Micro Nafion Actuators for Cellular Motion Control and Underwater Manipulation

The manipulation of biological objects is a key technology necessary for many new applications in Bio-MEMS. In this paper, we will report on our preliminary experimental work in using an Ionic Conducting Polymer Film (ICPF) to develop a biological cell robotic gripper. The ability of ICPF actuators to give large deflection with small input voltage (~5V) will allow many new applications to be developed, spanning from biology to underwater MEMS and artificial muscles. A laser micromachining process is introduced to fabricate arrays of ICPF griping devices, which can be potentially integrated onto a PCB board to develop a micro manipulation system. Individual multi-finger grippers with dimensions of 200μm x 200μm x 3000μm for each finger were realized. We will report on the design, fabrication procedures, and operating performance of these micro-grippers. Further development in the reduction of size of these actuators will enable effective control of underwater micro objects and lead to new frontiers in cellular manipulation.