An Electrostatic Sorting Device For Microparts

The parallel handling of microcomponents is a strategy to speed up the microassembly of hybrid microproducts. This paper presents an electrostatic device for parallel sorting. The sorting of components has been achieved with a combination of a vibrating platform, to reduce friction and adhesion, and an electrostatic potential with several minima. Thanks to a suitable design of the electrostatic sorting device, only one component is attracted and trapped in each minimum. The reliability and accuracy of the sorting system have been proved by measuring the actual positions of the components by a vision system.