An automated microrobot-based desktop station for micro assembly and handling of microobjects

One of the main problems of present-day microsystem technology (MST) is the assembly of a whole microsystem from different micro-components. This paper presents an automated micromanipulation desktop station the heart of which are piezoelectrically driven microrobots placed on a highly precise x-y-table of a micro-scope. The microrobots can perform high-precise manipulations (with an accuracy of up to 10 nm) and the transport of very small objects (at a speed of several mm/sec). To control the desktop station automatically, a sensor system is provided for fine and for gross positioning of the robots, respectively. Apart from assembly tasks, this automated station can be used e.g. for handling biological cells or testing silicon chips.