CAD-guided manufacturing of nanostructures using nanoparticles

The development of nanomanufacturing technologies will lead to potential breakthroughs in manufacturing of new industrial products. Nanomanufacturing by manipulating nanoparticles using an atomic force microscope is desirable to manufacture asymmetric nanodevices and nanostructures. The complexity of nanomanufacturing requires positioning, manipulating and assembling nanoparticles. Typical manual nanomanipulation is time-consuming and inefficient. Automated path planning is desirable for nanomanufacturing, but does not receive much attention. In this paper, a general framework is developed to manufacture nanostructures and nanodevices. An automated tool path planning algorithm is presented. Simulations are performed to test the generated paths. The generated paths are also implemented to manipulate nanoparticles to manufacture nanostructures automatically. The simulation and experimental results are consistent. The general framework can also be extended to manipulate other nanoobjects.