Rapid fabrication of multifunctional microcapillary for four-dimensional single cell manipulation

We report a novel manufacturing approach to fabricate liquid metal-based, multifunctional microcapillary pipettes able to provide electrodes with high electrical conductivity for high frequency electrical stimulation and measurement. Four-dimensional single cell manipulation has been realized by applying multi-frequency, multi-amplitude, and multi-phase electrical signals to the microelectrodes near the pipette tip to create a 3D dielectrophoretic trap and 1D electrorotation simultaneously. Functions such as single cell trapping, transferring, patterning, and rotation have been accomplished. Cell viability and multi-day proliferation characterization has confirmed the biocompatibility of this approach. This is a simple, low cost, and fast fabrication approach that requires no cleanroom and photolithography to manufacture 3D microelectrodes and microchannels accessible to a wide user base for broad applications.