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Micro Syst Technol 201016505510
Micro Syst Technol 201016505510
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Vu Ngoc Hung
Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam
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REVIEW PAPER
Hung Ngoc Vu
Received: 27 October 2009 / Accepted: 4 January 2010 / Published online: 13 January 2010
Ó Springer-Verlag 2010
Abstract This paper describes a silicon micro robot sys- system based on ciliary motion, in which objects were
tem (MRS) that is capable of driving micro-cars in different elevated and moved by ciliary type thermal actuators array
directions based on a ratchet mechanism and electrostatic (Ebefors et al. 2000), a XY-plane conveyance system
comb-drive actuators. Lateral movement of the ratchet based on surface acoustic wave in piezoelectric substrate
racks makes the micro-car move in the perpendicular (Shigematsu and Kurosawa 2004), an inchworm motors
direction with different velocities. Based on MEMS tech- with bidirectional XY electrostatic actuators (Yeh et al.
nology, the MRS described in this article was fabricated 2002), or a parallel micro conveyer system using electro-
from a silicon on insulator wafer by using only one photo static comb-drive actuators (Pham et al. 2006).
mask. In our experiments, various driving frequencies In this article, we report a novel MRS that utilizes
ranging from 1 to 20 Hz were used to accelerate the micro- electrostatic force and linear ratchet mechanism to move
car up to 200 lm/s. It was observed that the velocity of the micro-cars. The micro-car resembling a water strider can
micro-car was proportional to the driving frequency used in move and carry small objects from one place to another. It
the experiments. This relation was also confirmed with our can be used in micro total analysis systems (l-TAS) for
theoretical calculation. When combined with microscopes, carrying and/or classifying micro/nano samples (carbon
this MRS can be applied in bio-medical analysis for trans- nano tube, protein, blood cells, etc.) or in automatic
portation and classification of small samples. assembling systems.
By using the Finite Element Method (FEM), the dis-
placement-driving voltage relation of electrostatic comb-
1 Introduction drive actuator was confirmed, and the optimal dimensions of
the structures were obtained. Interactive forces between the
Micro conveyance and micro robot systems (MRS) are micro-car and the driving ratchet mechanism were analyzed
important in micro-system assemblies (Brussel et al. 2000), to guarantee that the micro-car can move forwards.
bioengineering (Tarhan et al. 2007), robotics and automa- The proposed MRS using electrostatic comb-drive
tion, etc. In the MEMS field, there have been many micro actuators can be easily configured and controlled. Fur-
conveyance systems reported, such as, a 2D conveyance thermore, it has small size and can be fabricated in batch.
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506 Microsyst Technol (2010) 16:505–510
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Microsyst Technol (2010) 16:505–510 507
Dy ¼ y2 y1
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ L2w ðLw sin a DxÞ2 Lw cos a ð5Þ
Equation 5 shows the relation between the displacement
of the micro-car Dy and the displacement of the ratchet
teeth Dx. As mentioned above, the displacement of the
Fig. 4 Configurations of the straight module (a) and the turning micro-car Dy must be larger than the pitch of a ratchet
module (b) tooth p = 10 lm and thus, from Eq. 5, we need:
Dx C 10.9 lm. If the height of a ratchet tooth b = 6 lm is
move forward, after each cycle, the micro-car or, the anti- included, the necessary displacement Dx must always be
reverse hair should move at least one pitch of the ratchet larger than 16.9 lm.
teeth. Here, one pitch of the ratchet teeth is p = 10 lm. Let us calculate the velocity of the micro-car. In the first
Similar working principle can be explained for the case of half of a cycle, the ratchet actuator moves inward, and the
the turning module (see Fig. 4b). micro-car is pushed forward with the displacement Dy
expressed in Eq. 5. In the second half of the cycle, the
ratchet actuators return to the original place. The elastic
3 Calculation of the displacement and velocity force of the wing and anti-reverse hairs will pull the micro-
car backward. Since the anti-reverse hair acts as a ratchet,
The displacement of the micro-car can be calculated as the micro-car will move backward until Dy = i.p, (i is an
shown in Fig. 5. In this figure, Dx represents the movement integer number), i.e., when the free end of an anti-reverse
of the ratchet teeth (or the free end of the wing) in the hair is stopped by the teeth of the ratchet rack.
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508 Microsyst Technol (2010) 16:505–510
Thus, the velocity of the micro-car in the straight y-direction to balance the total hindering force acting on the
module can be calculated as follows: micro-car. Since the ratchet racks do not move in the y-
direction, the force Fd becomes the driving force that pushes
Dy
v1 ¼ int pf ð6Þ the micro-car forward.
p
These forces can be expressed by equations from 8 to 14
where function int(x) returns the integer portion of x; f is below:
the driving frequency value of the applying voltage V. nhee0 2
The velocity of the micro-car in turning and straight Fe ¼ :V ð8Þ
g
paths varies with the driving frequency. More exactly, the
instantaneous velocity of the micro-car at the entrance and 4EhðbwÞ3
Fb ¼ kx :Dx ¼ :Dx ð9Þ
exit of a turning path is larger than the middle. This can be L3
explained as follows. At the entrance and exit position of a Fw ¼ kw :ðDx bÞ ð10Þ
turning path, the acute angle c between the moving direc-
3EI
tion of the micro-car and the ratchet actuator is 45° Fa ¼ :Dx ð11Þ
(Fig. 4b). Not only does the wing of the micro-car rotate l3
inward around the elastic point, it will also be pushed Fra ¼ fm :Fa : cos b ð12Þ
forward by the curved ratchet rack. Therefore, the dis- Fr ¼ fm mG ð13Þ
placement of the micro-car in each cycle will be larger than
the middle (and in the straight path), where the angle c Fr
Fd ¼ þ 2Fra : cos b ð14Þ
between the moving direction of the micro-car and the 2
ratchet actuator is 90°. where b = 30° is the slope angle of a ratchet tooth, n = 134
In the turning path, the velocity of the micro-car is is the total number of movable comb fingers, h = 30 lm is
described as a function of the angle c. In other words, it the thickness of a comb finger, g = 2 lm is the gap between
depends on the position of the micro-car and can be two fingers, e and e0 are permittivities of air and vacuum,
expressed as: respectively. V is the driving voltage, b = 6 lm is the height
of a ratchet tooth, E = 169 GPa is the Young’s modulus
Dy þ Dx: cos c
v2 ¼ int pf ð7Þ of a single crystalline silicon. I is the inertia moment of the
p
anti-reverse cross-section, l = 150 lm is the length of an
where the angle c changes from 45° to 90°, Dx is the dis- anti-reverse hair, bw = 4.5 lm and L = 700 lm are the
placement of the ratchet actuator and Dy is the displace- width and length of a beam of an actuator, respectively. kx
ment of the micro-car due to rotation of wing. and Dx are the stiffness and deflection of the actuator system
Note that, if c = 90° (i.e., in the middle of the turning in the x-direction, respectively. kx is calculated to be 6.06
path), Eq. 7 will become Eq. 6 and the velocity of the lN/lm, kw = 1.49 lN/lm is the stiffness of one wing in the
micro-car in both cases will be the same. x-direction, fm = 0.38 is the frictional coefficient between
the silicon–silicon contact surfaces, m is the mass of the
micro-car and G is the gravitational acceleration.
4 Force analysis
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Microsyst Technol (2010) 16:505–510 509
As discussed in Sect. 3, in order to guarantee that the the actuator structure is dried at 120°C for 10 min to fur-
micro-car can move forward, we need: ther reduce the sticking possibility.
Dx Dxc ¼ 16:9 lm ð15Þ The SEM image of a silicon MRS with the micro-car
after fabrication is shown in Fig. 7.
By considering the equilibrium equation of forces acting
on the wings and anti-reverse hairs, we can obtain the
relation between the driving voltage V and the 5.2 Test of MRS
displacement Dx as below:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 3ffi
u The movement of the micro-car in the MRS has been
u
u g 6 Fd ðLw sin a DxÞ 7 functionally tested by applying a sine wave driving voltage
V¼u tnhee :4qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 þ Fb þ 2Fw 5 with Vpp of 100 V. The diagram of the electrical connec-
0
L2w ðLw sin a DxÞ tions is illustrated in Fig. 4a. The micro-car moved
ð16Þ smoothly in all modules of the MRS. In Fig. 8, two
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510 Microsyst Technol (2010) 16:505–510
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