Micro-Assembly Technologies and Applications

Micro-assembly is a key enabling technology for cost effective manufacture of new generations of complex micro products. It is also a critical technology for retaining mdustrial capabilities in high labour cost areas such as Europe since up to 80% of the production cost in some industries is attributed directly to assembly processes. With the continuous trend for product miniaturisation, the scientific and technologi cal developments in micro-assembly are expected to have a significant long-term economic, demographic and social impact. A distinctive feature of the process is that surface forces are often dominant over gravity forces, which determines a number of specific technical challenges. Critical areas which are currently being addressed include development of assembly systems with high positional accuracy, micro gripping methods that take into ac count the adhesive surface forces, high precision micro-feeding techniques and mi cro-joining processes. Micro-assembly has developed rapidly over the last few years and all the pre dictions are that it will remain a critical technology for high value products in a number of key sectors such as healthcare, communications, defence and aerospace. The key challenge is to match the significant technological developments with a new generation of micro products that will establish firmly micro-assembly as a core manufacturing process.