Submerged Robotic Micromanipulation and Dielectrophoretic Micro-object Release

Abstract

Abstract-The development of new hybrid microsystems needs new technologies which are able to perform assembly of small micro-objects. Now, the current micromanipulation technologies are still unreliable for micro-objects which typical size is down to hundred micrometers. Consequently, the study and the development of innovative artificial microobject manipulation strategies in these dimensions is particularly relevant. As presented in the literature, micromanipulations are perturbed by the adhesion and surface forces which depend on surrounding mediums. We propose to perform micro-assembly tasks in liquid medium, because adhesion and surface forces applied on submerged micro-objects are less important than in air. The comparative analysis of micro-forces in air and in liquid is presented in this paper. Although the micro-forces reduce in liquid, they stay disturbed the micro-objects release. Thus, we propose to extend the dielectrophoresis micromanipulation principles which are currently done in the biological micromanipulation to submerged artificial objects micro-assembly. The negative dielectrophoresis principle is used to release a micro-object grasped with a micro-gripper. Physical principle and first experimentations is presented in this article. Further works will focus on the optimization of the principle, and on the micro-object release modelling and control.

Microhandling Strategies and Microassembly in Submerged Medium

“…Consequently, the release task is disturbed by the adhesion force (pull-off force). The use of negative dielectrophoresis to control the microobject release has been proposed [19]. An electric field could be produced by electrodes placed on the gripper or by using a conductive microgripper.…”

“…The second type of behavior is presented in Figure 5. 19. In this case, there are repulsion between surfaces.…”

Releasing tool-adhered natural fibrous microscale objects with vacuum system

“…Most of the experimental objects used in these studies have regular shapes, such as a sphere or a cube. In 2006, Michael Gauthier et al [14] proposed to use repulsive dielectrophoretic force in order to control the release of the object, and their theoretical analysis demonstrated that adhesion and surface forces are deducted in water compared to the air. However, the final position of the released object is neither under control nor predictable [14] [15].…”

Analysis and Specificities of Adhesive Forces Between Microscale and Nanoscale

“…The main challenge is to tackle adhesion which becomes typically predominant around several hundred micrometers [5]. In order to avoid adhesion, authors have proposed to use self-assembly processes based on capillary forces [6], [7], [8], magnetic principle [9] or dielectrophoresis [10], [11]. These articles propose new ways to perform micro-assembly of complex and hybrid microsystems [3], [4].…”