SQUIGGLE NanomanipulatorP13372

To develop a low-cost, high resolution, three-axis Cartesian nanomanipulator using SQUIGGLE piezoelectric linear actuators from New Scale Technologies, a local company in Victor, NY which will ultimately be used at RIT’s Nano-Bio Interface Laboratory

Team Goal

Nanomanipulators are high resolution positioning instruments, and when used with high magnification devices, has the ability to maneuver objects thousands of times smaller than what can be seen with the human eye. High costs ($10-50K) and inaccessibility of nanotechnology is very limiting to research

Problem

Customer vs. Final Specs

Customer Needs & Relative Importance

Cory Behm ME Jon Rosebrook ME Sakif Noor ME

Guide: William Nowak , Product Engineer at Xerox Customer: Dr. Michael Schrlau at RIT’s NBIL Labin conjunction with New Scale Technologies (Victor, NY)

Project Timeline

Future Improvements•Smoother Contacts where motor screw touches axis•Brass inserts for screws in plastic parts•Machined parts rather than 3-D printed & Filed•Higher resolution via:

Closed loop control with sensorsCalibration of speed settings to achieve higher

•Limit switches with Flexible Printed Circuits rather than Copper tape

Design (CAD)

Special Thanks to New Scale Technologies for their time, products and support and to William Nowak and Dr. Michael Schrlau for the extra time, attention, and guidance during this project

SQUIGGLE Motor

Magnetic Location Sensor

Controllers (x2)

USB Hub

Pipette

Motor Stops

Axis Block

SPEC # RANKING SPECIFICATION (METRIC) UNIT OF MEASURE

MARGINAL VALUE

IDEAL VALUE

ACTUAL VALUE

S5 1 Development costs $ $1,000 S6 2 Manufacturing costs $ < $500S9 3 Fine motion resolution nm ± 100 500 8440

S11 4 Supported software type binary YESS8 5 Distance traveled in each axis mm 5 5.08S7 6 SQUIGGLE motor speed mm/s ± 2 5 Less than 3S1 7 Length of the mechanical system cm +0 8 7.95

Length of the entire system Cm +0 8 20.5S2 8 Height of the mechanical system Cm +0 8 6.86

Height of the entire system Cm +0 8 7.8S3 9 Width of the mechanical system Cm +0 8 4.06

Width of the entire system Cm +0 8 8S12 10 Input device - joystick support binary YESS10 11 Visual feedback rate fps ± 1 15 15S4 12 Weight of the entire system g +0 550 325

Squiggle Motor

Dime as size reference

Part produced

No spring to push down since weight is sufficient

Spring pushing to the left

Probe in Holder

Controlling Motion:Since the SQUIGGLE Motors are linear actuators, additional requirements for linear motion are considerably simplified. Nippon ball bearing rails and carriages are used to guide the motion of each axis because they are small and provide a very low coefficient of friction compared to alternatives such as sleeve bearings.

RailBall Bearing Carriage

Spring (around rail)

Forecepspushing carriage against spring

Screw in Carriage

Using the SQUIGGLE Motors:The SQUIGGLE motors are exceptionally tiny piezoelectric actuators. They drive screws back and forth, however only one end of the screw can actually be used to push. Because of this, a system is required to apply a force to keep the carriage against the rail. Three systems showed promise, using springs, weights, and magnets.

A compression spring can be fixed at one end and contact the carriage at the other. As the carriage moves, it presses the spring and compresses it, so the spring to apply a force pressing the carriage to the screw. This is simple to implement, but incurs a significant load to the motor at the travel limit, even with the weakest spring available.In using weights, the weight of some mass constantly applies a force that is then redirected by a cable, if required, to apply a force to the carriage. This is particularly favorable in the up-down axis since no additional weight or redirection is required; the weight of the carriage and components is sufficient to push the carriage down against the screw. For this, gravity is employed in that axis.For magnets, a magnet is attached to the carriage to simply attract the metal screw. This is favorable in terms of complexity and load applied to the motor, however was ruled out in the design phase for fear of disrupting the magnetic position sensors. This fear was later proven inconsequential through experimentation and magnets have been employed.

In addition, the surface that the screw pushes must not incur much friction since the screw must rotate as it pushes, and a small torque can stall the motors. For this, the screw was to make contact on Delrin. Since the parts are 3-D printed ABS rather than machined Delrin, a delrin surface is glued on and filed down to thickness. This filing when done quickly weakens the magnet, and one axis has been reverted to spring because of this.

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE:Each of the following images contains two

parts. The first (top or left) is the initial position of a capped probe. The second is the final position after a move of 1 motor step at full speed is ordered in a direction. This second image is flipped over the axis the move is ordered in so that the edges can be compared and the distance is labeled. Higher resolution can likely be achieved with a lower speed setting.

Magnet (glued in)ABS Printed Part

Delrin contact for screw (glued on and filed down)