Tiny Gears: Resolving the Fine-Scale Motion of MEMS (VIDEO)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Caption

This video shows real images of a microscopic gear and actuator in a MEMS (microelectromechanical system) device. A tiny actuator moves back and forth in a ratcheting motion that drives the rotation of a microscopic ring gear. To track the actuator's motion, researchers attached fluorescent particles to the actuator. Using the light-emitting particles, researchers were able to track displacements as small as billionths of a meter, and rotations as tiny as several millionths of a radian at a rate of 1000 times per second.

Credit

Video credit: Jennifer Lauren Lee/NIST. Music credit: Kevin MacLeod. Music licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200003.

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