A Balanced-SeeSaw MEMS swing probe for vertical profilometry of deep micro structures

Mita, Yoshio; Pourciel, Jean-Bernard; Kubota, M.; Ma, Shunchao; Morishita, Satoshi; Tixier‐Mita, Agnès; Masuzawa, Takahisa

doi:10.1109/icmts.2010.5466858

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Two approaches were proposed to decode the radial position from the measured Z e of the WT. First, a high-order polynomial model in (11) was used to approximate the nonlinear relationship:…”

Section: Vibrissal Radial Location Detection With Wtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, scanning electron microscopes can only examine a high aspect ratio microhole when it is sectioned destructively [8]. Various microtactile probes have been proposed based on resistive sensing [3,9], capacitive sensing [10,11], optical sensing [2,4], electric conduction [12,13], strain sensing [5,14], etc. However, most designs are still in the conceptual stage and have drawbacks such as adhesion and wearing faced by silicon MEMS probes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioinspired active whisker sensor for geometry detection of high aspect ratio microholes with simultaneous actuation and sensing capability

Ju¹,

Ling²

2015

Smart Mater. Struct.

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This paper presents a whisker transducer (WT)—inspired by a rat’s vibrissal tactile location perception—that can be used to detect the geometry of high aspect ratio microholes. The WT acts as both the actuator that generates whisking movement and the sensor that detects the mechanical impedance at its tip. This unique, simultaneous actuation-and-sensing capability is achieved through a 2 × 2 transduction matrix model that characterizes both the forward actuation and backward sensing functions of the transducer. The WT imitates a rat’s vibrissal location perception when driven by a special signal with a low-frequency component and a high-frequency component. The low-frequency component plays the role of the ‘whisking signal,’ encoding the whisker position over time, and the high-frequency component plays the role of the ‘touch signal,’ encoding the onset time of mechanical contact. The combination of these two signals allows the WT to detect the location of an object. The proposed transducer and location detection algorithm are validated using a miniature prototype fabricated through micro-EDM process. The achieved geometry measurement capability is of high linearity (R2 > 0.99) and low measurement uncertainty (200 nm). Its potential application in detecting the taper of high aspect ratio microholes is also demonstrated.

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Section: Vibrissal Radial Location Detection With Wtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired active whisker sensor for geometry detection of high aspect ratio microholes with simultaneous actuation and sensing capability

Ju¹,

Ling²

2015

Smart Mater. Struct.

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“…A rotary comb-drive actuator made on a 20µm-thick SOI wafer [1] was used as a MEMS representative example. As illustrated in Fig.8(a), the actuator contains four 47-teeth comb-drives (C1 to C4) which rotate in accordance with the driving voltage applied to two diagonal capacitors (C1 and C3) while the substrate and the pivot are tied to ground.…”

Section: Driving Memsmentioning

confidence: 99%

7.5Vmax arbitrary waveform generator with 65nm standard CMOS under 1.2V supply voltage

Nakura

Mita

Iizuka

et al. 2012

Proceedings of the IEEE 2012 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference

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This paper presents a digitally controlled arbitrary waveform generator whose output voltage range is 0 to 7.5V under a 1.2V supply voltage. The high output voltage generation is realized using only 65nm standard MOS transistors. It consists of a voltage increasing block and a voltage decreasing block to realize stable high voltage output. Experimental results show that our waveform generator can generate arbitrary waveform, and it directly drives a MEMS structure.

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“…Static probes are based on the principle that mechanical contact force will cause static deflection of the probe which can be sensed by means of resistive sensor [73,79], capacitive sensor [80,81], optical sensor [72,74], etc. Figure 2.25a is an example of a tactile probe with a micro silicon cantilever.…”

Section: Geometry Detection Of High-aspect-ratio Micro Holesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic whisker transducer for vibrissal tactile sensing

Ju¹

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The unique vibrissal tactile perception possessed by rats allows them to explore the surrounding environment actively with their whiskers, and helps them survive and thrive in hostile environments like underground tunnels, where vision becomes of little use. On the other hand, today most robots lack tactile sensing ability and rely on machine vision heavily. This seriously limits their survival chance and exploration performance in unstructured environments. In this thesis, a novel whisker transducer (WT) aiming to mimic the biological vibrissa system has been proposed, which can endow robots with vibrissal tactile sensing ability. The WT was developed based on a novel transduction matrix model, which characterizes the forward actuation and backward sensing functions of the transducer with a 2×2 matrix. As a result, the WT can perform active whisking and simultaneously sense the mechanical stimuli at its tip, just like what rat's whisker does. And the force, velocity and mechanical impedance at whisker tip are sensed from the input electrical signals, without using any additional sensors. The concept and functions of the WT were validated numerically using a finite element model and experimentally using a prototype. It can accurately measure mechanical impedance, force and velocity at whisker tip with errors of 1.28%, 0.88% and 1.55%, respectively. It also possesses features such as compact structure, good versatility and easy instrumentation, which facilitate its deployment on robots. Vibrissal tactile texture sensing and object locating were first investigated. The texture sensing experiment showed that when the WT sweeps across a surface, the force and velocity sensed at whisker tip both have strong linear relationship with roughness (regression analysis R 2 > 0.99). And the damping property of the surface can be obtained from real part of WT-measured mechanical impedance. The WT was also used to study the mechanism of rat's vibrissal tactile texture perception in a biomimetic perspective. Then the object locating experiment was investigated with a miniaturized WT (50×50×5000 µm). A bio-inspired spatial-temporal-intensity triple-coding scheme was proposed and implemented using digital Abstract ii signal processing and artificial neural networks. The WT can detect horizontal and radial locations of a contacting object with measurement uncertainties of 0.27 µm and 5.4 µm, respectively. And a WT array can enable object locating in the vertical axis. Potential applications of WT were explored experimentally. First, the miniaturized WT can accurately measure geometry of high-aspect-ratio micro trenches and detect invalid tip contact caused by protrusion on the sidewall. Second, a modified WT with a sphere tip can sense both viscosity and density of a fluid online. The extracted viscosity and density were separated from each other, rather than in the form of product (ηρ) or quotient (η/ρ) as detected by existing viscosity sensors. The low working frequency (104 Hz) and large vibration amplitude (0.43 mm) of WT made ...

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A Balanced-SeeSaw MEMS swing probe for vertical profilometry of deep micro structures

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Bioinspired active whisker sensor for geometry detection of high aspect ratio microholes with simultaneous actuation and sensing capability

Bioinspired active whisker sensor for geometry detection of high aspect ratio microholes with simultaneous actuation and sensing capability

7.5Vmax arbitrary waveform generator with 65nm standard CMOS under 1.2V supply voltage

Biomimetic whisker transducer for vibrissal tactile sensing

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