Integrated fabrication of polysilicon mechanisms

Author

Mehregany, Mehran ; Gabriel, Kaigham J. ; Trimmer, William S N

Author_Institution

AT&T Bell Labs., Holmdel, NJ, USA

Volume

35

Issue

6

fYear

1988

fDate

6/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

719

Lastpage

723

Abstract

The integrated fabrication of planar polysilicon mechanisms incorporating lower and higher kinematic pairs (or joints) is described. The two lower kinematic pairs (revolute and prismatic) commonly used in macrorobotic systems are compatible with silicon microfabrication technology. The mechanisms are fabricated by surface micromachining techniques using polysilicon as the structural material and oxide as the sacrificial material. Turbines with gear and blade rotors as small as 125 μm in diameter and 4.5 μm in thickness were fabricated on 20-μm-diameter shafts. A clearance as tight as 1.2 μm was achieved between the gear and the shaft. Gear trains with two or three sequentially-aligned gears were successfully meshed. A submillimeter pair of tongs with 400-μm range-of-motion at the jaws was fabricated. This structure incorporates a single prismatic joint and two revolute joints, demonstrating linear-to-rotary motion conversion

Keywords

electric sensing devices; elemental semiconductors; integrated circuit technology; robots; semiconductor technology; silicon; surface treatment; transducers; Si; Si microfabrication technology; blade rotors; gear train; integrated fabrication; kinematic pairs; linear-to-rotary motion conversion; macrorobotic systems; polysilicon mechanisms; prismatic joint; range-of-motion; revolute joints; sacrificial oxide; sensors; sequentially-aligned gears; surface micromachining techniques; tongs; transducers; Actuators; Blades; Fabrication; Gears; Kinematics; Machining; Robot sensing systems; Shafts; Silicon; Turbines;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.2522

Filename

2522