Guiding strategies for the assembly of micro-components subjected to planar pull-off-force

During micro-assembly processes, planar contacts often appear (between two manipulated components, one manipulated component and its gripping tool or substrate). Adhesion forces being predominant at the microscale, such contacts have important consequences on assembly strategies. One of these adhesion forces is the pull-off force which is the necessary force to break a contact. This article focuses on the measurement of pull-off force of micrometric planar contacts (50x50 μm) and shows that it can be in the range of several hundreds of microNewtons. Consequences of this pull-off force on assembly strategy, especially guiding tasks, are then introduced. A strategy based on a force study is applied on teleoperated assembly sequences and validates the proposed guiding strategy. The study also enables to establish design rules that are specific for the microscale and that can be applied to the field of MOEMS assembly.