Modeling and Simulation Techniques Used in Micro and Nanotechnology and Manufacturing

The use of micro and nanocomponents has increased rapidly over the last decade. The indications are that this trend is going to be sustained or even increase in the years to come due to the widespread use of these components in several micro and nanosystems. The development of such components and systems is supported by a wide range of CAD, CAM and CAE tools. These tools are either classic modeling methods already used in traditional manufacturing or modeling techniques specially developed for modeling and simulation in the micro or nanometer regime. In both cases special attention should be given to microscopic level phenomena that complicate the modeling process and increase the difficulty of applying these methods in this area. Modeling and simulation are definitely key tools employed by scientists and engineers in developing, testing, evaluating and analyzing the characteristics and performance of their micro and nanocomponents and systems. This paper reviews some of the most common techniques used in modeling and simulation of micro and nanomanufacturing; techniques such as the finite element method and molecular dynamics are analyzed. Furthermore, the application of these methods in several areas, namely micro and nanomanufacturing, nanomaterials and MEMS is discussed and the relative bibliography is presented. Keywords: MEMS modeling, Molecular dynamics, Finite element method, Micromachining, Modeling and simulation