Robot-based Automated Nanohandling

Within the last ten years, the interest of industry and research and development institutes in the handling of micro- and nanometer-sized parts has grown rapidly [1]. Micro- and nanohandling has become a very common task in the industrial field and in research in the course of ongoing miniaturization. Typical applications include the manipulation of biological cells under an optical light microscope, the assembly of small gears for miniaturized gearboxes, the handling of lamellae cut out of a silicon wafer in the semiconductor industry, and the chemical and physical characterization of nanoscale objects. The number of applications for nanohandling and nanoassembly is expected to grow rapidly with the development of nanotechnology. The handling process is the precursor of the assembly process, hence, in this chapter, these expressions are used equally where not explicitly stated.