Architect now features a companion 3D visualization tool, Scene3D, that provides insight into the complex dynamic behavior of MEMS devices like never before seen. Scene3D is useful both during schematic creation and for quickly interpreting simulation results.  With one button click, Scene3D creates 3D views of any Architect schematic and enables designers to visualize simulation results with 3D animations.  Whether designing next generation gyroscopes, accelerometers, oscillators, RF switches, RF filters, optical mirrors or microphones, ARCHITECT with Scene3D not only helps the user to ease the design process, but also to document and communicate the design, from initial concept through full production, across all engineering and management levels.

Creating MEMS schematics without a 3D view, can be difficult, time-consuming and prone to errors. Scene3D speeds up schematic creation by making it easier for the user to see what is being modeled, and by providing an immediate, visual check for geometric errors in the schematic. 

Scene3D enables users, in minutes or even seconds, to simulate and animate the complex motion of any MEMS that can be modeled in ARCHITECT.  Have you ever wanted to see what a gyroscope is doing when it outputs a large quadrature signal, the closing and bouncing of an RF switch, the resonant modes of an oscillator, or other complex motions of a MEMS?  Now you can.  Scene3D easily renders and animates even the most complex designs, such as gyroscopes with hundreds of comb fingers and thousands of perforation holes.

Scene3D can export 2D layouts and 3D models in standard formats, so it can be used as a stand-alone application or as part of a customer-specific design flow.

With Scene3D, users can:  

• view Architect MEMS schematics in 3D
• customize the 3D view by hiding components, adding cross sections, etc.
• measure distances
• monitor the progress of a simulation while it’s running
• load and animate ARCHITECT simulation result files
• export layout in industry-standard GDSII format
• export a 3D model in the widely used ACIS .SAT format

Scene3D lowers the barrier to adopting ARCHITECT’s schematic-based approach to MEMS design and closes the gap between system-level and finite-element-based simulation tools