Study on cell-oriented separate micro-manipulation based on SU-8™ and flexure hinge link

The aim is to improve the usability of the tools which are applied to micro-manipulation systems for biological cells. The structure of a device is optimized and the biocompatibility during the cell micro-manipulation is totally enhanced. In consideration of the drawbacks that are existed in the traditional device, a new design scheme is put into design. Research on the traditional device and craft, a new separable device applied to cell micro-manipulation is fabricated, which consists of a manipulator, a transmission link and a actuator. Based on the MEMS craft, the manipulator, whose biocompatibility has been improved, is designed and manufactured. And the flexure hinge technology is adopted to produce the high accuracy transmission link which also has the amplification property. Besides, the micro-gripper is delivered by the way of piezoelectric drive. Finally, the total system adopt the machine vision feedback technology to identify the objects. To verify the practical applicability, an experiment is developed, in which polyethylene particles are applied to imitate motions of the biological cells. Making use of image recognition technology and machine vision feedback technology, the operations towards to polyethylene particles, such as grip, shift, and release, turn out to be effective. What is more important, the performances of the biocompatibility are improved a lot. In addition, the separable structure makes it much easier for all the parts in the device to repeatedly use, with a result of cost reduction for repairing. These two advantages make the device have larger realistic engineering significance and a future of broad application.