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Biological glue for micromanufacturing

NPL is developing ways for biological recognition to bond hundreds of tiny components into a mechanical device the size of a full stop.

Instead of the painstaking manual assembly of a MEMS device, an emerging biomimetic technique gives each silicon component a set of DNA strands with a particular code. Each set has a matching partner on another component. The components are mixed together till they find each other and bond.

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with hundreds of pieces that fi t together in a particular way,” says NPL’s Alex Cuenat. “We make the pieces and nature puts them together.”

Thousands of sets of components – each with their DNA 'glue' – can be used to simultaneously manufacture thousands of MEMS devices. 

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to mechanical components and machines measured in micrometers, or thousandths of a millimeter.

Biomimetics is the application of methods found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and technology. 

For more information contact Alex Cuenat

Find out more about NPL's research in Biotechnology

Last Updated: 25 Mar 2010
Created: 2 Aug 2007