Parallel microassembly with a robotic manipulation system

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology to assemble multiple micro-components simultaneously with a robotic manipulator using a parallel assembly method. Through manipulating and assembling the micro-components, intricate, out-of-plane, three-dimensional micro-devices can now be fabricated. Use of a parallel microassembly process rather that a serial approach can significantly increase the productivity and reduce the cost of assembling micro-devices. The parallel microassembly operation proposed in this work was developed and implemented on a 6-DOF robot manipulator to attain considerable manufacturing flexibility. In this study, three passive microgrippers were bonded in parallel to the end-effector of the manipulator. Three microparts were then grasped by the grippers from the worktable of the manipulator, rotated 90 • , and assembled onto the base substrate simultaneously. During the parallel microassembly operation, the visual image may not be able to monitor all three gripper-part pairs simultaneously due to the limited field of view of the microscope. Through the use of an alignment-calibration algorithm with only one gripper-part set, the remaining two sets were successfully manipulated and inserted onto the desired assembly location.

Fabrication of a microcoil through parallel microassembly

“…These two axes are orthogonally configured in order to provide the desired out-of-plane motion as well as the orientation realignment to the grasped windings during the parallel microassembly operation. A complete configuration of the manipulator can be found in [10,13]. During the parallel microassembly process, the SOI chip with the loop windings and the base substrate was placed on the worktable while a parallel microgripper was installed onto the probe as the handling tool.…”

“…After the assembly, the windings will be released from the microgripper by manipulating them in the opposite direction to open up the gripper tips for detachment. Details on the design criteria and the operating parameters of the parallel microgripper can be referenced to the work in [10]. The visual-based microassembly process was performed with reference to the serial and parallel microassembly practices as outlined in [14] and [10].…”

“…In contrast to [9], the parallel microassembly approach adopted in this work allows assembly of multiple windings simultaneously during each assembly cycle, thereby increasing the productivity of the process. Our earlier work [10] investigated fabrication of out-of-plane MEMS structures through a parallel microassembly process with a robotic manipulation system. Such process was put into practice in this work to manufacture delicate microcoils for electronic applications.…”

Analysis and Specificities of Adhesive Forces Between Microscale and Nanoscale

“…On the one hand, top-down approaches based on contact manipulation and tweezers are proposed [1], [2], [3], [4]. The main challenge is to tackle adhesion which becomes typically predominant around several hundred micrometers [5].…”

“…In order to avoid adhesion, authors have proposed to use self-assembly processes based on capillary forces [6], [7], [8], magnetic principle [9] or dielectrophoresis [10], [11]. These articles propose new ways to perform micro-assembly of complex and hybrid microsystems [3], [4].…”