Micro-electromechanical sub-assembly having an on-chip transfer mechanism
First Claim
1. An on-chip system on a substrate comprising:
- at least one carrier holding a plurality of parts integral to said at least one carrier;
an assembly area having a cavity provided with alignment posts; and
a transport for moving said at least one carrier to said assembly area, and for moving a subset of said parts to said cavity onto said alignment posts, said plurality of parts being attached to said carrier by filling a gap between said carrier and said plurality of parts with material that is selectively etched with respect to the material that said carrier and said plurality of parts are made of.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Carriers (10) holding parts (50) for assembling complex MEMS devices are transported to a central assembly location. The parts are stacked in a pre-assigned order and later released from their carriers. Alternatively, they are positioned over the appropriate location and released so as to fall into position as needed. The assembly area (100) includes a cavity below the plane of the carriers such that the parts held within the carrier drop into the cavity. Heating elements are integrated into the cavity to assist in the release of the parts. The cavity is supplied with parts by one or more carriers which are move around by any number of MEMS drive systems (200, 250). The cavity and some of the MEMS assembled therein deliver with precision amounts of materials as required suitable for biomedical applications, or may be processed in-situ, as in an on-chip laboratory.
31 Citations
17 Claims
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1. An on-chip system on a substrate comprising:
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at least one carrier holding a plurality of parts integral to said at least one carrier; an assembly area having a cavity provided with alignment posts; and a transport for moving said at least one carrier to said assembly area, and for moving a subset of said parts to said cavity onto said alignment posts, said plurality of parts being attached to said carrier by filling a gap between said carrier and said plurality of parts with material that is selectively etched with respect to the material that said carrier and said plurality of parts are made of. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification