Design of a novel integrated micromanipulator for cell gripping and injection

This paper reports on the design and analysis of an integrated micromanipulator for both cell gripping and injection operations. The novel device is actuated by three piezoelectric stack actuators, whose outputs are amplified by mechanical amplifiers. It not only provides a sufficient output displacement for gripping and injecting the cell, but also delivers a higher resolution. Analytical static models are developed and validated through finite element analysis (FEA) simulation studies. Results show that the gripping range of one arm of the manipulator is 345.71 μm, whose direction is along the hypotenuse of the movement arc. The output displacement of the injector is 175.85 μm, which is amplified from the actuator input by 4.09 times. Preliminary performance evaluation results of the micromanipulator exhibit emerging applications in biological cell manipulation.