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Sandia Builds Micromechanical 'Device Driver'

Posted by michael on from the working-on-the-chain-gang dept.

DanielRavenNest writes: "Sandia Labs has built a tiny bicycle chain type drive out of silicon. This allows one micromechanical motor to drive multiple devices scattered about a chip."

3 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. flap, flap, flap by BrianGa · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can I stick a baseball card on it, and hear the racket? All the neighborhood geeks will be so jealous...Hey, this Mickey Mantle isn't worth anything, is it?

  2. Re:How are these made? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is actualy quite easy, the gears that you see in the pictures are made out of poly silicon. So what you do it grow a thick (several micron) sacrificial oxide, pattern the oxide using standard lithography. Etch out the pattern of the gears, creating essentaly a mold of the gear. Then you backfill the area with poly silicon. You then preform a oxide etch with a HF acid solution and remove the oxide, leaving just the poly silicon gears. You grow the oxide, etch, fill, and repeat. This process is done several times to created diffrent levels. So as an example, the bottom of the chain would be layer 1. The Drive gear and the vertical post that connect the top and bottom of the chain are layer 2. Then the top of the chain is layer 3.

  3. Possible Use... by alfredw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Consider hooking this thing up to a Brownian Ratchet, such as discribed by Feynman in his lectures. (For those not familiar with a Brownian Ratchet, this page give a good introduction and a cool Java thingy to play with. See also R.D. Astumian: Thermodynamics and Kinetics of a Brownian Motor, Science 276, p. 917-922 (1997). Essentially, it works like a very small, normal ratchet. Molecules in the atmosphere hit the system randomly. Sometimes it goes "forward," but it cannot go against the ratcheting mechanism - "backwards" is locked out. So you get a net forward motion on the ratchet essentially for free from the atmosphere.)

    Connect the Brownian Ratchet to this little chain thingy. Have it wind something up. User presses button, and thingy unwinds. Basically a free recharging system.

    Not all that practical, but pretty cool. I'm sure there are better applications... (anyone?)

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