Abstract
This paper presents the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of an electro-thermally actuated microgripper suitable for single-cell manipulation. The analysis of the mechanical properties of cells is of great interest both in medicine and biology because the study of the cellular mechanical behaviour and resistance is necessary in these fields. Microgrippers (Bio-MEMS) have an important role in the manipulation of biological tissues and cells. In recent works, the research group simulated the mechanical behavior of grippers and the different actuation strategies. Considering the dimensional specifications and targets imposed by actuation and biocompatibility, in this paper, a microgripper based on electro-thermal actuation is studied. Starting from previous numerical results, a novel SU8 structure is designed and realized according to the micro-fabrication constraints and then the structure is simulated using the finite element method (FEM)-based thermo-structural simulations in ANSYS. Therefore, the fabrication method and steps are presented and the gripper has been developed and tested. Finally, the tip displacements of the gripper, electro-thermally actuated in different operating conditions, are compared with those obtained by means of numerical FEM simulations. A good agreement is obtained between simulations and experimental results.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al Zandi M, Voicu R-C, Muller R, Wang C (2016) Testing and characterisation of electrothermal microgrippers with embedded microheaters. In: Proc. of symposium on design, test, integration & packaging of MEMS/MOEMS-DTIP2016, Budapest, pp 256–260
Al-Zandi M, Wang C, Voicu R, Muller R (2017) Measurement and characterisation of displacement and temperature of polymer based electrothermal microgrippers. Microsyst Technol. doi:10.1007/s00542-017-3298-8
Andersen KN, Carlson K, Petersen DH, Mølhave K, Eichhorn V, Fatikow S, Bøggild P (2008) Electrothermal microgrippers for pick-and-place operations. Microelectron Eng 85:1128–1130
Beyeler F, Neild A, Oberti S, Bell DJ, Sun Y, Dual J, Nelson BJ (2007) Monolithically fabricated microgripper with integrated force sensor for manipulating micro-objects and biological cells aligned in an ultrasonic field. J Microelectromech Syst 16(1):7–15
Chan B-D, Mateen F, Chang C-L, Icoz K, Savran CA (2012) A compact manually actuated micromanipulator. J Microelectromech Syst 21(1):7–9
Chan B, Icoz K, Huang W, Chang C, Savran CA (2014) On-demand weighing of single dry biological particles over a 5-order-of-magnitude dynamic range. Lab Chip 14(21):4188–4196
Chang H-C, Tsai JM, Tsai H-C, Fang W (2006) Design, fabrication, and testing of a 3-DOF HARM micromanipulator on (111) silicon substrate. Sens Actuators A 125:438–445
Chen T, Sun L, Chen L, Rong W, Li X (2010) A hybrid-type electrostatically driven microgripper with an integrated vacuum tool. Sens Actuators A 158:320–327
Darnell L (1990a) Baltimore, [molecular cell biology], scientific American books. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, pp 681–951
Darnell L (1990b) Baltimore, [molecular cell biology], scientific American books. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, pp 617–638
Daunton R, Wood D, Gallant AJ, Kataky R (2014) A microgripper sensor device capable of detecting ion efflux from whole cells. RSC Adv 4:50536–50541
Deutschinger A, Schmid U, Schneider M, Brenner W, Wanzenböck H, Volland B, Ivanov Tzv, Rangelow IW (2010) Characterization of an electro-thermal micro gripper and tip sharpening using FIB technique. Microsyst Technol. doi:10.1007/s00542-010-1110-0
Giouroudi I, Hötzendorfer H, Kosel J, Andrijasevic D, Brenner W (2008) Development of a microgripping system for handling of microcomponents. Precis Eng 32:148–152
Huang W (2002) On the selection of shape memory alloys for actuators. Mater Design 23:11–19
Iamoni S, Somà A (2013) Design of cell microgripper and actuation strategy. In: Bio-MEMS and medical microdevices, Grenoble
Iamoni S, Somà A (2014) Design of an electro-thermally actuated cell microgripper. Microsyst Technol 20:869–877
Ivanova K, Ivanov T, Badar A, Volland BE, Rangelow IW, Andrijasevic D, Sümecz F, Fischer S, Spitzbart M, Brenner W, Kostic I (2006) Thermally driven microgripper as a tool for micro assembly. Microelectron Eng 83:1393–1395
Kohl M, Skrobanek KD (1998) Linear microactuators based on the shape memory effect. Sens Actuators A 70:104–111
Kohl M, Brevet B, Just E (2002) SMA microgripper system. Sens Actuators A 97–98:646–652
Loughlin C (1993) Sensors for industrial inspection. Springer, Berlin
Nah SK, Zhong ZW (2007) A microgripper using piezoelectric actuation for micro-object manipulation. Sens Actuators A 133:218–224
Nguyen N-T, Ho S-S, Low CL-N (2004) A polymeric microgripper with integrated thermal actuators. J Micromech Microeng 14:969–974
Ouyang PR, Tjiptoprodjo RC, Zhang WJ, Yang GS (2008) Micro-motion devices technology: the state of arts review. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 38:463–478
Solano B, Wood D (2007) Design and testing of a polymeric microgripper for cell manipulation. Microelectron Eng 84:1219–1222
Solano B, Rolt S, Wood D (2008) Thermal and mechanical analysis of an SU8 polymeric actuator using IR thermography. Proc Inst Mech Eng part C 222:73–86
Thielicke E, Obermeier E (2000) Microactuators and their technologies. Mechatronics 10:431–455
Voicu R-C (2016) Design, numerical simulation and experimental investigation of an SU-8 microgripper based on the cascaded V-shaped electrothermal actuators. J Phys Conf Series (JPCS) 757(1):012015
Voicu R, Muller R (2013) “New electro-thermally actuated micromanipulator with optimized design and FEM simulations analyses’’. In: Design, test, integration & packaging of MEMS/MOEMS (DTIP), pp 1–6
Voicu R, Műller R (2013) Design and FEM analysis of a new micromachined electro-thermally actuated micromanipulator. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 78(2):313–321
Voicu R, Esinenco D, Müller R, Eftime L, Tibeica C (2007) Method for overcoming the unwanted displacements of an electro-thermally actuated microgripper. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International conference on multi-material micro manufacture-4M 2007, Borovets, Bulgaria, pp 39–42
Voicu R-C, Tibeica C, Müller R, Dinescu A, Pustan M, Birleanu C (2016) Design, simulation and testing of polymeric microgrippers with v-shaped electrothermal actuators and encapsulated hetaira. In: Proc. of IEEE international semiconductor conference CAS 2016, 10–12 October Sinaia, 2016, pp 89–92
Volland BE, Heerlein H, Rangelow IW (2002) Electrostatically driven microgripper. Microelectron Eng 61–62:1015–1023
Volland BE, Ivanova K, Ivanov Tzv, Sarov Y, Guliyev E, Persaud A, Zöllner JP, Klett S, Kostic I, Rangelow IW (2007) Duo-action electro thermal micro gripper. Microelectron Eng 84:1329–1332
Zhang R, Chu J, Wang H, Chen Z (2012) A multipurpose electrothermal microgripper for biological micro-manipulation. Microsyst Technol 19(1):89–97
Zubir MNM, Shirinzadeh B, Tian Y (2009) A new design of piezoelectric driven compliant-based microgripper for micromanipulation. Mech Mach Theory 44:2248–2264
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Somà, A., Iamoni, S., Voicu, R. et al. Design and experimental testing of an electro-thermal microgripper for cell manipulation. Microsyst Technol 24, 1053–1060 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-017-3460-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-017-3460-3