Vacuum Microfabrication on Live Fruit Fly

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Vacuum Microfabrication on Live Fruit Fly

• Anegal J. Shum and Babak A. Parviz
• University of Washington

IEEE International Conference on MEMS, 2007
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Motivation

• Fruit Fly a sophisticated microsystem
• Energy storage, microactuation, sensing and
  decision making funtions
• Current state of MEMS field unable to reproduce
  such complexity
• Interface electronic circuits with insects and
  control their functions
• Construction of hybrid micro-flying robots

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Background

• Model organism Drosophila or Fruit Fly.
• Widely used in developmental biology field
• Life span four to six weeks

Focus on adult stage
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Vacuum Survival

• Pressures as low as 55 mTorr durations up to 70
  minutes
• Fruit flies gained consciousness within an hour
• Younger flies survived more than older flies!
• Hungry flies survived less than fed fries!
• And Female flies survived more than male flies!

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Fabrication Process
Patterning Process
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Live Fruit Fly after Thermal Evaporation
100 nm thick 50 µm wide Indium patterns evaporated
at 1 mTorr for 30 minutes at 30 C
30 of flies survived!
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Live Fruit Fly