NANO TECHNOLOGY AND MEMS

Aditya Kumar, Phanindar

Electronics &communication engineering Bomma institute of technology & secience rvadityakumar@yahoo.co.in phani487@gmail.com \
Abstract-- Nano mechanical devices promise to revolutionize Measurements of extremely small displacements and extremely weak forces, particularly at the molecular scale. Hence MEMS has a huge scope on robotics at nano scale where MEMS enabled devices like Accelerators, Oscillators, etc. form the basic components of the nano robot. Inside an accelerator MEMS device are tiny micro-structures that bend due to momentum and gravity. When it experiences any form of acceleration, these tiny structures bend by an equivalent amount which can be electrically detected. Today, accelerometers are easily and cheaply available, making it a very viable sensor for cheap robotics hobbyists like you and me. MEMS surgical robots can be used in biology to study the Human body and treat disease by sending nanobot through the blood stream. Everything in the world comes at a price. MEMS also face disadvantages mainly commercializing .MEMS modules are created on experimental basis and require huge funding. Hence presently commercial usage is quite far away and will be a boon to many fields if made possible. INTRODUCTION

modified silicon fabrication technology (used to make electronics), molding and plating,etc. Common applications: 1) Inkjet printers, which use piezoelectric. 2) Accelerometers in modern cars for airbag deployment in collisions. 3) MEMS gyroscopes used in modern cars for dynamic stability control. .4) Displays e.g. the DMD chip in a projector based on DLP technology has on its surface several hundred thousand micro mirrors. APPLICATIONS OF MEMS IN ROBOTICS MEMS-scale accelerometers, geophones, and gyrosthanks to their small size and weight, modest power consumption and cost, and high reliabilityare replacing some of their standardsize precursors as well as establishing new markets of their own. While accelerometers are the current leaders in commercially successful MEMS technology, other inertial devices such as rate gyroscopes are poised for a similar success. In addition to highvolume markets for automotive crash sensors, there are niche markets for high-resolution seismic sensing and high-g sensors. The main applications of MEMS in robotics are 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Accelerometers Geophones Sensors-Digital compass Oscillators Microphones

What is NANOTECHNOLOGY? Nanotechnology is a field of applied science and technology covering a broad range of topics. The main unifying theme is the control of matter on a scale below 100 nanometers, as well as the fabrication of devices on this same length scale. Nanotechnology cuts across many disciplines, including colloidal science, chemistry, applied physics and other scientific fields. Apart from numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots, NEMS and nanotubes for space research, real applications employ colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, and protective coatings. The module chosen for the paper is an application of Nanotechnology with MEMS What is NEMS? Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology: a "bottom-up" approach the other being top-down approach .Top-down approaches create smaller devices by using larger ones to direct their assembly like Solid-state silicon methods for fabricating microprocessors. They are now capable of creating devices smaller than 100 nm known as nanoelectromechanical systems(NEMS), which are related to microelectromechanical systems(MEMS).MEMS is the technology of the very small, and merges at the nanoscale into NEMS.They are fabricated using

1) Accelerometers: An accelerometer measures acceleration (change in speed) of anything that it's mounted on. How does it work? Inside an accelerator MEMS device are tiny microstructures that bend due to momentum and gravity. When it experiences any form of acceleration, these tiny structures bend by an equivalent amount which can be electrically detected. Today, accelerometers are easily and cheaply available, making it a very viable sensor for cheap robotics hobbyists like you and me.

Applications for Accelerometers: Accelerometers are very important in the sensor world because they can sense such a wide range of motion. They're used in the latest Apple PowerBooks (and other laptops) to detect when the computer's suddenly moved or tipped, so the hard drive can be locked up during movement. They're used in cameras, to control image stabilization functions. They're used in pedometers, gait meters, and other exercise and physical therapy devices. They're used in gaming controls to generate tilt data. They're used in automobiles, to control airbag release when there's a sudden stop. There are countless other applications for them. Possible uses for accelerometers in robotics: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Self balancing robots Tilt-mode game controller Model airplane auto pilot Alarm systems Collision detection Human motion monitoring Leveling sensor, inclinometer Vibration Detectors for Vibration Isolators G-Force Detectors

Gravity is acceleration. Such, your accelerometer will

Always be subject to a -9.81 m/s^2 acceleration (negative means towards the ground). Because of this, your robot can detect what angle it is in respect to gravity. If your robot is a biped, and you want it to always remain balanced and standing up, just simply use a 2-axis accelerometer. As long as the X and Y axes detect zero acceleration, this means your robot device is perfectly level and balanced. Accelerometers, Rated G: When you buy your accelerometer, you will notice it saying something like 'rated at 2g' or '3g accelerometer.' This is how much g force your sensor can handle before breaking. Gravity accelerates objects at 1g, or 9.81 m/s^2. For example, if your robot is moving at 1g upwards, then that means you sensor will detect 2g. For most robotics applications a 2g rating will be fine. So why not just get the highest rating possible? The lower the rating, the more sensitive it will be to changes in motion. You will always have a more fine tuned sensor the lower the rating. But then again, more sensitive sensors are more affected by vibration interference. Chances are you would have no need to measure the force, but if you reverse the equation you can calculate the angle by knowing the detected force. Availability and cost-The MEMS IC's are easily available and very affordable. However they all require support circuitry and come as surface mounts. I highly discourage buying an IC and doing your own wiring. However there are many already setup accelerometer packages you can buy. For example, Dimension Engineering has a great plug and play dual axis accelerometer which requires no additional support circuitry. There are several

Axis of Acceleration: The tiny micro-structures can only measure force in a single direction, or axis of acceleration. This means with a single axis measured, you can only know the force in the X, Y, or Z directions, but not all. So if say your X-axis accelerometer endowed robot was running around and ran into a wall (in the X direction). Your robot could detect this collision. But if say another robot rammed into it from the side (the Y direction), your robot would be oblivious to it. There are many other situations where a single axis would not be enough. It is always a good idea to have at least 2 axes (more than one axis).

other great sensors out there, some as a 3-axis, and now some even with built in rotation sensor gyros!

characteristics. Discrete bulk acoustic wave devices such as quartz resonators have been the prevailing choice for such applications because single crystal quartz has several attractive material properties. It is a low loss (high Q) piezoelectric material Additional Tips and Uses: Placing an accelerometer on a with zero temperature coefficients for selected crystal cuts. In mobile robot that experiences bumps can trigger the addition, its accelerometer unintentionally. Use a capacitor to smooth out Chemically inert surface makes quartz a candidate for stable output over several hundred milliseconds (testing required) to frequency operations. However, current manufacturing prevent this. Also, read the interpret sensor data tutorial to technology for quartz resonators does not provide a enhance your accelerator sensor accuracy. Straightforward method for reducing the size and thereby increasing the frequency of operation into the UHF range. Angular Accelerometers: Furthermore, integrating large arrays of precisely tuned MEMS angular accelerometers are used primarily to Structures with high-frequency RF electronics, and vacuum compensate for angular shock and vibration in disk read/write packaging the resulting chip at wafer level, are not possible with head assemblies. These devices, while similar to linear present techniques. Polysilicon surface micromachining accelerometers in terms of design, fabrication, and readout, are technology has enabled the creation of on-chip UHF resonators designed with zero pendulosity (i.e., the center of gravity is With high Q values. However, these devices typically suffer located at the centroid of the support springs), and are compliant from extremely large motional resistance (>> 1 k) and to rotational motion yet stiff with respect to linear motion. Delphi temperature, making them less desirable for low impedance, high and ST Microelectronics, manufacturers of angular Q RF sensitivity applications. Recent advancements in micro accelerometers, use capacitive MEMS sensors and custom fabrication, especially in the areas of precision wafer bonding and CMOS ASICs. plasma etching, have enabled us to fabricate miniaturized quartz on-chip resonators working in the VHF-UHF frequency range. Geophones: Geophones can be thought of as accelerometers These resonators can retain the excellent properties of discrete with very high sensitivity and no DC output requirement. With quartz devices no drift or bias stability specifications, geophone design can be While providing a low-cost path for on-chip integration of optimized to give the lowest noise floor. Applications include filter and oscillator arrays with electronics and wafer-scale seismic sensing, machinery vibration and failure prediction, packaging tracking and identification of vehicles or personnel, and underwater pressure gradient sensing. MICROPHONES Conventional geophones incorporate permanent magnets and fine wire coils to measure velocity above their fundamental MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) products utilize resonance .This is in contrast to capacitive accelerometers, which robust processes from the semiconductor industry to make a wide measure acceleration below their fundamental resonance. variety of electronic devices smaller, more reliable and cheaper to Sensor-Digital Compass-Basic Description: The digital compass gives measurements based on Earth's magnetic field for manufacture. In simple terms, MEMS is the creation of robot navigation. Inside this commonly available MEMS are tiny mechanical structures with semiconductor technology. nano-structures that bend due to electromagnetic fields. When these MEMS experiences any form of EM field, the tiny Traditional uses of silicon involve creating pathways for structures bend by an amount which can be electrically detected. electricity within components such as integrated circuits. In Cheaper digital compasses usually have a resolution of around contrast, MEMS transforms silicon into mechanically moving +/- 5 degrees, but newer and better ones can detect with a better parts. During the past decade, this process has become useful in accuracy. an increasing number of industries. For example, the automotive market uses MEMS accelerometers to sense crashes and deploy Availability and Cost: Easily available for $30-$100. It is best airbags. to buy them with supporting circuitry included to avoid any interference from bad electrical design. How Does the MEMS Microphone Work? Oscillators: The field of robotics requires ultra small, high frequency filters and oscillators with Extremely good temporal and thermal stabilities, high resonant quality-factors, and excellent RF matching Recent refinements in MEMS processing have resulted in the batch fabrication of low cost, high performance, miniaturized condenser microphones. In certain applications, this device offers specific advantages over traditional ECMs (Electret Condenser Microphone). Starting with a silicon wafer, semiconductor

materials are deposited and removed to form a capacitor. Just as with a conventional electrets microphone, it consists of a flexible diaphragm, a stiff back plate and damping holes with an electrical charge on the back plate. The diaphragm is in close proximity to the back plate, forming a capacitor. When sound pressures impinge on the diaphragm, it moves, changing the capacitance between the plates. This variance is measured and outputted as an electrical signal.

objects being handled are so small, a few billionths of a meter, it is impossible for a human to see or successfully fabricate anything from them, robotics are the primary means of working with them. Robots for Nano Robotics for nanotechnology enable production in several types of items and operations. Nanopositioning robotics are used in a variety of processes, including fiber optic component assembly Semiconductor assembly, testing and inspection use robots for nanotechnology production. Also nanotechnology robots are used in high-density pharmaceutical Apart from being made of silicon, the largest difference assay processes. between an ECM and a silicon microphone involves how the Robotic nano-manipulators are integrated in high-powered charge is maintained on the back plate. With ECMs, the charge scanning electron microscopes. These are used for research and on the back plate (typically 200 V - 300 V) is implanted at the manufacturer. If for any reason the charge is reduced or removed, in the integrated circuit market most major semiconductor makers the dynamic response of the microphone quickly degrades. More now have such tools to measure individual transistors anywhere in the circuit. Nanotechnology robots are used for manipulating often than not, this is caused by excessive heat. This is why contacts, which are 100 nanometers in length and getting smaller. ECMs are not specified over 85C and cannot be soldered to a printed circuit board through automated surface mount processes. Robot operators are able to position a finely etched tungsten probe on the metal contact to achieve good electrical contact. A silicon microphone does not have a charge when it leaves the This has proven to be a good market for us. factory. A charge of 12 V is "pumped" onto the back plate via a Another application for robotics in nano-manipulation or CMOS circuit. The chip maintains this charge whenever the assembly is pick and place operations for building optical microphone is activated. systems, like spectrometers. Typically mass spectrometers are large and very expensive Traditional electrets microphones utilized in portable wireless laboratory instruments. Using our nano-assembly approach, highapplications achieve high sensitivity through compliant precision robotics is building miniaturized mass spectrometers. diaphragms that are large in size (typically 6 mm). As ECM Smaller mass spectrometers are deployed at airports for security. microphones are reduced size, they quickly lose sensitivity. The Emkay surface mount microphone maintains a high sensitivity (- Randall briefly explained the procedure for baggage screening. Airline security runs a cloth swab around luggage. The cloth is 42 dBV); even though the diaphragm is just 0.5 millimeters in analyzed by the mass spectrometer for sniffing out explosives or diameter. This is accomplished using a patent pending freebiological weapons. A conventional mass spectrometer is too floating diaphragm. The small size of the diaphragm results in large to be installed in airports. Robotics with nanotechnology significant economies of scale and low cost, since thousands of capabilities makes it possible to produce a scaled-down version. microphones can be made from single silicon wafer. The production of semiconductors and other tiny electronic would be impossible without the use of robotics that is able of working a nano-scale. Miniature robotic production consists of APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN disk drives, cell phones, and photonics. Micro-assembly gets ROBOTICS down into the level of sub-semiconductors, placing subassembly components onto the chip themselves, and applications where tolerances are within a micron, Nanotechnology robotics has expanded into biological systems, where companies are manipulating cells within fluids, says Carlisle. Biotechnology companies are injecting genes into cells. Nanotechnology space is on the molecular or even at atomic level. Other robotically produced nano products are used for medical applications, such as angioplasty. There is the shrinking of surgical actuators, like for cleaning plaque from veins and arteries. Nano-sized motors are put on the end of a catheter that runs through veins to vacuum out plaque. Other medical uses for nano products include a camera that can be swallowed within a Nanotechnology, the manipulation and assembly of tiny pill to get an inside look at the digestive tract. This tiny camera devices often not much larger than a group of molecules, is a facilitates examination of the intestines without the need for perfect application for industrial robotics. Due to the fact the

surgery or invasive techniques such as an endoscope tethered to a necessarily rely on gravity to put things where you want them. cable. Electrostatic forces at that scale are often stronger than gravity. The Little Things That Count because the items that nanoSmall Size, Big Future In the next five years, as the volume of robotics are manipulating are so infinitesimally tiny, the typical nanotechnology robotics increases, the cost will come down. parameters for a work cell are different. Successfully Like any precision manufacturing process, there has been major implementing a robotic solution to nanotechnology applications investment. Until there is sufficient volume to amortize that poses a unique set of challenges to system integrators. Things investment there is not yet the cost-benefit. In the next few that integrators and years, the volumes will become sufficient and the investment to make these products will be spread over very large numbers of items and therefore will become cost-effective. The next five years will be in directed in developing better materials, controlling material fabrication at a much higher resolution than in the past, In five to ten years from now, we will see more of a higher level of integration of products, where we will see combining sensors, actuators, and power supplies. SELF REPLICATING NANOBOTS The first use of the term "Goo" was in the phrase "Gray goo" (see below). Gray goo is a mass of small, destructive, selfreplicating nano robots, so the word "goo" implies a capability for self-replication. Of course, most nano robots will not be capable of duplicating themselves (just as normal-sized machines cannot reproduce), and most nano robots will not be destructive. Naive nano-thinkers may imagine self-replication as part of every nanomachines functionality, thinking this would be more convenient, but self-replication is quite difficult and would make any nanomachine bulky and inefficient. In practice, it will almost always be better to manufacture a sufficient quantity of simple nanomachines in advance. It is tempting to call any mass of small nanomachines a "goo"; however, uncontrolled self-replication is one of the largest perceived risks of nanotechnology, and we need to be quite clear about which designs pose that risk and which do not. Nanotechnology and the Human Brain The most important and radical application particularly of circa-2030 nanobot will be to expand our minds through the merger of biological and non biological, or machine, intelligence. In the next 25 years, we will learn how to augment our 100 trillion very slow interneuronal connections with highspeed virtual connections via nanorobotics. This will allow us to greatly boost our pattern-recognition abilities, memories, and overall thinking capacity, as well as to directly interface with powerful forms of computer intelligence. The technology will also provide wireless communication from one brain to another.

End-users of nanotechnology robotics need to keep in mind when implementing these systems. There are a couple of things to deal with in nanotechnology robotics. One is getting the precision required, which is technically achievable. Another challenge is how to get the proper form factor to get those motions in a nano-environment. If you have a nano device, you can take that technology into a programmable robotic motion. Integrators cannot always use conventional electrical-magnetic motors and gear devices. When getting down to objects that small, you are battling laws of physics. Conventional robotics is not intended to provide nanometerrange positioning precision. Rather, they are useful for gross positioning tasks over comparatively large operating ranges, Supplementing gross positioning with fine-positioning solutions, such as piezoelectric stages is one strategy for meeting requirements for nano positioning over large areas. Another technique is use of machine vision to provide localized position updating, essentially reducing additive error that accumulates over large travel distances. Typically, robots are not scaled nicely to deal with manipulation of things on a nano-scale. It is important to be able to know that the object you are moving has gone to the point intended. To do that, sensors tell the robot actuator to move a semiconductor wafer to a specific spot, but the sensor should also to tell you that the wafer actually moved to that place. The force of gravity has relatively less affect on nano-sized objects. When manipulating objects that are nanometers in length, you cannot

The Various Goos Assembler: A small nanomachine designed to construct other nanomachines, including copies of itself. Blue Goo - opposite of Grey goo. Beneficial tech, or "police" nanobots. Gray Goo or Grey Goo - destructive nanobots Green Goo: Nanomachines or bio-engineered organisms used for population control of humans, either by governments or ecoterrorist groups. Golden Goo: Another member of the grey goo family of nanotechnology disaster scenarios. Khaki Goo: Military Nanites

Utility Fog: A mass of robots with twelve legs apiece forming a microscopic truss structure. Capable of changing shape, and perhaps color, in response to external commands. CONCLUSION Our computers are quite fast and small, but no revolutionary breakthrough in computing has happened since the transistor was invented. The human genome project has reached completion, yet limits in our ability to cure disease on a molecular basis remain. While it is often difficult to predict the future, some things seem inevitable. Just as a ball thrown into the air can be expected to fall to the ground, so can we expect our technology to reach the molecular scale. Nanotechnology, the manipulation and assembly of tiny devices often not much larger than a group of molecules, is a perfect application for industrial robotics. Due to the fact the objects being handled are so small, a few billionths of a meter, it is impossible for a human to see or successfully fabricate anything from them, robotics are the primary means of working with them. MEMS and Nanotechnology is used in low or medium volume applications. Its because of lack of fabrication knowledge. If these problems are overcame then miniaturization will be at its highest level