Gecko inspired Electrostatic Chuck

Abstract

We introduce a climbing system, inspired by gecko foot that uses Electrostatic Chuck (ESC) in place of Van der Waals interaction. Electrostatic chucks are currently used in wafer foundries to pick-up and move delicate thin semiconductor wafers. The properties of ESC make it an interesting adhesion force for wall mobility applications. However the great dependency of current ESCs' adhesion force on the surface roughness of the substrate renders them ineffective in "normal-roughness" walls. By combining ESC adhesion with gecko's foot-hair surface-roughness adaptability function we propose a device for wall mobility applications.