Open Competition 2 - Electronics and Photonics

Assemblers for Nanotechnology Applications and Manufacturing: Enabling the Nanotechnology Era

Sponsor: Zyvex Corporation

• Project Performance Period: 10/1/2001 - 12/16/2006
• Total project (est.): $24,415,945.00
• Requested ATP funds: $12,170,000.00

Commercial production of microscale devices (components 1-1000 micrometers in size) or nanoscale devices (components 10-1000 nanometers) will depend on having technologies for the inexpensive and efficient assembly of these microscopic components into functional systems. Microelectromechanical (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) systems have the potential to revolutionize many fields, including biomedicine, energy, environmental control, communications, and electronics. Fulfilling this promise requires an affordable, flexible, controlled means of precision assembly. Zyvex Corporation and partner Standard MEMS, Inc. (Burlington, Mass.), together with researchers from three universities, propose to develop such assemblers in a potentially far-reaching 5-year program. Without assemblers, designers of MEMS and NEMS systems are limited to producing devices that are fabricated from monolithic structures. Assembly of individual pieces at a micro- or nanometer scale allows the division of a complicated three-dimensional system into easier-to-manufacture components. The research partners will develop assembly toolos -- themseleves MEMS/NEMS based -- to hold parts in place, pick them up, move them precisely, and connect them together at micrometer scales and below. The team also will develop software tools to design, simulate, and automate assemblers and assembled systems, and fabricate the actuators and devices. During the first three years of the project, the companies plan to develop a MEMS assembler, followed by a parallel assembler capable of assembling an array of microscale devices at the same time. The final two years will involve developing technologies for the creation of a nanoscale assembler prototype. Portions of the project will be conducted by researchers from the Center for Automation Technologies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.), the University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, Texas), and the University of North Texas (Denton, Texas). The relatively long time-line for this project as well as the extremely challenging R&D goals have made it difficut for the partners -- both small businesses -- to secure private funding for this work. Successful development of these assembly techniques will provide a competitive advantage for the United States companies that manufacture optical network subsystems, multifunction chip assemblies, and devices to manipulate microsamples for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. In optical network subsystems, for example, the cost of assembly -- using expensive precision machines operated by humans -- accounts for 85 percent of the cost. Most of this work is done abroad. Automated microscale assembly could reduce these costs dramatically and bring the work back to the United States.

For project information:

Katharine Green, (972) 235-7881
kgreen@zyvex.com

Active Project Participants

• Honeywell International, Inc. (Redmond, WA)
  [New Member since original JV was formed]
  

ATP Project Manager

Purabi Mazumdar, (301) 975-4891
purabi.mazumdar@nist.gov