The preliminary design of photovoltaic cells to be embedded in untethered aqueous microrobots, a few hundred micrometers in overall length, is briefly described. A total of 4 cells with an estimated efficiency of 12.5% should provide up to 100 microamperes of photonic current to the electronics embedded in each untethered microrobot from an incident source of green light. The need for power has been minimized through the use of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) acting as embedded micro-actuators to propel the microrobots in an aqueous medium. Controlling the direction of propulsion with the onboard electronics would be performed by exploiting magnetotaxis inherent in MTB. Here, a small electrical current provided by the photovoltaic cells and flowing in a controlled manner in a special embedded conductor network would be sufficient to exert a torque on a chain of magnetosomes in each bacterium. Such approach allows us to independently change their direction of motion when pushing each microrobot

Our group demonstrated experimentally that the swimming paths of Magnetotactic Bacteria (MTB) could be controlled through special microelectronic circuits and software algorithms. These results may lead to the development of a new type of microfactories where manipulation at the micrometer-scale could be performed by many MTB operating under the influences of special control rules. As such, a special integrated microelectronic circuit designed specifically to embed MTB and to control their swimming directions, has been developed. The orientation of the MTB are controlled by inducing a torque on a chain of small particles named magnetosomes, acting as a compass embedded in each bacterium. Such torque is achieved by circulating a small electrical current through selected conductors in the microcircuit in order to use the motility of the bacteria to push micro-objects towards desired locations. The microcircuit containing both the bacteria and the micro-objects being manipulated are placed under an optical microscope to provide information that are processed and fed back to the microcircuit to activate specific conductors in order to achieve optimal coordination and control of the MTB. Our initial proof-of-concept where MTB are pushing microbeads under computer control suggests that the use of biological components such as bacteria could play a major role and influence the development of future microfactories dedicated to specific ranges of applications. Index Terms Magnetotactic bacteria, microfactories, microelectronic circuit, micromanipulation.

System-on-Chip (SoC) design methodology allows a high-level of integration in relatively complex electronic systems while Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology provides the ability to convert electric power to mechanical power with very small dimensions. These two technologies combined provide the opportunity to develop complex miniature robots. This paper introduces the Walking-die, an on-chip miniature robot of a few mm(2) designed for operations at the nanometer scale. Although several components are required to implement such a robot, this papers emphasizes on the custom parts of the systems used to embed most of the digital functions based on SoC technology and the locomotion system implemented using silicon MEMS.

Charge transfer of 4.3 MeV/u chlorine ions passing through a discharge plasma target is used as a probe to determine the plasma density and the ratio of impurities inside the plasma column. Charge-state distributions of 2 MeV/u chlorine ions passing through the plasma are then measured and compared to corresponding measurements in the cold gas. Stopping power measurements are also performed in both cases.

Charge exchange of chlorine ions traversing a discharge plasma target is used as a probe to determine the rati of heavy impurities inside a plasma column. The rate coefficient of the recombination process is strongly related to the atomic number of the target atoms. High-Z impurities are much more efficient to modify the charge state distribution of the incoming chlorine ions. The ragne of detection could reach about 1‰ of the total number of atoms.

Influence of target temperature, density and atomic number on the charge state of swift heavy ions interacting with hot and dense plasma is considered. Hydrogen targets exhibit strong temperature effects and large non-equilibrium charges, whereas interactions with heavy material are more sensitive to the density effect. Our new average correlated hydrogenic atom model (ACHAM) is presented. It enables us to cover the whole range of target densities of interest for swift heavyion-plasma interaction experiments.