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Silicon Microchain Demonstrates Power Of MEMs
Albuquerque - Jan 17, 2002 A microchain that closely resembles a bicycle chain � except that each link could rest comfortably atop a human hair � has been fabricated at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. (The distance between chain link centers is 50 microns. The diameter of a human hair is approximately 70 microns.) Because a single microchain could rotate many drive shafts, the device would make it unnecessary to place multiple tiny microelectromechanical (MEMS) motors in close proximity. Usually, a separate driver powers each MEMS device. "All those drives take up a lot of real estate on chips," says Sandia technician Ed Vernon, who has received a patent for the silicon microchain. The microchain also makes it possible to drive a MEMS device from a motor situated at a distance, again saving considerable space on the MEMS-bearing chip. The microchain, says Ed, could be used to power microcamera shutters, as larger chains currently do in the macroworld. It could also be used in mechanical timing and decoding. The 50-link silicon microchain is designed to transmit power somewhat like the drive belt in a 19th-century sewing factory. There, a central engine shaft powered by steam turned drive belts to power distant work stations � for example, sewing machines � before the dawn of the age of electricity.
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