Case Studies

Tecplot Gives Development Edge to Coventor
Cary, North Carolina - March 2003

Contributed by: Coventor, Inc.

Figure 1: The chamber has several pillars in it to increase the surface area. The pillars are about 20 microns in diameter. As the DNA flows past the pillars, it hybridizes with probes bound to the pillar surfaces. This type of surface chemistry is often used in drug discovery, as well bio-sensing. The simulation was performed with ReactSim — Coventor's bio-chemical reaction simulation tool.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology is greatly improving the quality of life for millions worldwide. MEMS devices are low-cost, highly reliable, and consume minimum amounts of power. They are proving invaluable for products such as RF (radio-frequency) switches used in mobile communications, sensors that trigger automobile air bags, hand-held medical diagnosis and drug dispensing devices, satellite systems, and ink jet printers. For products like these, a reduction in size and weight can translate into major cost savings.

MEMS are miniaturized structures that perform one or more mechanical, electronic, thermal, optical, RF, or magnetic functions on a single chip. These robust systems sense, control, and actuate on a micro scale. MEMS function individually or can be arrayed to generate effects on a macro scale. Fabricated using semiconductor process technologies, they can be integrated with electronics on silicon chips.

Coventor, Inc., a privately held firm based in Cary, North Carolina, is the leading provider of MEMS design tools. The company’s software is used by the major commercializers of MEMS-enabled products as well as leading university research and academic programs worldwide. The software lets engineers design and simulate the complex physics required by these miniature MEMS devices and integrate them with the electronics that control them. Coventor’s software reduces prototype cycles, shortens time to market, and lowers development costs.

The company’s flagship product, CoventorWare, is a fully integrated MEMS environment that takes a design from concept though the creation. CoventorWare’s four main bundles, made available through annual licenses, are:

• ARCHITECT for creating schematic models of MEMS designs and running rapid simulations that enable fast, accurate parameter space assessment.
• DESIGNER for 2-D layout and 3-D solid modeling.
• ANALYZER for MEMS-specific multiphysics and in-depth numerical analysis using finite element modeling (FEM) and behavioral element modeling (BEM).
• INTEGRATOR for extracting MEMS macro-models to integrate into industry-standard integrated circuit simulators.

Engineers use the ARCHITECT bundle to create MEMS devices through libraries of parameterized structures simulating the physics of the device accurately and rapidly. Its unique capabilities allow users to by-pass computationally intensive tools during the initial design stage — efficiently exploring ideas and converging on a design that has the highest probability of success. The design is constructed using a schematic layout editor. The results are typically displayed in tables and graphs.

After converging on a design using ARCHITECT, CoventorWare's ANALYZER provides intensive evaluation of critical areas of the device through finite and behavioral element modeling. Coventor integrated into ANALYZER a powerful visualizer that shows the results of the simulations in color 3-D renderings of the device. Results such as stress, velocity, pressure and contact areas, liquid or voltage displacement, and the full range of physics are shown in color gradients on a 3-D view of the MEMS structure. The visualizer also generates line and surface plots of the analyses.

Figure 2: Simulation of a programmable fluid processor. An array of electrodes allows fluid droplets to be manipulated using Dielectrophoresis (DEP). This image shows contours of the electrical potential used to move the droplet. Image courtesy of DARPA, in collaboration with the University of Texas and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Recognizing the value of visualization to MEMS engineers seeking to understand device performance, Coventor sought to incorporate the most accurate, stable, and well-documented visualization routines available. To do this, Coventor chose Tecplot Edge.

Available since November 2002, Tecplot Edge is plotting and data visualization software specifically designed for developers. It can be easily integrated with third-party applications, such as CoventorWare, allowing independent developers to quickly add plotting, graphing, and advanced data visualization functionality to their own applications. Tecplot Edge differs from graphics libraries in that application developers may link Tecplot Edge loosely to their application, very tightly as a visualization engine, or anywhere in between.

Ken Greiner, the senior engineer at Coventor who led the visualization development effort for CoventorWare 2003, agrees. “We were looking for easy integration and post-processing functionality. Several of our developers were very familiar with Tecplot from previous work at universities. It is robust and offers maximum capability and flexibility. When Amtec announced Tecplot Edge last fall, we were excited at the prospect of integrating it into our CoventorWare visualizer.”

Greiner said that Coventor’s development team incorporated several of Tecplot Edge’s powerful custom features, including two data loaders, one binary format and one ASCII format; a socket connection that allows CoventorWare to communicate seamlessly with Tecplot Edge; and techniques that facilitate the visualization of transient data, including creating movies in .avi format.

Figure 3: Microfluidic mixer plotted with VISUALIZER. Color contours represent the concentration of a fluorescent dye mixed in water. Fluid flows in from the two inlets, and mixes as it travels through the microchannels. This type of mixer could be used in a biochip to mix re-agents together.

When asked to comment on Tecplot Edge’s three greatest strengths as they relate to the work being done at Coventor, Greiner said, “generality, customizability, and availability. Tecplot Edge has a wide range of data visualization and analysis functionality, which reduces the amount of work that we had to do. In addition, Tecplot Edge’s API (Applications Programming Interface) allows us to customize the software easily to do what we need it to do, and to interface well with CoventorWare. And, it is available for the computing platforms we use, including Windows-based personal computers and Sun workstations.”

Just as CoventorWare has been a boon to the productivity of its users, Tecplot Edge has greatly bolstered the productivity and efficiency of Coventor’s development staff. “Tecplot Edge already has most of the data analysis and visualization functionality we need, so it requires much less development work than AVS Express, the visualization software we used previously,” Greiner said. “This allowed us to devote greater development resources to areas of the software where we add unique value as MEMS experts.”

CoventorWare users have also given positive reviews to Tecplot Edge. “Our customers get the benefit of using a mature, well-known product instead of an in-house tool,” Greiner said. “Many have commented on the increase in data manipulation functionality available with Tecplot Edge, as compared to our old solution.”

Figure 4: Two-axis MEMS mirror plotted with VISUALIZER. The displacement is achieved using electrodes placed underneath the mirror (not shown). This type of mirror can be used to build an optical switch for use in the telecommunications industry.

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