Design and Fabrication of a New Cell Microinjector Driven by Dielectric Elastomer Actuator

Cell microinjection is extremely crucial in biomedical domain. Currently, cell miciroinjection is mostly operated by manual approach and position-based robotic method. However, the success rate and survival rate of the injected cells are relatively low. Alternatively, force-assisted robotic cell microinjection can provide force feedback and protect the cells from excessive force. In this paper, a new cell microinjector driven by dielectric elastomer actuator is proposed. The microinjector is designed based on soft-material flexure mechanism. The fixed-guided beams are made of soft materials and used to achieve one-degree-of-freedom purely directional movement. A dielectric elastomer actuator is integrated for actuating the injection process. The microinjector uses a commercial pipette holder to enable quick installation and replacement of the micropipette. Meanwhile, the pipette holder for fixing the micropipette can also be connected between the micropipette and plastic tube of the compressed air. In order to verify the performance of designed microinjector, microinjection experiment of crab eggs is conducted.