Electrothermally activated SU-8 microgripper for single cell manipulation in solution

Nikolas Chronis, Luke P. Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

345 Scopus citations

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 ppm/°C) compared to silicon and metals, allows the actuation of the microgripper with small average temperature elevations (10 - 32 °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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)857-863
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Microelectromechanical Systems
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2005

Keywords

  • Polymer MEMS
  • Polymer microgripper
  • Single cell manipulation
  • SU-8 actuators

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