Final Report: CNC Micromachines LDRD No.10793

Abstract

The three-year LDRD ''CNC Micromachines'' was successfully completed at the end of FY02. The project had four major breakthroughs in spatial motion control in MEMS: (1) A unified method for designing scalable planar and spatial on-chip motion control systems was developed. The method relies on the use of parallel kinematic mechanisms (PKMs) that when properly designed provide different types of motion on-chip without the need for post-fabrication assembly, (2) A new type of actuator was developed--the linear stepping track drive (LSTD) that provides open loop linear position control that is scalable in displacement, output force and step size. Several versions of this actuator were designed, fabricated and successfully tested. (3) Different versions of XYZ translation only and PTT motion stages were designed, successfully fabricated and successfully tested demonstrating absolutely that on-chip spatial motion control systems are not only possible, but are a reality. (4) Control algorithms, software and infrastructure based on MATLAB were created and successfully implemented to drive the XYZ and PTT motion platforms in a controlled manner. The control software is capable of reading an M/G code machine tool language file, decode the instructions and correctly calculate and apply position and velocity trajectories to the motion devices linear drive inputs to position the device platform along the trajectory as specified by the input file. A full and detailed account of design methodology, theory and experimental results (failures and successes) is provided.