New Manufacturing Environments with Micro- and Nanorobotics

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020The convergence of nano-, bio-, information, and cognitive sciences and technologies (NBIC) is advancing continuously in many societal spheres. This also applies to the manufacturing sector, where technological transformations in robotics push the boundaries of human–machine interaction (HMI). Here, current technological advances in micro- and nanomanufacturing are accompanied by new socio-economic concepts for different sectors of the process industry. Although these developments are still ongoing, the blurring of the boundaries of HMI in processes at the micro- and nano- level can already be observed. According to the authors, these new socio-technical HMIs may lead to the development of new work environments, which can also have an impact on work organization. While there is still little empirical evidence, the following contribution focuses on the question whether the “manufacturing (or working) life” using enhancement practices pushes the boundaries of HMI and how these effects enable new modes of working in manufacturing. Issues of standardization, acceleration of processes, and order-oriented production become essential for technological innovation in this field. However, these trends tend to lead to a “manufacturing life” in work environments rather than to new modes of work in industry.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Transfer printing based microassembly and colloidal quantum dot film integration

Micro / nanoscale manufacturing requires unique approaches to accommodate the immensely different characteristics of the miniscule objects due to their high surface area to volume ratio when compared with macroscale objects. Therefore, surface forces are much more dominating than body forces, which causes the significant difficulty of miniscule object manipulation. Because of this challenge, monolithic microfabrication relying on photolithography has been the primary method to manufacture micro / nanoscale structures and devices in place of microassembly. However, by virtue of the two-dimensional (2D) nature of photolithography, formation of complex 3D shape architectures via monolithic microfabrication is inherently limited, which would otherwise enable improvements in performance and novel functionalities of devices. Furthermore, monolithic microfabrication is compatible only with materials which survive in a wet condition during photolithography. Delicate nanomaterials such as colloidal quantum dots cannot be processed via monolithic microfabrication. In this context, transfer printing has emerged as a method to transfer heterogeneous material pieces from their mother substrates to a foreign substrate utilizing a polymeric stamp in a dry condition. In this thesis, advanced modes of transfer printing are studied and optimized to enable a 3D microassembly called ‘micro-Lego’ and a novel strategy of quantum dot film integration. Micro-Lego involves transfer printing for material piece pick-and-place and thermal joining for irreversible permanent bonding of placed material pieces. A microtip elastomeric stamp is designed to advance transfer printing and thermal joining processes are optimized to ensure subsequent material bonding. The mechanical joining strength between material pieces assembled by micro-Lego are characterized by means of blister tests and the nanoindentation. Moreover, the electrical contact between two conducting materials formed by micro-Lego are examined. Lastly, inspired from the subtractive transfer printing technique, protocols of quantum dot film patterning using polymeric stamps made of a shape memory polymer as well as a photoresist are established for the convenient integration of quantum dots in various geometries and configurations as desired. Transfer printing-based micro / nanoscale manufacturing presented in this thesis opens up new pathways to manufacture not only complex 3D functional micro devices but also high resolution nano devices for unparalleled performance or for an unusual functionality, which are unattainable through monolithic microfabrication

Mechatronic Development and Vision Feedback Control of a Nanorobotics Manipulation System inside SEM for Nanodevice Assembly

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ) individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis). Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and <1 micro-rad rotary resolution. Four vertically installed AFM cantilevers (the axis of the cantilever tip is vertical to the axis of electronic beam of SEM) served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system

Mechatronic Development and Vision Feedback Control of a Nanorobotics Manipulation System inside SEM for Nanodevice Assembly

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ) individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis). Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and <1 micro-rad rotary resolution. Four vertically installed AFM cantilevers (the axis of the cantilever tip is vertical to the axis of electronic beam of SEM) served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system