PZT based manipulators for cell biology

Hydraulic actuators or manipulators based on simple mechanical levers are commonly used in cell manipulation for the positioning of cells, as well as manipulations on a cell using glass needles or micropipettes (cutting, injection). There is still a large gap between these relatively low-cost solutions and completely motorized positioning stages, which tend to be expensive and very bulky. To fill this gap we propose micromanipulators for cell manipulation based on piezoelectric actuators. To amplify the piezo motion several principles can be employed. In this paper we use PZT ceramic-based bimorph actuators for 3 dof micromanipulators.