Noncontact nanometric positioning of probe tip for measurement of mechanical parameters of cell

This paper presents noncontact nanometric positioning of probe tip in a bio-chip. To obtain mN order force, we employed magnetically driven microtools. To realize nanometric resolution in positioning the probe tip, we proposed the reduction mechanism. This mechanism utilizes the serially-connected springs with different stiffness, and is driven by magnetic force. Probe features are shown as follows: (1) probe is actuated in a microfluidic chip, (2) high power and high resolution in positioning, (3) robust from disturbance by employing parallel plate structure, and (4) chip part is disposable. In this paper we developed on-chip nanometric probe with reduction mechanism. The performance of the probe was examined. We succeeded in nanometric order non-contact actuation of on-chip probe by using reduction mechanism.