Micro drops for adhesive bonding of micro assemblies and making a 3-D structure `Micro scarecrow'

A dexterous micro manipulation system was developed for applications such as assembling micro machines, manipulating cells, and micro surgery. We have proposed a concept of a two-fingered micro hand, and designed and built a prototype. We succeeded in performing basic micro manipulations, including the grasp, release, and rotation of a microscopic object. If a bonding technique for microscopic parts can be applied to our current system, the assembly of various micro 3-D structures will be achieved. Various bonding techniques have been researched for assembly of micro 3-D structures, including anodic bonding, direct bonding, adhesive bonding, and others. We apply the adhesive bonding technique to micro parts with micro assembly, since this method can be applied to micro parts with various material qualities. In adhesive bonding, one difficulty is how to obtain a microscopic drop of adhesive agent smaller than the micro parts. In this paper, we will propose a method to obtain a micro drop by applying the capillary phenomenon. By using this technique, a micro drop only a few microns in size could be obtained. Combining the micro drop method with our current micromanipulation system, we succeeded in building a 3-D structure `Micro scarecrow'.