Bioinspired synthetic dry adhesives offer unique potential in the field of micro assembly and manipulation. These adhesives, which take their basic operating principle from animals like geckos, use van der Waals adhesion forces and mechanical fiber optimization to produce significant forces. For several years, these materials have been of interest for climbing robots and adhesive surfaces due to potential characteristics like self-cleaning or anti-fouling behavior, anisotropic adhesion strengths and non-transferring materials. These same strengths would make these materials an ideal mechanism for handling delicate parts or manipulating structures in the field of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) packaging. In this paper, I review the specific fabrication processes developed by our group and examine some of the challenges in their integration with MEMS assembly and packaging processes. Improving normal adhesion strength and directionality of adhesives has been completed and work is beginning to focus on reducing polymer transfer and improving the anti-static compatibility of the structural materials used in the adhesives.
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