Evaluation of building technology for mass producible millimetre-sized robots using flexible printed circuit boards

Initial tests of a building technology for a compact three-dimensional mass produciblemicrorobot are presented. The 3.9 × 3.9 × 3.3 mm3 sized prototype robot represents amicrosystem with actuators, sensors, energy management and integrated electronics. Theweight of a folded robot is 65 mg and the total volume is less than 23 mm3. The design of theinterfaces of the different modules in the robot, as well as the building technology, isdescribed. The modules are assembled using conductive adhesive with industrial surfacemounting technology on a thin double-sided flexible printed circuit board. The final shape ofthe microrobots is achieved by folding the flexible printed circuit board twice. Electrical andmechanical studies are performed to evaluate the assembly and it is concluded that thetechnology can be used for this type of microsystem. Several issues using the presentedassembly technique are identified and addressed.
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