High-Speed High-Precision Piezo Actuators
for Nanotechnology
Mechanical
Engineering, University of Utah
This is an abstract
for a poster to be presented at the
Fifth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
The present work addresses one of the most critical problems
that prohibit the application of scanning-probe-microscope-based
nanofabrication techniques in a non-research setting: low
scanning-speed, which leads to extremely low throughputs when
working with nano-structures. The long term goal of the P.I.'s
research effort, is to improve the access-speeds of Scanning
Probe Microscope-based (SPM-based) nanotechnologies. Present
research is aimed at modeling of higher order dynamics of the
piezo, including the modeling of nonlinear hysteresis effects
using Preisach models, and parameter identification to account
for model-variations like piezo-aging. These models are to be
integrated with a recently developed nonlinear inversion approach
(a) to improve precision in scanning and (b) to increase the
achieved scan-rates. By increasing the throughput of
Scanning-probe-microscope-based (SPM-based) techniques, this
research will enable nanotechnologies to become economically
viable. The present research, aimed at improving the speed of
piezo-probes (used as scanners in SPMs), is critical to the
success of ongoing, complementary efforts of other researchers,
that are aimed at improving the efficacy of the
scanning-probe-based processes like (a) the development precision
feedback and novel positioning stages, and (b) the increase of
parallelism in the process (to increase throughput). Thus, in
conjunction with these complementary efforts, the research aims
to improve speed and precision of present nanotechnology.
*Corresponding Address:
Santosh Devasia, Assistant Professor
University of Utah, Mechanical Engineering Department
50 S, Campus Center Drive, RM 2202, Salt Lake City, Utah
84112-9208
Tel: 801 581 4613, Fax: 801 585 9826, email: [email protected]
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