New miniature pantograph mechanisms with large-deflective hinges for micro-bonding by adhesives

In this paper, a parallel arrangement of miniature size manipulators is proposed. This system can be used as a manipulator system for micro-bonding by adhesives or as surface mount systems for micro devices on a substrate in OA/AV aids, personal phones, etc. The miniature manipulator consists of a molded pantograph mechanism, which is composed of large deflective hinges and links with the same materials, i.e. polypropylene. First, the durability of the pantograph mechanism including one parallelogram is confirmed by a fatigue test. A pantograph mechanism with dimensions of hinge length 200 /spl mu/m, thickness 180 /spl mu/m, and width 5 mm was not destroyed for repeated input motion of more than one million times in the fatigue test. Next, the input and output displacement characteristics of the pantograph mechanism are experimentally discussed. The output point repeatability of the mechanism at a maximum /spl plusmn/11 /spl mu/m has been confirmed. Consequently, the feasibility of the proposed miniature pantograph mechanisms for a micro device adhesion system or a surface mount system has been shown by discussion related to the total working time compared to the traditional surface mount system. Moreover, in order to obtain a constant output link orientation, a new pantograph mechanism including three parallelograms is proposed. In the new mechanism, we confirmed that the maximum orientation angle error between vertical direction and output link moving direction is 1.61/spl times/10/sup -2/ degrees for pick working, and 1.29/spl times/10/sup -2/ degrees for place working.