PE2-5.4 Microsystems Design
You can work through microsystem design considerations, process design and mechanical design including finite element analysis, and design a silicon die for a micro pressure sensor.
Microsystem design is unusual in that the process and the device are designed together — what you can build constrains what you can draw, far more tightly than in circuit design. Finite element analysis earns its place because analytical solutions run out quickly once a structure has real geometry. The micro pressure sensor worked example is the unit's anchor: a diaphragm, piezoresistors placed where the stress is, and a whole design argument you can follow end to end.
Work through these
Design considerations for microsystems
What has to be decided before any drawing, from the physical principle to the process that can make it. Design here is constrained by fabrication far more tightly than in electronics.
Process design
Designing the sequence of steps, which is a design activity in its own right in this field. The order and the thermal budget constrain what is possible.
Mechanical design
The mechanical half: stiffness, resonance and stress. It is the part an electronics graduate finds least familiar and should spend most time on.
Mechanical design using the finite element method
Computing that behaviour numerically, because the shapes are not ones with closed form answers. Understanding what the method assumes is what stops you trusting a wrong answer.
Design of a silicon die for a micro pressure sensor
The worked example that ties the topic together. Following one device from principle through mechanics to layout is the point of the whole module.
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