STTR Phase I: Microhydraulic Actuator for High-Accuracy, High-Speed Position Stages

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to develop the key technology to enable the building of high-precision, high-throughput, semiconductor advanced packaging systems to enable broad adoption of the 3D integration of chiplets for next generation high-performance computing. With the rapid increase in the need for computing power associated with artificial intelligence development, self-driving cars, and next generation mobile devices, the semiconductor industry is transitioning to integrate semiconductor devices in 3D. This technology will extend the growth curve known as Moore’s Law beyond the limit of packing additional transistors onto individual chips. This project may also demonstrate the general feasibility of microhydraulic actuator technology, paving way for its development and applications in other fields of robotics. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project seeks to control electronics and design protocols to reach 100 nm in position accuracy in the design of semiconductor advanced packaging systems. The high-speed position stage will be based on the microhydraulic actuator technology and provide an improvement of 100x over the as designed step size. The team will develop the necessary electronics, hardware, control software, and measurement techniques to achieve the position accuracy, while maintaining the high responsiveness of the microhydraulic actuator. The plan includes assembling test actuators, developing and testing the control hardware and software, as well as establishing the capabilities of position measurement systems based on charge control, capacitance feedback and optical image feedback. The team will use these measurement systems to assess the movement accuracy and precision of the actuator and its control system. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.