Abstract
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ) individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis). Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and <1 micro-rad rotary resolution. Four vertically installed AFM cantilevers (the axis of the cantilever tip is vertical to the axis of electronic beam of SEM) served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system.
Highlights
Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991 [1], their well-defined geometries, mechanical and electrical properties have been extensively investigated
The results showed that a pick-up angle at 90.1◦ and a pick-up speed lower than 10 nm/step would increase the probability of picking up a CNT successfully [28]
A CNT with a length of more than 6 μm is required according to the working space of the nanorobotics manipulators and test requirements. It may cause interference between CNTs and atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever when the width of the end of the AFM is taken into account
Summary
Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991 [1], their well-defined geometries, mechanical and electrical properties have been extensively investigated. The assembly of nanodevices with multi-walled carbon nanotubes was presented Manipulations such as picking up carbon nanotubes, in situ property characterization, destructive fabrication and shape modification were implemented under the real-time observation inside a SEM [16]. A nanorobotics manipulation system providing the possibilities of pickup-and-place manipulation and automation handling sequences by integrating specially developed techniques and strategies was described. It was integrated into an SEM and could use both the tip of the AFM probe for the manipulation of CNTs as well as other operation end-effectors for CNT handling. The designed nanorobotics manipulation system has 16 DOFs for 3D nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects and the construction of complex nanodevices. This system is partially automated up to now and proves the concept of the discussed integrated nanorobotics manmipulators and operation strategies
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