A new ice gripper based on thermoelectric effect for manipulating micro objects

Manipulating small or micro objects has been a big challenging task in many areas. As the most basic tool to manipulate, fabricate, characterize, assemble and test the micro scale devices and biological samples, micromanipulation keeps receiving attentions over the area of micro technology especially micro automation. Research along this direction is becoming a major stream in the world. The paper presents a new type of ice gripper based on thermoelectric effect to form ice ball on the active part of the tip. The adhesion force of an intermediate, like water, is much greater in its solid phase than liquid phase. Enough force can be produced to pick a micro object by applying the principle. First, the theory the ice gripper based on is introduced. Next, an ice gripper is designed and the preliminary parameters which influence the ice ball formed are presented. It is shown that the ice gripper is a promising approach in micro manipulation, though some problems need to be solved.