The core promise of this research is the design and development of a comprehensive and scalable platform for multicantilever systems for nanoscale manufacturing and metrology. This platform will enable new metrology and imaging applications such as video-rate nanoscale imaging, high-throughput deposition-based manufacturing and polishing of micro-optical components. New approaches and architectures for the control of spatial arrays of dynamic systems with local interaction are developed and applied to arrays of microcantilever systems. Novel parallel kinematics micro-electromechanical (MEMS) positioners are developed to enable individual lateral positioning of microcantilever array elements. Robust control techniques, coupled with new approaches to simultaneous actuation-sensing of MEMS capacitance drives allow new levels of bandwidth, accuracy and robustness in positioning of the elements of such arrays. A platform framework is developed to integrate and leverage these new capabilities into a flexible system with the robustness to support a diverse set of operating conditions.
The results of this project enable basic scientific investigation in combinatorial chemistry, combinatorial material investigation, and biological scanning applications in genomics and combinatorial drug discovery. Besides its direct impact on graduate education, this project will use existing structures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide workshops that integrate micro-mechatronics, fabrication and metrology for advanced graduate students and research engineers, research experience for undergraduates, internet-based teleoperated access to MEMS devices for high-school teachers and students. The proposed project also fosters the synergistic transfer of know-how between the manufacturing, instrumentation/physical instrument, and control and dynamic systems research communities.
