Self-assembly for microscale and nanoscale packaging: steps toward self-packaging

Abstract

The packaging of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoscale devices constitutes an important area of research and development that is vital to the commercialization of such devices. Packaging needs of these devices include interfaces to nonelectronic domains; integration of structures, devices, and subsystems made with incompatible fabrication processes into a single platform; and the ability to handle a very large numbers of parts. Although serial, robotic assembly methods such as pick-and-place have allowed significant manufacturing feats, self-assembly is an attractive option to tackle packaging issues as the size of individual parts decreases below 300 m. In this paper, we review advances made in the usage of self-assembly for packaging and potential directions that growth in this area can assume. In the micrometer scale, we review the use of capillary forces, gravity, shape recognition, and electric fields to guide twoand three-dimensional self-assembly processes. In the nanoscale, we survey the usage of self-assembled molecular monolayers to solve current packaging issues, DNA hybridization for guiding self-assembly processes of nanoscale devices, and methods used to package nanowires or nanotubes into electronic circuits. We conclude with an example of a nanoscale biosensor which directly incorporates the concept of its package into its fabrication process. Even though the idea of a fully self-packaging system has not been demonstrated to date, the body of work reviewed and discussed here presents a solid foundation for the pursuit of this goal.

Engineering Applications of Biomolecular Motors

“…Although robotic assembly can manipulate individual atoms (51), the assembly speed drops steadily from tens of thousands of parts per hour for millimeter-scale parts to one atom per hour (80). Self-assembly, in contrast, is a highly parallel and therefore fast process; however, diffusion slows with increasing part size, and the increasing mismatch between interaction energies and thermal energies limits the accuracy of the assembly process.…”

Self-Assembly in Micro- and Nanofluidic Devices: A Review of Recent Efforts

“…Traditional assemblies such as microactuators, microsensors, microcontrollers, and pick-and-place techniques [66,67] are inappropriate for mass production with large numbers of micro parts because of the speed and cost constraints resulted from the serial manipulation and the "sticking problem". Efficient microassembly methods must be parallel approaches to integrate a large number of components in hybrid systems.…”

Self-Assembly of Microscale Parts through Magnetic and Capillary Interactions

“…Self-assembly has been studied as a way to enable these advantages through the handling, packaging, and integration of parts to create two or three dimensional structures in a highly parallel and scalable manner [1]. Self-assembly is particularly applicable for parts or components having length scales below 0.5 mm [2], because the number of parts needed to create useful structures or systems may be very large, and conventional pick and place or other serial assembly methods become infeasible. In addition, manual or robotic pick and place methods become increasingly difficult as surface forces become dominant at shorter length scales.…”

“…(1) When this B field arises from another identical magnetic dipole situated at a distance r, the dipole approximation predicts proportionality between force and the permeability of free space µ 0 , m 2 ,…”