MEMS Positioning Stages
Lead Faculty Researcher:
Placid Ferreira, MechSE, Illinois
Nanoscale positioning and registration are fundamental to manufacturing at the nanoscale. Current nanomanufacturing processes are limited by a number of factors:
- It is difficult to transfer a dimensional scale with nanometer precision
- Existing tools have limited real estate – sensors and transducers are difficult to integrate into active areas
- Current processes require isolated and enclosed process chambers and spaces that are difficult to access
- Scaling of sensors and actuators to have large scale parallelism is not possible with existing sensors and positioners
The Center is developing MEMS scale positioning stages based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology for the nanoscale precision, speed and control needed for manufacturing integration of e-jet, direct ink write and other Center processes. The Center is developing controllable X, Y and Z stages and self-calibrating dual axis positioning systems.
We has developed an innovative method of simultaneous actuation and sensing the displacement produced by a capacitive or electrostatic actuator. This is achieved by a dual separation frequency control approach in which a high frequency (much higher than the mechanical cut-off frequency of the actuated structure) is superimposed on the actuation signal.
For more information on this research, please download the full description.
