A Configurable Platform for Multicantilever High-Throughput Nanoscale Metrology and Manufacturing

本研究的核心承诺是为纳米级制造和计量的多反杠杆系统设计和开发一个全面和可扩展的平台。该平台将实现新的计量和成像应用，如视频速率纳米级成像、高通量沉积制造和微光学元件抛光。开发了具有局部相互作用的动态系统空间阵列控制的新方法和新体系结构，并将其应用于微悬臂系统阵列。为了实现微悬臂阵列单元的独立横向定位，研制了新型并联微机电定位器。稳健的控制技术，加上MEMS电容驱动器同步驱动传感的新方法，使此类阵列元件的定位达到了新的带宽、精度和鲁棒性水平。开发了一个平台框架，将这些新功能集成并利用到一个灵活的系统中，该系统具有鲁棒性，可以支持各种操作条件。该项目的研究成果为组合化学、组合材料研究、生物扫描在基因组学和组合药物发现中的应用提供了基础科学研究。除了对研究生教育的直接影响外，该项目还将利用伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的现有结构，为高级研究生和研究工程师提供集成微机电一体化、制造和计量的研讨会，为本科生提供研究经验，为高中教师和学生提供基于互联网的微机电系统设备远程操作访问。拟议的项目还促进了制造、仪器/物理仪器、控制和动态系统研究社区之间技术诀窍的协同转移。

The core promise of this research is the design and development of a comprehensive and scalable platform for multicantilever systems for nanoscale manufacturing and metrology. This platform will enable new metrology and imaging applications such as video-rate nanoscale imaging, high-throughput deposition-based manufacturing and polishing of micro-optical components. New approaches and architectures for the control of spatial arrays of dynamic systems with local interaction are developed and applied to arrays of microcantilever systems. Novel parallel kinematics micro-electromechanical (MEMS) positioners are developed to enable individual lateral positioning of microcantilever array elements. Robust control techniques, coupled with new approaches to simultaneous actuation-sensing of MEMS capacitance drives allow new levels of bandwidth, accuracy and robustness in positioning of the elements of such arrays. A platform framework is developed to integrate and leverage these new capabilities into a flexible system with the robustness to support a diverse set of operating conditions. The results of this project enable basic scientific investigation in combinatorial chemistry, combinatorial material investigation, and biological scanning applications in genomics and combinatorial drug discovery. Besides its direct impact on graduate education, this project will use existing structures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide workshops that integrate micro-mechatronics, fabrication and metrology for advanced graduate students and research engineers, research experience for undergraduates, internet-based teleoperated access to MEMS devices for high-school teachers and students. The proposed project also fosters the synergistic transfer of know-how between the manufacturing, instrumentation/physical instrument, and control and dynamic systems research communities.