World's smallest microchain drive

A microchain that closely resembles a bicycle chain, except that each link could rest comfortably atop a human hair, has been fabricated at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories.

The distance between chain link centres is 50 microns. The diameter of a human hair is approximately 70 microns.

Because a single microchain could rotate many drive shafts, the device would make it unnecessary to place multiple tiny microelectromechanical (MEMS) motors in close proximity. Usually, a separate driver powers each MEMS device.

The microchain also makes it possible to drive a MEMS device from a motor situated at a distance, again saving considerable space on the MEMS-bearing chip.

The microchain could be used to power microcamera shutters, as larger chains currently do in the macroworld. It could also be used in mechanical timing and decoding.

The 50-link silicon microchain is designed to transmit power somewhat like the drive belt in a 19th-century sewing factory. There, a central engine shaft powered by steam turned drive belts to power distant work stations, for example sewing machines, before the dawn of the age of electricity.

Chain systems, unlike stroke systems, do not require back-and-forth movements but instead allow for both continuous and intermittent drive translation.