Fully programmable MEMS ciliary actuator arrays for micromanipulation tasks

The first micromachined bimorph organic ciliary array with on-chip CMOS circuitry is presented. This device is composed of an 8/spl times/8 array of cells each having four orthogonally oriented actuators in on overall die-size of 9.4 mm/spl times/9.4 mm. The polyimide based actuators were fabricated directly above the selection and drive circuitry. Selection and activation of actuators in this array shows that integration was successful. The integration of CMOS electronics and MEMS micromechanisms allows the implementation of new task-level micromanipulation strategies. New low-level control algorithms (actuator gaits) were also demonstrated. The array was programmed to perform several kinds of manipulation tasks, including linear translation, diagonal motion, as well as vector field operations such as squeeze field and radial field orienting and centering. Preliminary experiments were also performed using thin silicon dice of about 3 mm/spl times/3 mm/spl times/0.5 mm size as the object being moved.