70 micrometer size mass producible robot

The new robots are about 5 microns thick (a micron is one-millionth of a meter), 40 microns wide and range from 40 to 70 microns in length. Each bot consists of a simple circuit made from silicon photovoltaics—which essentially functions as the torso and brain—and four electrochemical actuators that function as legs.

The researchers control the robots by flashing laser pulses at different photovoltaics, each of which charges up a separate set of legs. By toggling the laser back and forth between the front and back photovoltaics, the robot walks.

 

아래는 논문에서 발췌한 글

a major roadblock exists: there is no micrometre-scale actuator system that seamlessly integrates with semiconductor processing and responds to standard electronic control signals

Here we overcome this barrier by developing a new class of voltage-controllable electrochemical actuators that operate at low voltages (200 microvolts), low power (10 nanowatts) and are completely compatible with silicon processing

The key innovation enabling these microscopic robots is a new class of actuators that we call surface electrochemical actuators or SEAs (Fig. 2). SEAs are made from nanometre-thick platinum and are fabricated using standard semiconductor technologies. We grow 7-nm-thick layers of platinum (Fig. 2b, Extended Data Figs. 1, 2) using atomic layer deposition (ALD), cap the exposed surface with an inactive material, either graphene or sputtered titanium, and pattern them using lithography (Methods).

 

https://youtu.be/Wl6uw8dRrPA

 

reference

Electronically integrated, mass-manufactured, microscopic robots, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2626-9 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2626-9