Robotic manipulation of adhesive droplets for applications in microassembly

Abstract

Assembly and attachment of microparts are of fundamental importance in the development of three-dimensional complex microsystems. Adhesive bonding is an important method to assembly micromachining parts. We present an approach to manipulate micron size adhesive droplets for use in robotic microassembly. A micro-probe is developed and bonded to a micro-robot. Adhesive droplets are picked up from adhesive reservoir, and placed on target spots. The effect of surface energy is considered in the design of the micro-probe. The size of manipulated adhesive droplet is determined from the dimension of the micro-probe tip. Experiments were conducted to manipulate adhesive droplets, and assemble three-dimensional micro-mirrors.