Polymer MEMS-based microgripper for single cell manipulation

We present the development of a polymer MEMS-based microgripper that can operate in physiological ionic solutions. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two 'hot and cold arm' actuators placed antisymmetrically next to each other. The polymer microgripper is fabricated in a standard two-mask surface micromachining process. The high thermal expansion coefficient of the polymer (SU-8) allows the activation of the microgripper with small temperature elevations (20-40/spl deg/C) at low voltages (1-2 Volts). The developed polymer microgripper can be used for the manipulation of single cells and other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions.