5.1.7

Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004.

5.1.7 Bohringer et al Taxonomy of Microassembly (1999)

Bohringer, Fearing, and Goldberg [2435] presented in 1999 a preliminary summary of techniques then in use for microscale assembly:

(1) Serial Microassembly – parts are put together one by one according to the traditional pick-and-place paradigm, including the following techniques:

(A) Manual assembly with tweezers and microscopes.
(B) Visually based and teleoperated microassembly [2241, 2436, 2437].
(C) High-precision macroscopic robots: stepping motors and inertial drives are used for submicron motion resolution [2438-2440] or MRSI assembly robots [2441] for surface-mount electronics components of submillimeter size.
(D) Microgrippers with gripper sizes of 100 microns or less [2442-2445].

(2) Deterministic Parallel Microassembly – multiple parts of identical or different design are assembled simultaneously, wherein the relationship between a part and its destination is known in advance, including the following techniques:

(A) Flip-chip wafer-to-wafer transfer: a wafer with partially released components is carefully aligned and pressed against another substrate. When the wafers are separated again, the components remain bonded to the second substrate [1152, 2449].
(B) Microgripper arrays capable of massively parallel pick-and-place operations [2444].

(3) Stochastic Parallel Microassembly – multiple parts of identical or different design are assembled simultaneously, wherein the relationship between the part and its destination is unknown or random. The parts “self-assemble” during stochastic processes, in analogy to annealing, using the following effects as motive forces:

(A) Fluidic agitation and mating part shapes [1326, 2450].
(B) Vibratory agitation and electrostatic force fields [1338-1341].
(C) Vibratory agitation and mating part shapes [1552].
(D) Mating patterns of self-assembling monolayers [2435].

Last updated on 1 August 2005