Contact Micromanipulation—Survey of Strategies

This paper surveys contact micromanipulation strategies that are developed to tackle the microscale-related phenomena in microassembly. Strategies are divided according to how they take account of adhesion forces. Micromanipulation refers to handling of objects that have dimensions below hundreds of micrometers with handling accuracy down to submicrometers. The line between micro- and nanomanipulation is not definite but typically the object size in nanomanipulation is considered to reach from atomic and molecular scale to hundreds of nanometers. In contact micromanipulation, the tool physically touches the manipulated objects during handling. Scaling-effect-induced adhesion forces severely complicate micromanipulation when compared to conventional macromanipulation. At microscale, the most important adhesive forces are van der Waals force, electrostatic force, and capillary force. Adhesion forces are also the reason behind the fairly low level of automation in microassembly systems. Improved success rate of micromanipulation operations requires that the special features of microscale phenomena be taken into consideration.