A New Micro Injector and an Optical Sensor

A novel micro injector and a non-contact sensor to monitor its movements are presented in this paper. Extremely thin glass pipettes are driven by these microinjectors in biological cells. The process is commonly used in various cellular injection applications, from in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to cloning. A rotationally oscillating micro injector (Ros-drillcopy) is introduced in this paper. The physics of the underlying cellular piercing process, however, is quite complex and presently not fully understood. This is primarily due the inexistence of appropriate motion sensors. A high- sensitivity non-contact sensor is needed to study this delicate micro-dynamics. We report here on an optical micro-device, which is developed for this objective. In the principle of sensing, properly positioned four photodiodes receive the light, which originates from the target being monitored. The light intensity readings of these four diodes create the sense of position. Appropriate electronics and sensitivity enhancement techniques are also utilized. The experimental results are presented from a preliminary test study over a prototype setup.