Robotised nano manufacturing: current developments and future trends

D.T. Pham^a, Z. Wang^a, S. Su^a, P.T.N. Pham^a, M. Yang^a, S. Fatikow^b

^aCardiff University, Cardiff, UK
^bUniversität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

♦ Nano manufacturing

      Controlled manipulation, handling and assembly of objects, and manufacture of nano materials, devices and systems with nanoscale accuracy.

♦ Nano manipulation robot System structure

     [Human-machine interface]+[controller]+[actuators;end-effectors / handling tools]+[sensors]

♦ Robotised nano manufacturing

      Nano objects can be pushed or pulled, bent, twisted, cut, picked and placed, positioned, oriented, assembled, etc to build the desired nano patterns, structures, devices and systems.

♦ Nano motion and positioning

    Actuator:piezoelectric actuators;

    Disadvantages:hysteresis, relaxation and drift effects;

    Development:closed-loop control systems.

♦SPM-based nano vision and manipulation

    First demonstration:used an SPM to position xenon atoms on nickel, iron atoms on copper, and carbon monoxide molecules on platinum by Eigler’s group  in IBM.

    Major problems

    1) not suitable for 3D operations due to their physical structures;

    2) too slow as imaging and manipulation cannot be done at the same time.

Example:IBM logo written with xenon atoms by IBM

♦ Nano gripping and 3D handling

 Main methods:

    1) “gripping” using surface forces; 

    2) pick and place nano objects is to use specially designed grippers.

Example:A scanning electron micrograph of tweezers by P.Boggild

Example:FP5 project-ROBOSEM used nano robots working in the chamber of a SEM.

Example:ROBOSEM  6-DOF platform by EPFL.