The technology of picking up microcomponents plays a decisive role in the assembly of complex systems in micro- and nanoscale. The traditional method of picking up microcomponents with a mechanical manipulation tool can easily cause irreversible damage to the object, and only one object can be manipulated at a time. Furthermore, it is difficult to release the object with this method, and the release location is not accurate. With the aim of solving the above problems, the present study proposes an electrochemistry-based method for picking up metal microcomponents. First, the effect of ambient relative humidity on pickup was analyzed, and the effect of current density and electrolyte concentration on the deposition was examined. Then, a force analysis in the process of manipulation was carried out. Through the analysis of influence factors, the ideal experimental parameters were obtained theoretically. Finally, a simulation was carried out with COMSOL Multiphysics based on the above analysis. Copper microwires with a diameter of 60 μm and lengths of 300, 500, and 700 μm were successfully picked up and released using a pipette with a nozzle diameter of 15 μm. Compared with the traditional method, this method is simple to manipulate. Furthermore, it has a high success rate, causes less damage to the object, and good releasing accuracy.

The development of micromanipulation technology has an important impact on the research in the microfield, which mainly focuses on the preparation and assembly of microcomponents, in which the microcomponent picking technology is used. The existing picking methods mainly use manipulation tools to clamp or adsorb components, which may destroy or fail to pick objects in the process of manipulation, and the efficiency is relatively low. In order to solve the problems in the existing manipulation methods, a new metal microcomponent picking method based on electrochemistry is proposed, which mainly uses the electrochemical principle to produce metal deposition, connect the manipulation tool and the object, and indirectly control the object by moving the manipulation tool. In this paper, the simulation software ABAQUS is used to pick up the microcopper wires with the length of 100, 200 and 300 [Formula: see text]m by using a pipette with a nozzle diameter of 15 [Formula: see text]m. The force curve between the tool and the object during the manipulation process is obtained. The feasibility of the method is verified by theoretical analysis and simulation experiments.