Fabrication process suitability ranking for micro-electro-mechanical systems using a fuzzy inference system

•We developed a system to evaluate alternatives for manufacturing processes for MEMS.•We define a formal process flow definition for MEMS fabrication.•We used a fuzzy inference system to evaluate alternatives for MEMS manufacturing.•It is possible to use our system to effectively improve MEMS development cycle.

In this paper we present the development of a system to evaluate alternatives for manufacturing process steps for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). We explain in detail a formal process flow definition for MEMS fabrication. Then, we develop a fuzzy inference system which allows MEMS developers to capture users’ preferences to rank the alternatives available to complete the process steps required to fabricate a device. In the last part to this work, we present two case studies: alternatives evaluation for impurity doping and for lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patterning. Using an assortment of user preference data to rate a variety of criteria for potential alternatives, our approach produces a clear preference for one specific alternative in each case, which exemplifies the usefulness of the system proposed and illustrates how effective this methodology is towards improving the fabrication process for MEMS.