Scanning microsensors for nanotechnology

58. Hapgood, Fret. Really little engines that might. Technology Review. 1993 Feb; 96(2): 30-36. The advent of 'nanotechnology' promises to bring the greatest turning point in the history of life on earth. Nature itself offers extensive evidence that molecular-scale machines are possible. However, researchers have hardly begun learning how to operate in a domain where friction, gravity, and inertia have little practical significance. The research in molecular engineering and molecular electronics is described. Efforts to build a molecular voltmeter are discussed. 59. Stedman, M. Scanning mlcrosensors for nanotechnology. Sensors and Actuators, A: Physical 1993 Jun; 3738(2): 11-15. One of the most significant developments in the realm of nanotechnology during the 1980s was the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. This event triggered the evolution of a whole family of scanning probe microscopes (SPMs), all based on the use of proximal microsensors with very high lateral as well as vertical resolutions, which even allow atoms to be imaged. The properties sensed range from quantum tunneling currents, through interatomic and van der Waals forces, to the evanescent electromagnetic field. The principal application is imaging by the measurement of topography, but for many of the microsensors interaction with the surface is dependent on material properties, thus allowing a spectroscopic mode of use as well. The principles of several microsensors and associated SPMs are examined. The requirements for the traceable calibration of SPMs are discussed, and progress towards the development of calibration artifacts presented. 13 Refs. Taken from Proceedings of EUROSENSORS VI. 60. Ohbuchi, Yoshifumi; Matsuo, Tetsuo; Okamura, Tatsuo. Single-grit orthogonal cutting with shaped superabrasive grains (1st report) - force and friction angle. Journal of the Japan Society for Precision Engineering. 1993 Jul; 59(7):1175-1180. In this paper, single-grit orthogonal cutting has been performed on a carbon steel with shaped CBN and diamond grains to understand the difference in surface quality and grinding force between CBN and diamond wheels. The cutting and thrust forces were measured by means of load washer under different negative rake angles, cutting speeds, and depths of cut. In each cutting condition, the thrust and cutting forces increased linearly with increasing cross sectional area of groove. Forces with diamond grains were greater in almost all cases than the cutting with CBN grains, and much influenced by cutting condition. On the other hand, no significant influence except for rake angle was seen in forces in cutting with CBN grain. Furthermore, the friction angles under each cutting condition was calculated to detect the deformation condition in front of rake face at chip formation. It changed largely with grain type, rake angle and cutting speed. There was quite a difference between diamond and CBN grains. The reason for the difference would be the difference in coefficient of friction of two grain types. 7 Refs. 61. Wittenberg, Gunter. Smallest robots. Industrial Robot. 1993; 20(1): 27. A second wave of miniaturization is about to materialize leading to an entirely new and vast commercial arena according to the USA Office of Technology. The report envisages a growth of minuscule sensors and opto-electronic and micromechanical devices. Researchers foresee biomolecular nanorobots. Nanotechnoiogy is the development of machines on the order of 1 billionth of a meter in size and built by the manipulation of gigabit electronic devices and biotechnotogy using nanotechnology assemblers is discussed. 62. Donmez, M. A.; Yee, K. W.; Damazo, B. Some Guidelines for Implementing Error Compensation on Machine Tools. Gaithersburg, MD: National Inst. of Standards and Technology 1993 Aug; NISTIR-5236. 62 pages. Some guidance is presented for implementing error compensation for geometric and thermally induced errors of a machine tool. Error compensation has the potential for relatively low cost improvements in the accuracy of finished parts since machines are more repeatable than accurate and most errors are predictable and can be compensated. Measurement of individual error components and the development of a rigid-body, kinematic model of the machine tool is discussed. Some methods of implementing the predicted error compensation on existing machine-tools controllers is presented. 63. Brown, G. M.; Harding, K. G.; Stahl, H. P. SPIE - Industrial applications of optical Inspection, metrology, and sensing. 1992 Nov 19; Boston, MA. Bellingham, WA: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. 488 pages. Vol. 1821. This volume presents papers under the topics of nondestructive testing, surface contouring, surface monitoring, instrumentation, measurement technologies, measurement method analysis, and measurement applications. Individual papers include those on electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) with synchronized pressure stressing, a holographic and computational study of coupled vibrations of channel beams, a laser gage using chirped synthetic wavelength interferometry, a virtual image superposing comparator, a high-resolution fast-response profilometer based on active stabilized interferometry, an improved processing technique for dichromated gelatin holograms, and aberration-free spectral image formed by a concave aspherical diffraction grating. Attention is also given to multidetector photo-polarimeters for industrial optical sensing and metrology, a real-time 3D range sensor, a method for evaluating the performance of range imaging devices, fiber laser as the pulse source for a laser range-finder system, the feasibility of Moir~ contouring for flatness checking of steel plates, and closed-loop laser beam alignment along active robot arm. 64. Ramamoorthy, B.; Radhakrishnan, V. Statistical approaches to surface texture classification. Wear. Aug 2; 167( 2): 155-161. With the advent of high speed general-purpose digital computers and vision systems, it is becoming easier to digitize any image and to analyze them for various applications. There are basically three possible approaches for characterizing the textural features from the digitized images: statistical, structural and spectral. Here in this work an attempt is made to characterize some of these features of texture produced by various machining operations, namely grinding, milling and shaping by processing the digital image of the texture pattern using statistical methods. 8 Refs. 65. Shinmura, Takeo; Feng Hui, Wang; Aizawa, Toshio, Study on a new finishing process of fine ceramics by magnetic abrasive machining - on the improving effect of finishing efficiency obtained by mixing diamond magnetic abrasives with ferromagnetic particles. Journal of the Japan Society for Precision