Freeze tweezer to manipulate mini/micro objects

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a freeze tweezer using the freezing force of a small volume of nucleotide ice to manipulate mini/micro objects in an aqueous state. Several prototypes of such a device based on the Joule-Thompson throttling effect have been fabricated and there have been preliminary demonstrations of their applicability in manipulating a wide variety of objects. By regulating the freezing conditions of the cooler, an ice ball can be formed between the tweezer tip and the object it contacts and then the object can be picked up. This freezing force is strong enough to manipulate objects with any shape, electric charge, light or heavy, biological or non-living, on the condition that the contact area can be frozen. Successful manipulation of a series of specific objects presented in this paper indicates that it would be much easier for the freeze tweezer to handle objects with smaller size. Therefore, further nanoscale freeze tweezers following the same idea as above can be put forward; this is expected to have exciting applications in micro/nano engineering field. Furthermore, theoretical analysis and experiments have been performed to quantify the response time of the freeze tweezer and the mechanical force generated on the tweezer tip. This study has also raised quite a few new fundamental issues related to the fabrication and practices of the freeze tweezer.

Active Release of Microobjects Using a MEMS Microgripper to Overcome Adhesion Forces

“…However, miniaturization and accurate control of vacuum-based tools can be difficult, and its use in a vacuum environment can be limited. Finally, micro Peltier coolers were used to form ice droplets instantaneously for pick-place of microobjects [35]- [37]. Thawing of the ice droplets was used to release objects.…”

Design, characterisation and performance evaluation of a Peltier-driven cryo-adhesive fixture for manufacturing operations

“…Ice gripping has been explored in relation to grasping and holding materials in the micro-manufacture industry, such as those in [24][25][26].…”

Low-Shock Manipulation and Testing of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

“…9c shows the cryogenic method. The grasp using the adhesion property of ice consists on freezing a small quantity of liquid between the picking tool and the object (Liu et al, 2004, Ru et al, 2007. The release of the object is done by breaking or melting the frozen material.…”