On-chip dual-arm microrobot driven by permanent magnets for high speed cell enucleation

This paper presents innovative driving method for the magnetically driven microtool (MMT) which is actuated in a microfluidic chip by permanent magnets on the XY stage. A piezoelectric ceramic is applied to induce ultrasonic vibration to the microfluidic chip and the high-frequency vibration reduces the effective friction on the MMT significantly. As a result, we achieved 1.1 micrometer positioning accuracy of the MMT, which is 100 times higher accuracy than without vibration. The enucleation process has been conducted inside the microfluidic chip by this precisely controlled MMT and we achieved to remove nucleus from swine oocytes in high speed.