Vacuum Microfabrication on Live Fruit Fly

Anegal J. Shum and Babak A. ParvizUniversity of Washington

IEEE International Conference on MEMS, 2007

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

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

Focus on adult stage

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!

Fabrication Process

Patterning Process

Live Fruit Fly after Thermal Evaporation

100 nm thick50 μm wideIndium patternsevaporated at1 mTorr for 30 minutes at 30° C

30% of fliessurvived!

Live Fruit Fly