Results Visualizatio animation: Transient simulation of a dual-mass gyroscope
Key Features
- Visualize and animate simulation results in 3-D
- Scale simulation displacement results for better viewing
- Display harmonic response and mode shapes
- Record animations
- Plot results with the built-in 2D graph tool
Mechanical motion of a MEMS device can be difficult to visualize when looking at design results in a standard EDA waveform viewer. These viewers are designed to display electrical circuit results, such as voltage and current changes over time, or frequency on individual wires. MEMS simulations involve spatial displacements and/or rotations of mechanical structures, which can not be easily inferred from a waveform analysis. It is important to visualize and understand this mechanical motion during MEMS design, since MEMS devices are fundamentally mechanical structures.
MEMS+ Results Visualization forms an important bridge in the communication of simulation results to the MEMS specialist. Results Visualization allows the import of MATLAB Simulink or Cadence Virtuoso simulation results (from circuits containing MEMS+ components) into the MEMS+ 3D environment. Results Visualization animations are comprised of the composite 3D motion of each utilized component of the MEMS+ component library.
By turning simulation data into 3D animations, Results Visualization provides a MEMS designer with detailed feedback on what happens to a MEMS device when it is subject to electrical or mechanical stimulus.
MEMS+ generated schematic symbols can expose mechanical “wires” and provide information about mechanical degrees of freedom, such as spatial displacements, rotations, forces, or torques. Similar to simulations of electrical circuits, these non-electrical quantities from MEMS simulations can be displayed in X-Y plots.
However, with X-Y plots, the designer is limited to seeing the motion of a single degree of freedom at a time, such as the motion of one rigid plate along the X-axis as a function of time. These X-Y plots are unfortunately insufficient to display mechanical displacement, since the complete interpretation of just a single rigid body requires six X-Y plots (three for the translational and three for the rotational degrees of freedom).
Mechanical animations are easily displayed in Results Visualization , by simply selecting a result file in the MEMS+ user interface. Users are able to quickly visualize mechanical motion induced by DC, DC sweep, AC, modal analysis, and transient simulation results generated during system and circuit design.
Using Results Visualization , animations of time-series mechanical displacement (in all 3 translational and rotational directions) can become an integral part of the MEMS design process.
Transient simulation result waveform of the movement of one DLP Micro Mirror in Cadence Virtuoso Spectre.
Visualization: 3D mechanical simulation results of single MEMS DLP Micro Mirror in MEMS+ Results Visualization