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ABSTRACT
Nanomechanical devices promise to revolutionize measurements
of extremely small displacements and extremely weak forces,
particularly at the molecular scale.
Hence MEMS has a huge scope on robotics at nano scale where MEMS
enabled devices like Accelerators,Oscillators,etc. form the basic
components of the nano robot.
Inside an accelerator MEMS device are tiny micro-structures that
bend due to momentum and gravity. When it experiences any form of
acceleration, these tiny structures bend by an equivelent amount
which can be electrically detected. Today, accelerometers are easily
and cheaply available, making it a very viable sensor for cheap
robotics hobbyists like you and me.
MEMS surgical robots can be used in biology to study the Human
body and treat disease by sending a nanobot through the blood
stream.
Everything in the world comes at a price.

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MEMS also face disadvantages mainly commercializing .MEMS

modules are created on experimental basis and require huge
funding.Hence presently commercial usage is quite far away and will
be a boon to many fields if made possible.

INTRODUCTION

What is NANOTECHNOLOGY?
Nanotechnology is a field of applied science and technology
covering a broad range of topics. The main unifying theme is the
control of matter on a scale below 100 nanometers, as well as the
fabrication of devices on this same length scale. Nanotechnology cuts
across many disciplines, including colloidal science, chemistry, applied
physics and other scientific fields.
Apart from numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots
,NEMS and nanotubes for space research, real applications employ
colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics,
protective coatings.The module chosen for the paper is an application
of Nanotechnology with MEMS
.

What is NEMS?
Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology: a "bottom-
up" approach the other being “top-down” approach .Top-down
approaches create smaller devices by using larger ones to direct their
assembly like Solid-state silicon methods for fabricating
microprocessors. They are now capable of creating devices smaller
than 100 nm known as nanoelectromechanical systems(NEMS), which
are related to microelectromechanical systems(MEMS).MEMS is the
technology of the very small, and merges at the nanoscale into

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NEMS.They are fabricated using modified silicon fabrication technology

(used to make electronics), molding and plating,etc.

Common applications:

1) Inkjet printers, which use piezoelectrics.

2) Accelerometers in modern cars for airbag deployment in collisions.
3) MEMS gyroscopes used in modern cars for dynamic stability control.
.4) Displays e.g the DMD chip in a projector based on DLP technology
has on its surface several hundred thousand micromirrors.

APPLICATIONS OF MEMS IN ROBOTICS:

MEMS-scale accelerometers, geophones, and gyros—thanks to their

small size and weight, modest power consumption and cost, and high
reliability—are replacing some of their standard-size precursors as well
as establishing new markets of their own.
While accelerometers are the current leaders in commercially
successful MEMS technology, other inertial devices such as rate
gyroscopes are poised for a similar success. In addition to high-volume
markets for automotive crash sensors, there are niche markets for
high-resolution seismic sensing and high-g sensors.

The main applications of MEMS in robotics are

1) Accelerometers
2) Geophones
3) Sensors-Digital compass
4) Oscillators
5) Microphones

1) Accelerometers: An accelerometer measures

acceleration (change in speed) of anything that it's
mounted on. How does it work? Inside an accelerator
MEMS device are tiny micro-structures that bend due
to momentum and gravity. When it experiences any
form of acceleration, these tiny structures bend by an
equivelent amount which can be electrically detected.
Today, accelerometers are easily and cheaply

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available, making it a very viable sensor for cheap robotics hobbyists

like you and me.

Applications for Accelerometers: Accelerometers are very

important in the sensor world because they can sense such a wide
range of motion. They're used in the latest Apple Powerbooks (and
other laptops) to detect when the computer's suddenly moved or
tipped, so the hard drive can be locked up during movement. They're
used in cameras, to control image stabilization functions. They're used
in pedometers, gait meters, and other exercise and physical therapy
devices. They're used in gaming controls to generate tilt data. They're
used in automobiles, to control airbag release when there's a sudden
stop. There are countless other applications for them.

Possible uses for accelerometers in robotics:

1) Self balancing robots

2) Tilt-mode game controller
3) Model airplane auto pilot
4) Alarm systems
5) Collision detection
6) Human motion monitoring
7) Leveling sensor, inclinometer
8) Vibration Detectors for Vibration Isolators
9) G-Force Detectors

Axis of Acceleration: The tiny micro-

structures can only measure force in a
single direction, or axis of acceleration.
This means with a single axis
measured, you can only know the force
in either the X, Y, or Z directions, but
not all. So if say your X-axis
accelerometer endowed robot was
running around and ran into a wall (in
the X direction). Your robot could detect
this collision. But if say another robot
rammed into it from the side (the Y
direction), your robot would be oblivious to it. There are many other
situations where a single axis would not be enough. It is always a good
idea to have at least 2 axes (more than one axis).

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Gravity :

Gravity is an acceleration. A such, your accelerometer will always be

subject to a -9.81 m/s^2
acceleration (negative means
towards the ground). Because
of this, your robot can detect
what angle it is in respect to
gravity. If your robot is a
biped, and you want it to
always remain balanced and
standing up, just simply use a
2-axis accelerometer. As long
as the X and Y axes detect zero acceleration, this means your robot
device is perfectly level and balanced.

Accelerometers, Rated G :When you buy your accelerometer, you

will notice it saying something like 'rated at 2g' or '3g accelerometer.'
This is how much g force your sensor can handle before breaking.
Gravity accelerates objects at 1g, or 9.81 m/s^2. For examplke, if your
robot is moving at 1g upwards, then that means you sensor will detect
2g. For most robotics applications a 2g rating will be fine. So why not
just get the highest rating possible? The lower the rating, the more
sensitive it will be to changes in motion. You will always have a more
fine tuned sensor the lower the rating. But then again, more sensitive
sensors are more affected by vibration interference.

Chances are you would have no need to measure the force, but if you
reverse the equation you can calculate the angle by knowing the
detected force.

Availability and Cost:

The MEMS IC's are easily available and very affordable. However they
all require support circuitry and come as surface mounts. I highly
discourage buying an IC and doing your own wiring. However there are
many already setup accelerometer packages you can buy. For
example, Dimension Engineering has a great plug and play dual axis
accelerometer which requires no additional support circuitry. There are
several other great sensors out there, some as a 3-axis, and now some
even with built in rotation sensor gyros!

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Additional Tips and Uses: Placing an accelerometer on a mobile

robot that experiences bumps can trigger the accelerometer
unintentionally. Use a capacitor to smooth out output over several
hundred milliseconds (testing required) to prevent this. Also, read the
interpret sensor data tutorial to enhance your accelerator sensor
accuracy.

Angular Accelerometers:
MEMS angular accelerometers are used
primarily to compensate for angular shock and
vibration in disk read/write head assemblies.
These devices, while similar to linear
accelerometers in terms of design, fabrication,
and readout, are designed with zero
pendulosity (i.e., the center of gravity is
located at the centroid of the support springs),
and are compliant to rotational motion yet stiff
with respect to linear motion. Delphi and ST
Microelectronics, manufacturers of angular accelerometers, use
capacizive MEMS sensors and custom CMOS ASICs.

Geophones: Geophones can be thought of as accelerometers with

very high sensitivity and no DC output requirement. With no drift or
bias stability specifications, geophone design can be optimized to give
the lowest noise floor. Applications include seismic sensing, machinery
vibration and failure prediction, tracking and identification of vehicles
or personnel, and underwater pressure gradient sensing.

Conventional geophones incorporate permanent magnets and fine wire

coils to measure velocity above their fundamental resonance .This is in
contrast to capacitive accelerometers, which measure acceleration
below their fundamental resonance.

Sensor-Digital Compass:

Basic Description: The digital compass gives measurements based

on Earth's magnetic field for robot navigation. Inside this commonly
available MEMS are tiny nano-structures that bend due to
electromagnetic fields. When this MEMS experiences any form of EM
field, the tiny structures bend by an amount which can be electrically
detected. Cheaper digital compasses usually have a resolution of
around +/- 5 degrees, but newer and better ones can detect with a
better accuracy.

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Availability and Cost: Easily available for $30-$100. It is best to buy

them with supporting circuitry included to avoid any interference from
bad electrical design.

Oscillators:

The field of robotics require ultra small, high frequency filters and
oscillators with
extremely good temporal and thermal stabilities, high resonant quality-
factors, and excellent RF matching characteristics. Discrete bulk
acoustic wave devices such as quartz resonators have been the
prevailing choice for such applications because single crystal quartz
has several attractive material properties. It is a low loss (high Q)
piezoelectric material with zero temperature coefficient for selected
crystal cuts. In addition, its
chemically inert surface makes quartz a candidate for stable frequency
operations. However, current manufacturing technology for quartz
resonators does not provide a
straightforward method for reducing the size and thereby increasing
the frequency of operation into the UHF range . Furthermore,
integrating large arrays of precisely tuned
structures with high-frequency RF electronics, and vacuum packaging
the resulting chip at wafer level, are not possible with present
techniques. Polysilicon surface micromachining technology has
enabled the creation of on-chip UHF resonators
with high Q values. However, these devices typically suffer from
extremely large motional resistance (>> 1 kΩ) and temperature
sensitivity, making them less desirable for low impedance, high Q RF
applications. Recent advancements in microfabrication, especially in
the areas of precision wafer bonding and plasma etching, have
enabled us to fabricate miniaturized quartz on-chip resonators working
in the VHF-UHF frequency range. These resonators can retain the
excellent properties of discrete quartz devices
while providing a low-cost path for on-chip integration of filter and
oscillator arrays with electronics and wafer-scale packaging

Microphones:

MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems)

products utilize robust processes from the
semiconductor industry to make a wide

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variety of electronic devices smaller, more reliable and cheaper to

manufacture. In simple terms, MEMS is the creation of mechanical
structures with semiconductor technology.

Traditional uses of silicon involve creating pathways for electricity

within components such as integrated circuits. In contrast, MEMS
transforms silicon into mechanically moving parts. During the past
decade, this process has become useful in an increasing number of
industries. For example, the automotive market uses MEMS
accelerometers to sense crashes and deploy airbags.

How Does the MEMS Microphone Work? Recent refinements in

MEMS processing have resulted in the batch fabrication of low cost,
high performance, miniaturized condenser microphones. In certain
applications, this device offers specific advantages over traditional
ECMs (Electret Condenser Microphone). Starting with a silicon wafer,
semiconductor materials are deposited and removed to form a
capacitor. Just as with a conventional electret microphone, it consists
of a flexible diaphragm, a stiff backplate and damping holes with an
electrical charge on the backplate. The diaphragm is in close proximity
to the backplate, forming a capacitor. When sound pressures impinge
on the diaphragm, it moves, changing the capacitance between the
plates. This variance is measured and outputted as an electrical signal.

Apart from being made of silicon, the largest difference between an

ECM and a silicon microphone involves how the charge is maintained
on the backplate. With ECMs, the charge on
the backplate (typically 200 V - 300 V) is
implanted at the manufacturer. If for any
reason the charge is reduced or removed,
the dynamic response of the microphone
quickly degrades. More often than not, this
is caused by excessive heat. This is why
ECMs are not specified over 85°C and
cannot be soldered to a printed circuit board
through automated surface mount processes. A silicon microphone
does not have a charge when it leaves the factory. A charge of 12 V is
"pumped" onto the backplate via a CMOS circuit. The chip maintains
this charge whenever the microphone is activated.

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Traditional electret microphones utilized in portable wireless

applications achieve high sensitivity through compliant diaphragms
that are large in size (typically 6 mm). As ECM microphones are
reduced size, they quickly lose sensitivity. The Emkay surface mount
microphone maintains a high sensitivity (-42 dBV); even though the
diaphragm is just 0.5 millimeters in diameter. This is accomplished
using a patent pending free-floating diaphragm. The small size of the
diaphragm results in significant economies of scale and low cost, since
thousands of microphones can be made from single silicon wafer.

APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN ROBOTICS:

Nanotechnology, the manipulation and

assembly of tiny devices often not much larger
than a group of molecules, is a perfect
application for industrial robotics. Due to the
fact the objects being handled are so small, a
few billionths of a meter, it is impossible for a
human to see or successfully fabricate
anything from them, robotics are the primary
means of working with them.
Robos for Nanos Robotics for nanotechnology
enables production in several types of items and operations. Nano-
positioning robotics are used in a variety of processes, including fiber
optic component assembly Semiconductor assembly, testing and
inspection use robots for nanotechnology production. Also
nanotechnology robots are used in high-density pharmaceutical assay
processes.
Robotic nano-manipulators are integrated in high-powered scanning
electron microscopes. These are used for research and in the
integrated circuit market Most major
semiconductor makers now have such tools to
measure individual transistors anywhere in
the circuit. Nanotechnology robots are used
for manipulating contacts, which are 100
nanometers in length and getting smaller.
Robot operators are able to position a finely
etched tungsten probe on the metal contact to
achieve good electrical contact. This has
proven to be a good market for us.

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Another application for robotics in nano-manipulation or assembly is

pick and place operations for building optical systems, like
spectrometers.
‘‘Typically mass spectrometers are large and very expensive
laboratory instruments. Using our nano-assembly approach, high-
precision robotics are building miniaturized mass spectrometers.
Smaller mass spectrometers are deployed at airports for security.
Randall briefly explained the procedure for baggage screening. ‘‘Airline
security runs a cloth swab around luggage. The cloth is analyzed by
the mass spectrometer for sniffing out explosives or biological
weapons.’‘ A conventional mass spectrometer is too large to be
installed in airports. Robotics with nanotechnology capabilities makes
it possible to produce a scaled-down version.
The production of semiconductors and other tiny electronic would be
impossible without the use of robotics that are able of working a nano-
scale. ‘‘Miniature robotic production consists of disk drives, cell
phones, and photonics. Micro-assembly gets down into the level of sub-
semiconductors, placing subassembly components onto the chip
themselves, and applications where tolerances are within a micron,.
‘‘Nanotechnology robotics has expanded into biological systems,
where companies are manipulating cells within fluids,’‘ says Carlisle.
‘‘Biotechnology companies are injecting genes into cells.
Nanotechnology space is on the molecular or even at atomic level.’‘

Other robotically produced nano products are used for medical

applications, such as angioplasty. There is the shrinking of surgical
actuators, like for cleaning plaque from veins
and arteries. Nano-sized motors are put on the
end of a catheter that run through veins to
vacuum out plaque. Other medical uses for nano
products include a camera that can be
swallowed within a pill to get an inside look at
the digestive tract. This tiny camera facilitates
examination of the intestines without the need
for surgery or invasive techniques such as an
endoscope tethered to a cable.

The Little Things That Count because the items

that nano-robotics are manipulating are so
infinitesimally tiny, the typical parameters for a
work cell are different. Successfully
implementing a robotic solution to
nanotechnology applications poses a unique
set of challenges to system integrators. things
that integrators and end-users of

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nanotechnology robotics need to keep in mind when implementing

these systems.
‘‘There are a couple of things to deal with in nanotechnology robotics.
One is getting the precision required, which is technically achievable.
Another challenge is how to get the proper form factor to get those
motions in a nano-environment. If you have a nano device, you can
take that technology into a programmable robotic motion. integrators
cannot always use conventional electrical-magnetic motors and gear
devices. When getting down to objects that small, you are battling laws
of physics.

Conventional robotics are not intended to provide nanometer-range

positioning precision. Rather, they are useful for ‘gross’ positioning
tasks over comparatively large operating ranges, Supplementing gross
positioning with fine-positioning solutions, such as piezoelectric stages
is one strategy for meeting requirements for nano positioning over
large areas. Another technique is use of machine vision to provide
localized position updating, essentially reducing additive error that
accumulates over large travel distances.

Typically, robots are not scaled nicely to deal with manipulation of

things on a nano-scale. It is important to be able to know that the
object you are moving has gone to the point intended. To do that,
sensors tell the robot actuator to move a semiconductor wafer to a
specific spot, but the sensor should also to tell you that the wafer
actually moved to that place. The force of gravity has relatively less
affect on nano-sized objects. When manipulating objects that are
nanometers in length, you cannot necessarily rely on gravity to put
things where you want them. Electrostatic forces at that scale are
often stronger than gravity.

Small Size, Big Future In the next five years, as the volume of
nanotechnology robotics increases, the cost will come down. Like any
precision manufacturing process, there has been major investment.
Until there is sufficient volume to amortize that investment there is not
yet the cost-benefit. In the next few years, the volumes will become
sufficient and the investment to make these products will be spread
over very large numbers of items and therefore will become cost-
effective.
‘The next five years will be in directed in developing better materials,
controlling material fabrication at a much higher resolution than in the
past, In five to ten years from now, we will see more of a higher level
of integration of products, where we will see combining sensors,
actuators, and power supplies.

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SELF REPLICATING NANOBOTS:

The first use of the

term "Goo" was in the
phrase "Gray goo"
(see below). Gray goo
is a mass of small,
destructive, self-
replicating
nanorobots, so the
word "goo" implies a
capability for self-
replication. Of course,
most nanorobots will
not be capable of duplicating themselves (just as normal-sized
machines cannot reproduce), and most nanorobots will not be
destructive. Naive nano-thinkers may imagine self-replication as part
of every nanomachine's functionality, thinking this would be more
convenient, but self-replication is quite difficult and would make any
nanomachine bulky and inefficient. In practice, it will almost always be
better to manufacture a sufficient quantity of simple nanomachines in
advance. It is tempting to call any mass of small nanomachines a
"goo"; however, uncontrolled self-replication is one of the largest
perceived risks of nanotechnology, and we need to be quite clear
about which designs pose that risk and which do not.

Nanotechnology and the Human Brain

The most important and radical application particularly of circa-2030

nanobots will be to expand our minds through the merger of biological
and nonbiological, or “machine,” intelligence. In the next 25 years, we
will learn how to augment our 100 trillion very slow interneuronal
connections with high-speed virtual connections via nanorobotics. This
will allow us to greatly boost our pattern-recognition abilities, memories,
and overall thinking capacity, as well as to directly interface with powerful
forms of computer intelligence. The technology will also provide
wireless communication from one brain to another.

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The Various Goos

Assembler: A small nanomachine designed to construct other

nanomachines, including copies of itself.

Blue Goo - opposite of Grey goo. Beneficial tech, or "police" nanobots.

Gray Goo or Grey Goo - destructive nanobots

Green Goo: Nanomachines or bio-engineered organisms used for

population control of humans, either by governments or eco-terrorist
groups.

Golden Goo: Another member of the grey goo family of

nanotechnology disaster scenarios.

Khaki Goo: Military Nanites

Utility Fog: A mass of robots with twelve legs apiece forming a

microscopic truss structure. Capable of changing shape, and perhaps
color, in response to external commands.

CONCLUSION

Our computers are quite fast and small, but no revolutionary

breakthrough in computing has happened since the transistor was
invented. The human genome project has reached completion, yet
limits in our ability to cure disease on a molecular basis remain. While
it is often difficult to predict the future, some things seem inevitable.
Just as a ball thrown into the air can be expected to fall to the ground,
so can we expect our technology to reach the molecular scale.
Nanotechnology, the manipulation and assembly of tiny devices often
not much larger than a group of molecules, is a perfect application for
industrial robotics. Due to the fact the objects being handled are so
small, a few billionths of a meter, it is impossible for a human to see or
successfully fabricate anything from them, robotics are the primary
means of working with them.
MEMS and Nanotechnology is used in low or medium volume
applications.Its because of lack of fabrication knowledge. If these
problems are overcame then miniaturization will be at its highest
level.

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