Probe Station Project

Shared with express permission of Curtis Berlinguette Research group

I was tasked with designing and implementing a conductivity characterization module for a new gantry slide-handling robot.

Design Process

Problem Definition - Requirements, Constraints, and Goals

Requirements and Constraints

  • Interfaces physically with slide-handling gantry system, may require collaboration with gantry system developer to work out details of slide manipulation.

    • Samples will be deposited on 3”x1” standard glass slides.

    • Reliably achieves ohmic contact with sample with >90% accurate validation.

    • Positional validation required (allows for correlation of conductivity and imaging).

  • Solution must be safe for humans and equipment.

    • Consider consequences of robot arm and module collision error.

    • Consider pinch points for humans.

    • Consider electrical hazards for instrumentation.

  • Can conduct 4-point resistance measurement on glass slide samples.

  • Can record measurements for human or computational analysis which are accessible to the rest of the experimental platform.

  • Reliable enough to enable automated experimentation runs of over 10 hours (20-40 samples) with over 95% success rate.

Goals

  • Design cost is minimized.

    • Consider designing a prototype contact board for testing before implementing more expensive Signatone probe head.

    • Consider utilizing 8020 materials to align with upcoming order.

  • Make use of switch-matrix to allow for additional instrumentation modules or multiplexing to multiple probe stations.

  • Probe station can capture hysteresis and response time data.

  • Provide a useful probe station API to the rest of the team which is easy to integrate.

Slide-handler Design

slide-handler design responsibilities passed from gantry-station co-worker

Conductivity Probe Design

original prototype, designed with a different workflow in mind
test printing of NanoAg electrodes and traces on glass

Software

System Block Diagram
  • This project uses two off-the-shelf components: a digital multimeter to conduct measurements and a switch matrix to multiplex the multimeter.

  • These instruments have native automation features written in SCPI. I used PyVisa to send SCPI commands and receive data in Python.

  • I wrote separate classes for controlling each instrument (switch matrix controller and dmm controller).

  • After confirming probe/gantry integration details with project engineers I wrote a probe station controller class which coordinated the two instruments to carry out conductivity measurements on command.

  • I documented the project, integrated it with the gantry station control project and submitted it for review.

Outcomes

  • The module was completed and handed over to the gantry station project owner.

  • The gantry system continued to see development through until February 2021.

  • In June a scientist requested use of the probe station to make swept conductivity measurements of glass-deposited films. A custom sweep routine and JSON data-output program were written and put into use for 3 weeks. End user reported satisfaction with operation and end results.

configuration of the overall station before integration with the larger Ada platform

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