Our goal is to build a family of autonomous silicon robotic insects with actuating, computing, and power capabilities integrated. A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) device is used to house all three components. These robots use electrostatic actuators driving silicon linkages, all fabricated in the device layer of the wafer. By using electrostatic actuation, these actuator linkage systems have the advantage of being low power compared to other methods of actuation on microscale granting robot autonomy through low-power energy harvesting. Computation and communication are carried out with Single Chip Micro Mote (SCuM, BPN803). A Zappy2 chip with on-chip solar cell arrays and high voltage level shifter are integrated to the silicon device to provide the power capabilities to both the actuators and computation. We now focus on a new fabrication process integrating device layers of two SOI wafers with thermocompression bonding. The new process allows further improvement in the force-to-weight ratio of the actuators with assembly-free out-of-plane motion capabilities while providing two MEMS device layers for traditional spring mass MEMS. Current design includes mechanisms and actuators for self-righting the bugs if they fall over, a dual crab-leg robots driven by a single inch-worm motor. We have demonstrated multilayer electrical connectivity with an SOI-PCB concept capable of heterogeneous integration to both traditional and flip-chip CMOS ICs fabricated in advanced process node.
Project currently supported by: Member Fees