Analysis and Specificities of Adhesive Forces Between Microscale and Nanoscale

el Gauthier, ebastien Alvo, ome Dejeu, Brahim Tamadazte, Patrick Rougeot, Regnier
2013 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering  
Despite a large number of proofs of concept in nanotechnologies (e.g. nanosensors), nano electromechanical systems (NEMS) hardly come to the market. One of the bottlenecks is the packaging of NEMS which require handling, positioning, assembling and joining strategies in the mesoscale (from 100nm to 10µm, between nanoscale and microscale). It requires models of the interaction forces and adhesion forces dedicated to this particular scale. This paper presents several characteristics of the
more » ... le in comparison with nanoscale and microscale. Firstly, it is shown that the distributions of charges observed on the micro-objects and meso-objects would have negligible effects on the nano-objects. Secondly, the impact of both chemical functionalisation and physical nanostructuration on adhesion are presented. Thirdly, the van der Waals forces are increased by local deformations on the mesoscale contrary to the nanoscale where the deformation is negligible. This article shows some typical characteristics of the mesoscale. Note to Practitioners -Micro and nanorobotics covers a high range from nanometers to micrometers which represents six orders of magnitude. Most of the microassembly activities have been focused on micro-objects whose size is 10 µm or more when nanohandling provides solutions mainly for nano-objects up to 100 nm. The interest in the medium scale (mesoscale) has been growing recently. This article presents an analysis of the behavioral characteristic of the objects on this scale in comparison with the two others. It shows that specificities exist on the mesoscale and illustrates the requirement of original micro-nanorobotics at this particular scale.
doi:10.1109/tase.2013.2248150 fatcat:2rzklsruqzeqbado4tptfivmfm