Abstract
Although there are many needs to use 3D models in MEMS field, it is not easy to generate 3D models based on MEMS CAD. This is because MEMS CAD is based on 2D and their popular format-GDSII file format- has its own limits and problems. The differences between GDSII file format and 3D CAD system, such as (1) superposed modeling, (2) duplicated entity, (3) restricted of entity type, give rise to several problems in data exchange. These limits and problems in GDSII file format have prevented 3D CAD system from generating 3D models from the MEMS CAD. To remove these limits and solve problems, it is important to extract the silhouette of data in the MEMS CAD. The proposed method has two main processes to extract silhouette; one is to extract the pseudo-silhouette from the original 2D MEMS data and the other is to remove useless objects to complete the silhouette. The paper reports on the experience gained in data exchange between 2D MEMS data and 3D models by the proposed method and a case study is presented, which employs the proposed method using MEMS CAD IntelliMask and Solidworks.