Multi-Scale System Design
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Lecture Notes; Problem Sets; Projects; Written Assignments
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2004
- Department: Mechanical Engineering
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Designing machines across nano, micro and macro scales: MEMS, error budgets and alignment, with a scanning tunneling microscope project.
Machines increasingly combine parts at nano, micro and macro scales, but these parts are modeled and made differently. This class teaches how to make them compatible, covering cross-scale incompatibility, piezo and optical MEMS, error budgets and mechanical interfaces. A term project has teams design and fabricate a scanning tunneling microscope, supported by six design exercises.
What You Will Achieve
- Identify incompatibilities between parts at different scales
- Build nominal and statistical error budgets
- Design flexures and kinematic couplings for alignment
- Critique research on MEMS and carbon nanotubes
Program Overview
Scales and Fundamentals
The first lectures compare length scales.
- MuSS design fundamentals and methods
- Macro/meso-scales components
- Nano-scale components and characteristics
MEMS and Error Budgets
The next lectures look at devices and accuracy.
- Piezo MEMS: materials
- Optical MEMS
- Nominal and statistical error budgets
Interfaces and Integration
The rest addresses building complete systems.
- Mechanical interfaces for cross-scale alignment
- Carbon nanotubes
- Metrology
- Data acquisition, sensors and control
Course Completion
Job Outlook
These skills apply to precision instruments, MEMS, nanomanipulators and X-ray telescopes, where parts of very different sizes must work together.
Good for: Mechanical engineering graduate students interested in precision machine design and in moving nano technology to larger systems.
Keep in mind: The project requires a lab, piezo actuators, a dSpace system and other specialized equipment, none supplied. The paper pools date from about 2004, and problem sets support the project.
Bottom line: A specialized design course with detailed project specifications, valuable to those building precision instruments.
Frequently Asked Questions
What resolution is the microscope aimed at?
The loose requirement is 0.3 nm or better in Z and 5 nm or better in X and Y, with a minimum working range of 500 nm per side.
How do problem sets relate to the project?
Each is a one to two page design summary with sketches, major equations and plots, covering decisions and progress, risks and schedule.
What was the final lab activity?
After integrating and mapping test mazes, teams took part in a contest with two rounds, which ended the lab sessions.
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