A hybrid actuator system for single particle manipulation on a microfluidic chip

We developed a ‘hybrid actuator system’ to precisely control the position of a micro-particle at high speed in a microfluidic chip. The hybrid actuator system benefits from two actuator systems by combining an electroosmotic flow generator and pressure-driven flow induced by a piezoelectric actuator-driven syringe pump system. We also implement an image processing algorithm using a high speed vision system and design a supervisory controller for the hybrid actuator system to apply it to a microfluidic system. The proposed system can be used to overcome current limitations of conventional pump systems for microfluidic devices.