DEVELOPMENT OF MICRO PROCESS AND MICRO FABRICATION SYSTEM AND EXPERIMENT UNDER SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

在精密，医学和生物工程的应用中，在微米或亚微米尺度上实施制造，组装，检查，修改和/或评估的需求越来越大。在这种操作中，操作人员必须经历长时间的训练，以熟悉微尺度运动的感觉，以达到高重复性和高精度。然而，操作繁琐且耗时。因此，人们强烈期望开发一种操作系统，使非技术操作员能够轻松地执行所需的任务。该项目的最终目标是开发一种操作系统，使不熟练的操作员能够在扫描电子显微镜下处理微米或亚微米大小的物体，就像处理通常大小的物体一样容易。本报告描述了在概念设计、原型开发和可操作性评估方面取得的成果。该系统被模块化为操作单元、控制单元和人机界面。操作单元还包括安装在转台上的双臂机械手和沿X、Y、Z方向线性、绕Z轴旋转的四自由度试样台。机械手由带放大元件的压电陶瓷作动器驱动。而不是做一个直接的操作，操作人员通过一个用户友好的界面来操纵机械手，该界面旨在吸收光学和机械变化。它使操作人员能够集中精力进行操作，而不必过多地注意扫描电镜放大率的变化或其他条件。控制单元将扫描电镜的视觉信息和来自用户界面的操作信息合并，并为期望的操作导出手臂的最佳运动。

In the applications of precision, medical and biological engineering, there are increasing demands of implementing fabrication, assemble, inspection, modification and/or evaluation at the micron or sub-micron scale. In such operations, the operators have to experience a long time training to familiarize the feeling of micro-scale movements in order to achieve high repeatability and high accuracy. Yet, the operations are tedious and time consuming. It is, therefore, strongly expected to develop a manipulation system possible for unskilled operators to easily execute the desired tasks. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a manipulation system enabling unskilled operators to deal with objects of micron or sub-micron size in a scanning electron microscope, as easily as to deal with objects in usual size. Described in this report is the results achieved on the conceptual design, the prototype development and the operability evaluation. The system is modularized into the manipulation unit, the control unit and the man-machine interface. The manipulation unit is further comprised of a twin-arm manipulator mounted on a rotary table and a specimen stage with four degrees of freedom linear along X, Y and Z direction, and rotational around the Z-axis. The manipulator is driven by PZT actuators with magnifier elements. Instead of doing a direct operation, the operator steers the manipulator via an user-friendly interface which is designed to absorb the optical and mechanical variations. It allows the operator to concentrate to the manipulation without paying mach attentions to the changes in magnification of SEM or other conditions. The control unit merges the visual information of the SEM and the manipulation information from the user interface and derives the optimum locomotion of the arm for the desired operation.