Using Light to Assemble Electronic Components Instead of Robots

DooKey

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Researchers have come up with a new technique that uses light to manipulate components during the construction of items for smartphones, computers, and other devices. This technique should be cheaper to use compared to robots and will be one of the key micromanipulation techniques for constructing safer and faster batteries for our mobile devices. It's really amazing how this works. Check out the video about optical trapping.

Watch the video here.

In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Express, researchers in Steven Neale’s Micromanipulation Research Group, University of Glasgow, Scotland, detail their method for using an advanced optical trapping approach known as optoelectronic tweezers to assemble electrical contacts. Thanks to an innovative freeze-drying method developed by Shuailong Zhang, a member of Neale’s research group, the liquid could be removed without disturbing the assembled components.
 
Take that, robots! After all those jobs they stole from humans; how's it feel to be on the receiving end?
Now, how long before light becomes self aware?
 
Back in the late '70s I read an article in Playboy where millwrights need to look for a way to bring their talents into the new world of growing things from atomic soup. 3d printing and Optical tweezers are on the cusp of bringing this idea into reality. Growing rather than milling will be less wasteful and require less energy.
 
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