Silicon end-effectors for microgripping tasks.

Joël Agnus (1) , David Hériban (1) , Michaël Gauthier (1) , Valérie Pétrini (1)

1 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)

Micromanipulation is a key task to perform serial assembly of MEMS. The two-fingered microgrippers are usable but require specific studies to be able to work in the microworld. In this paper, we propose a new microgripping system where actuators and the end-effectors of the gripper are fabricated separately. End-effectors can thus be adapted to the manipulated micro-objects without new design and/or fabrication of the actuator. The assembly of the end-effectors on our piezoelectric actuators guarantee a great modularity for the system. This paper focuses on the original design, development and experimentation of new silicon end-effectors, compatible with our piezoelectric actuator. These innovative end-effectors are realized with the well known DRIE process and are able to perform micromanipulation tasks of objects whose typical size is between 5 μm and 1 mm.

Mots clés: Microgripper; micromanipulation; end-effectors; MEMS assembly.; MEMS assembly

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Joël Agnus, David Hériban, Michaël Gauthier, Valérie Pétrini. Silicon end-effectors for microgripping tasks.. Precision Engineering, 2009, 33 (4), pp.542-548. ⟨10.1016/j.precisioneng.2009.02.005⟩. ⟨hal-00393971⟩