Construction of a 3D MEMS Microcoil Using Sequential Robotic Microassembly Operations

Abstract

This paper describes the contruction of an out-of-plane MEMS (Micro-Electro Mechanical System) microcoil, by assembling together multiple surface micromachined microparts. A microgripper, which is bonded to the end-effector of a robotic workstation, is able to remove a micro-part from a MEMS chip, reorient the micro-part in space, move it to a secondary location, and join it to another micro-part. In this way, complex 3D microstructures can be assembled from a set of initially planar and parallel micro-parts. The microcoil is built from four loop elements, each 200 μm tall by 140 μm wide. The loop is closed by a base structure on the substrate, and the loops are spaced 50 μm apart. This four-loop microcoil is 200 × 140 × 200 μm in size. Using the described microassembly method, it is possible to fabricate microcoils with many loop elements of various sizes, spaced as closely as 25 μm apart.