Fluidic Self-Assembly and Interconnection Processes: Fundamental Research, Scaling Limits, and Applications

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Background and Motivation: The production of nearly all man-made artifacts, including packaged microsystems, smart phones and computers, relies on robotic assembly lines that place, package, and connect a variety of disparate components. While robotic machines dominate the manufacturing world there are applications where the established processes of serial pick and place and manipulation of single objects, reach scaling limits. These established processes are challenged if the assembly and interconnection deals with (1) microscopic objects (<300 micrometer) or the assembly of large volumes at high throughput. At the other extreme, nature produces materials, structures, and living systems by self-assembly on a molecular length scale in a massively parallel way. Inspired by these processes self-assembly-based fabrication strategies have widely been adopted as an inevitable manufacturing tool in nanotechnology enabling the assembly of sub 100 nm objects. However, considering the state of the art, a large assembly gap remains since it is presently not possible to effectively assemble and connect microscopic (100nm-300 micrometer) objects with high yields, throughput, and precision. Objectives: The objective of this research is to develop a process to narrow this assembly gap and to enable the assembly and interconnection of functional components in particular miniaturized semiconductor dies and chips in a massively parallel manner. The first goal is to reduce the minimal chip size far beyond current levels while supporting the ability to form electrical interconnects between the assembled structures. The proposed approach is based on directed self-assembly instead of robotic pick and place. The intellectual merit of the first goal is to establish a knowledge base which will enable the engineering of self-assembly processes that have the potential to close or substantially narrow the outlined assembly gap. The research will investigate potential solutions and establish fundamental scaling laws of the forces, required agitation, receptors/binding sites, interconnection strategies, and component delivery mechanisms. The first goal should be characterized as fundamental research. The second goal is to demonstrate applications. The second goal is more specific and less fundamental in nature since it integrates working principles inside of an application specific self-assembly machine. The proposed assembly machine targets the production of large areas Solid State Lighting Panelsthat require the assembly and connection of LEDs on wide area substrates with high throughput (>10000 parts per hour) and yield. The intellectual merit of the second goal is to establish the blueprints of a continuous self-assembly machine that does not exist today. The realization of this machine is important since it will provide evidence that self-assembly has real applications which is required to aid technology adaptation outside of an academic setting.