micro assembly

The assembly of fragile microsystem or semiconductor components poses a challenge on handling technologies as damage by gripping forces must be avoided. Non-contact handling solutions are being developed at the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management that facilitate a gentle gripping of sensitive dies and highly thinned wafers using fluid dynamic effects. The advantages of this technology are reduced damages during handling, a higher yield per wafer as well as a reduction of particle contamination.

Assembly of micro mechatronical systems in small to medium volumes is missing economical solutions for automation. Due to a great variety of processes characterized by high requirements and complexity automation is realized only in specialized manufacturing lines for mass production. As a result an automated micro-assembly is usually capital intensive. Considering a mechatronical actuator as an example an approach is described which enables an initial assembly in small volumes at a small space. Due to the modular design a reduction of investment cost and the demand on economic entry in micro-assembly is accomplished.

For micro assembly processes, assembly accuracy in the range of one micron is required. In the following some strategies for enhancement of accuracy in micro assembly are shown by means of two different assembly systems. First, a self-developed assembly system consisting out of a parallel robot for micro assembly, a 3D vision sensor, grippers, magazines and fixtures is presented. Second, a cartesian robot that endues over a 2D vision sensor, a force sensor and a confocal laser scanning microscope is described. On the basis of examples for micro assembly processes the application limitations of both systems are depicted.