Development of Hybrid MEMS/FIB Processes and Applications of Three-Pronged Active Nanotweezers For Manipulation of Nano
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0983-LL08-09
Development of Hybrid MEMS/FIB Processes and Applications of Three-Pronged Active Nanotweezers For Manipulation of Nano Objects Xuefeng Wang1 and Chang Liu2 1 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801 2 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801
ABSTRACT We report recent development of a three-probe micromachined nanomanipulator for manipulation and in-situ characterization of nanomaterials in scanning electron microscope (SEM). The nanomanipulator consists of three independent probes having thermal bimetallic actuators and nanoscopic end-effectors. Nanoscale end-effectors with sub-100-nm spacing are created using focused ion beam (FIB) milling to directly interface with nanoscopic objects (e.g., nanotubes, nanowires). Handling of individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was successfully realized with the nanomanipulator in an SEM. INTRODUCTION Researches in nanotechnology, especially those involved with synthesizing, characterizing, and utilizing advanced nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes [1], semiconducting nanostructures [2], and metallic nanowires [3], have attracted more and more attentions in recent years. It is known that nanostructures exhibit very different properties from their buck counterparts due to their small dimensions and unique structures. Their unique physical, chemical, mechanical, and electrical characteristics offer potentials to build a wide variety of devices with excellent performance. Researchers have proposed or demonstrated many novel device concepts [4], including CNT-based transistors, cross-bar nanowire circuits, logic and amplification nanodevices, chemical and biological sensors, and nanoelectromechanical systems. Commercially viable products based on nanostructures have also been developed (e.g., field emission display and ultra-fine scanning probes). In order to use nanomaterials and structures effectively, their electrical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics must be fully understood. However, due to the small sizes of these nanostructures and the difficulties of growing them with uniform properties and spatial regularity, it is labor intensive and prohibitively difficult to handle discrete nanostructures and measure their physical characteristics. In the past, efforts have been made to create nanomanipulation tools to solve this problem. Earlier work includes using commercial atomic force microscope (AFM) probe as tool to move nanomaterials. Lieber’s group demonstrated nanotweezers made by attaching two carbon nanotubes to electrodes [5].
In this work, we present a three-probe nanomanipulator that can efficiently handle individual nanostructures in SEM. EXPERIMENT The configuration of a nanomanipulator is shown in Figure 1a. The manipulator has three shanks. Each shank consists of two parts: a microfabricated probe (microscale) and a distal end-effector (nanoscale). Each probe consists of two layers with different ther
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