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Automation Capabilities in the Nanorobotic Handling of Nanomaterials

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Automation Capabilities in the Nanorobotic Handling of Nanomaterials Fakultät II – Informatik, Wirtschafts- und Rechtswissenschaften Department für Informatik Automation Capabilities in the Nanorobotic Handling of Nanomaterials This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften vorgelegt von Malte Bartenwerfer 30. November 2018 Zusammenfassung Die konventionelle Miniaturisierung von Elektronik, Sensoren und Mikrobauteilen stößt mittlerweile an inhärente technologische Grenzen. Nanoskalige Objekte hingegen bieten –verursacht durch quantenmechanische Effekte oder durch das enorme Oberflächen-Volumen- Verhältnis– einzigartige physikalische Eigenschaften, welche Nanomaterialien und Nanoob- jekte zu vielversprechenden Kandidaten für neue Sensoren, Aktoren, Logikeinheiten und Energiewandler macht. Nanomaterialien und Nanoobjekte dienen somit als ultrakleine Bausteine in größeren und komplexeren System. Eine reibungslose Integration dieser Bausteine ist eine universelle Voraussetzung für viele neuartige Anwendungen und Konzepte, welche Nanomaterialien einsetzten und ist somit unerlässlich für die Realisierung von neuen Bauteilen. Das volle Potenzial von Nanomateri- alien und -objekten kann allerdings nur ausgeschöpft werden, wenn diese als individuelle und funktionale Objekte in ein Bauteil integriert werden. Diese Art der Integration stellt jedoch große Herausforderungen an die Handhabungsmethoden solcher Objekte. Ein allgemeines Verständnis der auf der Nanoskala herrschenden Kräfte ist vorhanden. Ein direkter Transfer hin zu allgemein anwendbaren Handhabungsstrategien ist allerdings kaum möglich, da diese Kräfte kaum beherrschbar oder messbar sind. Einerseits existieren mehrere erfolgreiche Ansätze, welche nanoskalige Effekte nutzen, zur Handhabung und Ma- nipulation von Nanoobjekten mit dem Ziel einer reibungslosen Integration. Andererseits sind die meisten Ansätze nur für ein sehr spezielles Handhabungsscenario gut geeignet, da sie auf dieses spezifische Problem ausgerichtet sind und die spezifischen Umgebungsbedingungen benötigen. Darüber hinaus sind praktische Aspekte, wie z.B. die Wirtschaftlichkeit einer Integrationsmethode, von großer Bedeutung, um für industrielle Anwendungen brauchbar zu sein. Der Durchsatz und vor allem die Automatisierbarkeit einer Nanohandhabungsmethode sind daher ebenso entscheidend wie die Genauigkeit. Bislang wurden jedoch noch nicht alle dieser Aspekte der Nanohandhabung ausreichend untersucht. Aufgrund der Anforderungen an die Integration wird typischerweise das Rasterelektronen- mikroskop (REM) als Arbeitsumgebung verwendet, da es Geschwindigkeit und Genauigkeit der Bildakquise sinnvoll kombiniert. Allerdings ist der Einsatz des REMs auch mit störenden Nebenwirkungen verbunden, die durch Ladungseffekte auf der Nanoskala hervorgerufen werden. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei Hauptthemen behandelt, die sich mit den oben genannten Anforderungen und den Herausforderungen der Integration von nanoskaligen Bausteinen befassen: i) die Entwicklung anwendbarer Handhabungsstrategien und ii) die Entwicklung der Automatisierung für die Nanomontage. Zunächst werden nanorobotische Strategien zum Einsatz innerhalb des REMs entwickelt, um präzise Bewegungen, Handhabung und Montage von Objekten mit Abmessungen bis in den Nanometerbereich zu ermöglichen. Mechanische Mikrostrukurierung wird zur Entwicklung von Werkzeugen eingesetzt, welche präzise Manipulationen ermöglichen und die Integration von Nanoobjekten mit einer Positioniergenauigkeit im Nanometern Bereich und einer Ausrichtungsgenauigkeit von wenigen Grad ermöglichen. Mit dem Ziel, Automatisierbarkeit zu erreichen, werden Methoden entwickelt und be- wertet, welche das Potenzial des REMs nutzen, aber dessen störende Ladungseffekte als zusätzliche Informationsquellen nutzen, um den Status einer laufenden Bearbeitungssequenz zu messen. Die entwickelten Techniken werden durch die Integration von Nanodrähten in bereits existierende Elektrodenstrukturen und MEMS Komponenten demonstriert. Zum Anderen werden unter Einbeziehung der neuen Messmethoden weitere Automa- tisierungsstrategien entwickelt und somit eine vollständig automatisierte Montage ohne Benutzerinteraktion realisiert. Diese Automatisierung wird in einer vollautomatischen Nanomontagesequenz von mikroskaligen Bausteinen umfassend demonstriert. Zusammenfassend zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit die Möglichkeiten der nanorobo- tischen Montage und dass deren Entwicklung neue Perspektiven für Nanomaterialien öffnen kann. Die Ergebnisse der entwickelten Automatisierung zeigen, dass Durchsatzzahlen von etwa einem Stück pro Minute erreichbar sind und demonstrieren weiterhin das Potenzial, welches durch Automatisierung besteht. iv Abstract The conventional downscaling of electronics, sensors and building blocks is facing inherent technological limits. Nanoscale objects, on the other hand, offer unique physical properties, caused by quantum-mechanical effects or by the enormous surface-to-volume-ratio that makes nanomaterials and nanoobjects promising candidates for new sensors, actuators, computing units and energy converters. Nanomaterials and nanoobjects in devices act as building blocks with ultra-small dimensions within a larger and more complex system. Hence, a smooth integration of these building blocks is a common requirement for many novel applications and concepts that use nanomaterials and is essential for the construction of real devices. The full potential of nanomaterials and -objects can be exploited only if they are fully integrated into devices as individual and functional objects. However, this kind of integration presents major challenges to the handling capabilities of such objects. A general understanding of the forces ruling on the nanoscale is existent, but the direct transfer to the development of handling strategies is lacking, since these forces are hardly controllable or measurable. Hence, on the one hand, there are several considerable approaches to handling and manipulating nanoobjects for a smooth integration, which take advantage of effects specific to the nanoscale. On the other hand, most approaches are well-suited forone particular handling scenario only, since they are developed focusing on this specific problem and need the specific environment. Furthermore, practicality aspects, such as the economy of an integration method, are of major importance in order to be applicable to industry- relevant applications. Hence, the throughput and especially the automation capabilities of a nanohandling method are as crucially important as accuracy. So far, nanohandling strategies which sufficiently include all aspects have not been developed. Due to these demands on the integration, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is typically used as a working environment, since it reasonably combines image acquisition speed and accuracy. However, the SEM is also associated with disruptive side-effects caused by the charging effect on the nanoscale. In this thesis, two major topics are addressed, tackling the demands mentioned above and the challenges of the integration of nanoscale building blocks: i) the development of applicable handling strategies and ii) the development of automation for nanoassembly. Firstly, nanorobotic strategies inside the SEM have been developed in order to provide precise movements, handling, and assembly of objects with dimensions as small as the nanometer scale. The structural design on the nanoscale is used for handling tools that enable precise manipulations and allow the integration of nanoobjects with a positioning accuracy of few nanometers and an alignment accuracy of few degrees. Aiming to achieve automation capabilities, methods are proposed and evaluated that use the potential of the SEM but exploit its disruptive charging effects as useful sources of information on the status of an ongoing handling sequence. The developed techniques are demonstrated in the integration of nanowires into pre-existing electrode structures and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices. Secondly, automation strategies have been developed incorporating the new informa- tion sources in order to gather sufficient information for an automated assembly without user interaction. This automation has been extensively demonstrated in a fully automated nanoassembly sequence of microscale building blocks. In summary, the results of the thesis demonstrate the abilities of nanorobotic assembly and show that their developments open new perspectives for nanomaterials. The achieved automation reveals that throughput figures of about one piece per minute are achievable and demonstrates the potential and improvements achievable through automation. vi Table of contents List of figures xi List of tables xv List of acronyms xvii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Micro-/nanoscale . 4 1.1.1 What is the Micro-/nanoscale? . 4 1.1.2 Benefits of the Micro-/nanoscale . .5 1.1.3 Challenges and Opportunities . 6 1.1.4 Working the Micro-/nanoscale . 10 1.2 Objectives . 12 1.3 Outline and Author’s Contribution . 13 2 State of the Art 15 2.1 Scanning Electron Microscopy . 15 2.2 Handling on the Micro-/nanoscale . 19 2.2.1 Microhandling Stations . 22 2.2.2 Nanohandling Stations . 23 2.3 Automation on the Micro-/nanoscale . 25 2.3.1 Software Frameworks for Nanohandling and Automation . 25 2.4 Automated Nanohandling . 27 2.4.1 Case Study Related . 29 2.5 Conclusion . 31 3 Fundamentals and Tools in Nanorobotic Handling 33 3.1 Fundamental Forces on the Small Scale . 33 3.2 Conditions for Automation on the Micro-
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