Electrothermally Activated SU-8 Microgripper for Single Cell Manipulation in Solution

Author

Chronis, Nikolas ; Lee, Luke P.

Author_Institution

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

Volume

14

Issue

4

fYear

2005

Firstpage

857

Lastpage

863

Abstract

The development of a SU-8-based microgripper that can operate in physiological ionic solutions is presented. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two “hot-and-cold-arm” actuators that are fabricated in a two-mask surface micromachining process. The high thermal expansion coefficient of SU-8 (52 $p\\pm/^\\circ C$ ) compared to silicon and metals, allows the actuation of the microgripper with small average temperature elevations (10 – 32 $^\\circ C$ ) at low voltages (1–2 V). The polymer microgripper can be used for the manipulation of single cells and other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions. $\\hfill \\hbox {[1330]}$

Keywords

biomedical engineering; grippers; micromachining; micromechanical devices; photoresists; polymers; 1 to 2 V; 10 to 32 C; electrothermally activated SU-8 microgripper; micromachining process; physiological ionic solutions; single cell manipulation; thermal expansion coefficient; Actuators; Cells (biology); Electrothermal effects; Grippers; Low voltage; Micromachining; Polymers; Silicon; Temperature; Thermal expansion; Polymer MEMS; SU-8 actuators; polymer microgripper; single cell manipulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2005.845445

Filename

1492438