduced to physically meaningful degrees of freedom

This enables a balance between computational efficiency and interpretability.

🔀 Division of Roles with FEM

mems-ana does not reject FEM.
Instead, it emphasizes clear separation of roles.

Aspect	mems-ana	FEM
Early-stage design	◎	△
Sensitivity / trend analysis	◎	○
Higher-order modes	△	◎
Local stress evaluation	×	◎
Computational cost	Light	Heavy

mems-ana is a tool for answering:

“Why does this structure behave this way?”

— quickly and structurally.

⚙️ What mems-ana Can Do (Overview)

mems-ana supports analyses such as:

Natural frequencies and mode shapes (simplified)
Voltage–displacement (V–u) characteristics
Static and quasi-static response under piezoelectric actuation
Visualization of spatial displacement distributions
Time-domain response and animation

All of these are implemented with:

Python-based code
Explicit modeling assumptions
A structure where equations and implementation remain traceable

🚫 Deliberate Limitations (Important)

mems-ana includes intentional constraints:

No nonlinear large-deformation analysis
No evaluation of local stress concentration
No attempt to reproduce all real-device phenomena

Instead, it focuses on:

Making assumptions explicit
Limiting the meaning of calibration parameters
Clearly defining the valid operating range

Deciding what not to do is a critical part of tool design.

🧩 Relation to Education, PoC, and AITL

mems-ana is not intended as a standalone solver.
It is designed to be used in contexts such as:

Educational tools (physics and design thinking)
PoC evaluation of design ideas
AITL (Architecture for Integrated Technology Logic), as a means of structuring design knowledge

In particular, mems-ana emphasizes:

Human-interpretable models
Consistency from equations → implementation → visualization

These are prerequisites for intelligence and automation, not optional extras.

🔗 GitHub Repository

The source code and demos for mems-ana introduced in this article are available at:

https://github.com/Samizo-AITL/mems-ana

📚 About This Series

This article is the first installment in the mems-ana series.

01: Design philosophy and overview (this article)
02: Visualization demos (piezo hysteresis and butterfly displacement)
03: Mathematical structure of mems-ana_core and ROM design

The next article will focus on
“how it actually behaves” through concrete visualization examples.

📝 Closing Remarks

mems-ana is designed not as:

“a tool to produce the correct answer,”

but as:

“a tool to think with.”

If this article helps convey that lightweight analysis can be a valid and powerful option for early-stage design exploration and hypothesis testing, it has served its purpose.