Polymer MEMS-based microgripper for single cell manipulation

Author

Chronis, Nikolas ; Lee, Luke P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Bioeng., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

2004

Firstpage

17

Lastpage

20

Abstract

We present the development of a polymer MEMS-based microgripper that can operate in physiological ionic solutions. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two ´hot and cold arm´ actuators placed antisymmetrically next to each other. The polymer microgripper is fabricated in a standard two-mask surface micromachining process. The high thermal expansion coefficient of the polymer (SU-8) allows the activation of the microgripper with small temperature elevations (20-40°C) at low voltages (1-2 Volts). The developed polymer microgripper can be used for the manipulation of single cells and other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions.

Keywords

biomolecular electronics; grippers; masks; microactuators; micromachining; polymers; thermal expansion; 1 to 2 V; 20 to 40 degC; actuators; biological species; microelectromechanical system; physiological ionic solutions; polymer MEMS based microgripper; polymer gripper; polymer microgripper; single cell manipulation; surface micromachining process; thermal expansion coefficient; Arm; Electrothermal effects; Fabrication; Grippers; Micromachining; Piezoelectric actuators; Polymers; Temperature; Thermal expansion; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2004. 17th IEEE International Conference on. (MEMS)

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8265-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMS.2004.1290511

Filename

1290511