Several emerging research areas related to microscale phenomenon, such as micromechatronics and biological cell manipulation, have had and will continue to have a significant impact on our society.  Current manufacturing techniques, however, are incapable of automatically handling objects at the scales required. This lack of manufacturing techniques for manipulating micron sized objects presents a technology barrier to many of the potential opportunities these fields present. 

Research in the Advanced Microsystems Lab addresses this technology barrier by investigating the micromanipulation of micron-sized objects, for example in the assembly of hybrid microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and in the manipulation of biological cells.  Development of automatic parts handling strategies in the microworld requires that the following two issues be addressed: (1) extreme high relative positioning accuracy must be achieved, and (2) the vastly different microphysics that govern part interactions at micron scales must be compensated.

These differences between macroworld and microworld manipulation suggest the need to use micromanipulation strategies guided by real-time sensor feedback provided in a task-oriented frame of reference.  In the AML, various research efforts towards the goal of robust micromanipulation strategies are being pursued, including: efforts in micropositioning using vision-based contol; active vision techniques using high resolution optical systems; development of a nanonewton level force sensor for microassembly characterization and force controlled microassembly; an investigation into the integration of force and vision feedback for sensor-based microassembly; the development of microfabricated microgrippers for grasping microparts; and design rules for microassembly.

The AML is located in Mechanical Engineering Room 260 in newly remodeled laboratory space.   Equipment in the lab includes: an 8'x12' Clean Air Products Class 100 Portable Clean Room; a retrofitted Lucas Signatone Semi-Automatic Probe Station with two motorized 3DOF probes, a 0.1um precision 4 DOF stage, and a 2DOF motorized microscope stage; 1 motorized 3DOF Wentworth probe; 1 Sutter Instruments MP285 Micromanipulator capable of 40nm resolution along 3 axes; 1 Klocke Nanotechnik piezoactuated cannula microgripper with 200um range of motion and 1nm precision; 1 Ready Products A-Zoom microscope with motorized focus and motorized 40X zoom with adapters for Mitutoyo objectives (5x, 10x, 50x) and two CCD cameras (1 RGB GP-US522H Panasonic MedicalGrade Camera and 1 wide angle monochrome board camera, both integrated into the A-Zoom microscope); 2 Hunt Engineering C40 (Texas Instruments DSP) Vision Systems; 1 Data Translations Image Capture board; 1 PMAC 8DOF motion control boards; various servomotors and video cameras; a Digital Instruments Atomic Force Microscope head integrated into a custom built micromechanics characterization and microgripper system; various piezoactuators of varying ranges and resolutions controlled by a PiezoSystem Jena controller; a 3DOF Queensgate Nanopositioner (piezoactuated) calibrated to .0.3 picometer precision in Z (15um range) and 100 x 100 micrometer range in X and Y (1nm precision) with a parallel computer interface capable of 4000Hz digital data transmission; two Navitar 10X zoom lenses with motorized zoom and focus and adapters for Mitutoyo objectives.  The lab also has several PCs and workstations running various operating systems.

Advanced Microsystems Laboratory
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
111 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: (612)626-9104

Fax: (612)624-1398

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