Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS)¶

Course Overview¶

• Institution: EPFL
• Course code: memsX
• Track: Micro/Nanofabrication and MEMS
• Tier: A
• Role: Alternative
• Level: Not standardized by provider (use prerequisites)
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-28

EPFL's Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS) offers an alternative MEMS fabrication path through videos and cleanroom demonstrations, which remain observational under a costly premium-access model.

Why choose this course

Alternative course. A reliable option that can serve as a main course or strong alternative.

Before you start

• Recommended foundation: Semiconductor Devices
• Recommended foundation: Physics Foundations

Verifiable learning outcomes

• Explain the core models in Micro/Nanofabrication and MEMS, including their assumptions and limits
• Solve representative derivations and problems, checking units, limiting cases, or numerical results
• Complete a reproducible experiment or implementation with raw data, parameters, versions, and verification

Workload and pacing

10 weeks at 6 hours/week. This maintainer planning estimate is derived from course role and the density of public practice and labs; it is not a provider workload promise. Pilot two weeks while logging instruction, practice, lab, and review time, then adjust the remaining plan when actual effort differs by more than 25%.

Safety level

Simulation only. The default practice scope is software, computation, or simulation only; a lab label in the resource inventory does not authorize connecting physical equipment, and any hardware extension requires provider-scope verification and a new risk assessment.

Course Resources¶

Software, hardware, and cost

Software

• Maintainer-suggested open-source/free verification path: KLayout, gdsfactory, Python 3, and Jupyter
• The resource inventory does not list public code coverage; the tools above are only a maintainer-suggested independent check, not a provider requirement

Hardware

• The resource inventory lists lab coverage, but this course's maintainer path explicitly limits it to computational or simulation work. It assumes only a general-purpose computer able to run the software above and retain results; do not purchase or connect institution-approved cleanroom, process tools, metrology, and personal protective equipment; do not substitute home purchases

Cost note

The current maintainer path uses computation and simulation only, with no dedicated hardware purchase, and prefers open-source/free tools. This is not a provider requirement; platform, commercial-software, or cloud-compute costs still vary by provider, region, and plan.

Public resource coverage

Resources and access

“Listed by official page” means the link was discovered on a successfully fetched official source on the verification date; it does not guarantee that every region or account can open the target directly. Access does not grant redistribution rights. Re-check the provider page, target link, and third-party notices before downloading, adapting, or publishing material.

Practice and Verification¶

Practice loop

Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS) · EPFL memsX: MEMS Process-Flow and Tolerance Digital Validation

This is a maintainer-suggested self-study project for Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS) · EPFL memsX, not an official course assignment. Propose a virtual MEMS or microfabricated structure and process flow for Micro/Nanofabrication and MEMS, then simulate geometry, residual stress, etch bias, and failure margin.

Origin: Maintainer-suggested project

Deliverables

• Device cross section, mask layers, materials, process sequence, design rules, and risk analysis
• Parameterized geometry or finite-element model and process-tolerance sweep sources
• Raw displacement, frequency, stress, thermal or fluid results and at least 100 tolerance samples
• A report defining process window, yield proxy, failure modes, and layout correction

Verification

• Keep the nominal key response within 10% of a simplified beam or membrane analytic model
• Cover minimum feature, maximum etch bias, material extremes, and contact or buckling boundaries
• After mesh refinement, keep the key metric change below 5% and report energy or force balance
• Inject residual stress or mask misalignment and locate the first design-rule or performance failure

Reproducibility

• Commit cross-section or mask, parametric geometry, solver, sweep, and post-processing sources
• Pin solver, material library, meshing rules, process parameters, and tolerance seeds
• Preserve raw field and geometry data, solver logs, and the generated report

Safety boundary: Simulation only — Use process planning and simulation only; do not use chemicals, vacuum, plasma, lithography, cleanroom equipment, or physical micromechanical structures.

Risks, gaps, and boundaries

The audit path is limited and premium access is about USD 249; cleanroom demonstrations are observational rather than reproducible home laboratories.

Completion evidence

• Weekly learning log with time, questions, corrected errors, decisions, next steps, and links to that week's reproducible artifacts
• Design-review package with requirements and constraints, trade-offs, editable sources, applicable ERC/DRC/timing/stability checks, exports, and a reproduction test
• Simulation package with model or netlist, inputs, solver and version, parameter-sweep script, benchmark comparison, expected results, and one rerun command