The Field Trip

An intrepid band of students trooped to Building 39 to see what they could see.   This is their story.

This is an image of the waifer holding stage and "pushing" probe found there.

The Probe:

This is the probe available at the MEMS lab, which has been used in the past with these waifers. The probe can be translated, pitched, or yawed.  The probe head is detachable from the mount providing these motions which magnetically fixed itself to the platform

We considered creating our own probe head that could be mounted onto the carriage.  We tested the probe for precision of motion.  We found that 7.5 screw turns translated the probe head 2mm, or 267 microns per revolution.  The manufacturer's specs confirm that the probe motions are only accurate to +/- 3 microns.  This resolution is not sufficient for our uses.  Also, at this point Jin mentioned that using this probe in the past had always snapped the biflexure beam.  Oops.

The Stage:

The stage and microscope arrangement, however, will be perfectly acceptable for incorporating into our design.

The talented Joachim demonstrates the x and y axis capability of the stage in this movie.