Towards micro-assembly of hybrid MOEMS components on a reconfigurable silicon free-space micro-optical bench

Abstract

The 3D integration of hybrid chips is a viable approach for the micro-optical technologies to reduce the costs of assembly and packaging. In this paper a technology platform for the hybrid integration of MOEMS components on a reconfigurable free-space silicon micro-optical bench is presented. In this approach a desired optical component (e.g. micromirror, microlens) is integrated with removable and adjustable silicon holder which can be manipulated, aligned and fixed in the precisely etched rail of the silicon baseplate by use of robotic micro-assembly station. An active-based gripping system allows modification of the holder position on the baseplate with nanometre precision. The fabrication processes of the micromachined parts of the micro-optical bench, based on bulk micromachining of standard silicon wafer and SOI wafer, are described. The successful assembly of the holders, equipped with micromirror and refractive glass ball microlens, on the baseplate rail is demonstrated.

High Bandwidth Microgripper With Integrated Force Sensors and Position Estimation for the Grasp of Multistiffness Microcomponents

“…Recent works have shown that microassembly is a possible approach to fabricate complex hybrid 3-D microsystems [2], [3]. They also show the need of high speed manipulation [4] where pick-and-place tasks were performed in 1 s. Nevertheless, manipulation of microcomponents is a challenging task due to microscale specificities.…”

High precision self-alignment using liquid surface tension for additively manufactured micro components

“…This work considers components in the 0.4 to 2 mm range, larger than typical micro assembly parts, as these are most immediately applicable to 3-dimensional assemblies whose major dimensions are in the z-axis. This includes assemblies such as micro-optical benches (MOB) [33,34] and tactile probes for micro coordinate measuring machines (CMM) [35,36]. This work builds on the current literature by presenting a detailed experimental analysis on the use of 3D printed topographical features for self-assembly using liquid surface tension.…”

Microrobotic Station for Nano-Optical Component Assembly

“…Based on state of the art and previous works which were conducted for microassembly of hybrid MOEMS [6][7][8], we propose in this paper a new microassembly station for nano-optical component assembly. For this reason, a robotic station made of precise positioning and rotation stages and a new two-sensing-fingersmicrogripper are used to perform dexterous microassembly.…”