Modelling and Control of a Micro-cantilever Array

S. Cogan (1) , H. Hui (1) , Michel Lenczner (1) , E. Pillet (1) , N. Ratier (1) , Y. Yakoubi (1)

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

Since its invention by G. Binnig, the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has opened up new possibilities for a numberof operations at a nanoscale level, having an impact across various sciences and technologies. Today, the most popularapplication of it (AFM) is in the material sciences, biology and fundamental physics. The AFM is also used for the manipulation of an objector materials at the nanoscale, for example the parallel Lithography of Quantum Devices, investigations intomechanical interactions at the molecular level in biology, manipulation of nano-objects and datastorage. A number of research laboratories are now developinglarge AFM Arrays which can achieve the same kind of task in parallel. The most advanced system is the Millipede from IBM for data storage, but again, a number of new architectures are emerging.We are currently developing tools for modelling, identification and control of micro-cantilever arrays like those encoun-tered in Atomic Force Microscope Arrays. In this chapter we report results in this direction. The thread of our approachis to provide light computational methods for complex systems. This concern modelling as well as control. Our mechan-ical structure model is based on a specific multi-scale technique. For control, we start with a general theory of optimalcontrol applied to our simple cantilever array model and we provide an approximation of the control law which maybe implemented on a semi-decentralized computing architecture. In particular it could be implemented under the formof a periodically distributed analog electronic circuit. Even if this implementation remains to be completed, we presentin advance a general model of such periodically distributed electronic circuits. It will be applied to fast simulations ofelectronic circuits realizing our control approximation. The general model has been derived with a modified form of themulti-scale technique used for mechanical structures. In a near future, we intend to couple both multi-scale models sothat to run light simulations for matrices of electro-mechanical systems. Associated to our light models we also developa variety of identification tools.

Domaines: Electronique

S. Cogan, H. Hui, Michel Lenczner, E. Pillet, N. Ratier, et al.. Modelling and Control of a Micro-cantilever Array. Micro, Nanosystems and Systems on Chips: Modeling, Control and Estimation, Wiley, pp.2-25, 2010, 9781118622520. ⟨hal-00676344⟩