Past projects

µRALP, FP7 STREP

Micro-Technology and Systems for Robot-Assisted Laser Phonomicrosurgery

The µRALP project is focused at advancing the state of the art in laser phonomicrosurgeries, which currently relies completely on the dexterity of surgeons who must operate through a microscope, control the laser aiming directly by hand, and deal with the associated poor ergonomics of the operating setup.

µRALP will also advance contemporary experimental systems, which have limited application range due to dependency on an external microscope with direct line of sight to the operating area. These advancements will come with the creation of a novel teleoperated surgical system based on a micro-robot end effector and a custom endoscope that will bring novel imaging and surgical technologies to the inside of the patient's body, eliminating the need for the surgical microscope and its associated requirement for direct line of sight to the surgical site. This new system will bring unprecedented levels of accessibility and precision to laser microsurgeries, allowing operations not previously possible with current technology. It will expand the surgical site imaging and laser control dimensionality to 3D, and augment surgeons' capabilities by providing fine aiming control, real-time visualization of tumor tissue, and a safety system able to predict and avoid surgical errors. In addition, it will provide the surgeons with an ergonomic and information-rich operating environment, which will result from research into novel surgeon-machine interfaces and augmented reality systems.

contact: nicolas.andreff@femto-st.fr

ANR LEMA

Liquid Environment for Microcomponents Assembly

This project deals with micro-assembly in the mesoscale, situated between micro and nanoscales, which comprises objects whose dimensions are from 100nm to 10µm. It addresses several scientific problematics, in the domains of microfluidics, micro-nanorobotics and nanojoining. This topic presents an applicative interest for the next generation of nanotechnological components. 

From a scientific point of view, mesoscale represents a paradigm in assembly methods: it is situated between nanoscale and microscale assembly, which are two completely different processes. On the one hand, self-assemblies (chemical reactions) have been used for decades to build assembled nanocomponents where positioning and joining are driven by the same physical effect (e.g. covalent forces). On the other hand, microassembly in industry is mainly based on robotic handling, positioning and gluing. Mesoscale represents a crossroad between these two approaches, where further studies are required to provide ad-hoc solutions on positioning and joining. 

contact: aude.bolopion@femto-st.fr

FAB2ASM, FP7 STREP

Efficient and Precise 3D Integration of Heterogeneous Microsystems from Fabrication to Assembly

The fab2asm project will develop a new manufacturing technology for 3D integration of microelectronics and microsystems which is simultaneously very fast and very accurate – which currently is the bottle neck limiting industry take-up.

FAB2ASM will develop a highly industry relevant technology that not only reuses most of the industrial process steps, but on the other hand dramatically improves the performance of the integration process in terms of precision and efficiency: FAB2ASM will allow handling of small (100 µm) and/or thin dies (20 µm) and ultra-high speed assembly (40,000 unit per hour), while ensuring industry proven reliability. Three industry-led demonstrators will validate the achievements in the fields of manufacturing equipment, photonic IC and microelectronics.

contact: michael.gauthier@femto-st.fr

ANR NANOROL, 

The idea behind NANOROL is to develop a station available for researchers and engineers in the world wishing to experiment or analyze micro/nanomanipulation tasks. The station will be based at the FEMTO-ST Institute in Besançon (France).

NANOROL is a 4years French research project (2008-2012) funded by the French Research Agency ANR (ANR No PSIROB07_184846). This project is based on collaboration between the FEMTO-ST Institute and the ISIR Institute.

contact: michael.gauthier@femto-st.fr