Polymer micro-grippers with an integrated force sensor for biological manipulation

The development of a novel system integrating SU-8 micro-grippers with a tensile force sensor for handling and characterising the mechanical properties of delicate biological samples, such as fibrils, is presented. The micro-grippers are actuated by the electro-thermal effect and have gripping forces comparable to the common “hot-and-cold-arm” grippers. A thorough and robust finite element model was developed for design optimisation and validated experimentally. A new micro-mechanical calibration method using a piezoelectric manipulator with a force measurement system was successfully applied to test the structure.