Development of a micro-manipulator based on piezoelectric-technology

In this Paper, we present a new piezoelectric micro-manipulator on printed circuit board (PCB). The micro-system technology at the University of Rostock deals with micro-fluidic systems based on printed circuit board technology [T. Merkel, M. Graber, L. Pagel, A new technology for fluidic micro-systems based on PCB technology, Sensors Actuat. A 77(2) (1999) 98-105.]. Down to the present day, a thermo-pneumatic micro-membrane pump [A. Wego, L. Pagel, A self-filling micro-pump based on PCB technology, Sensors Actuat. A 88 (2001) 220-226.], diverse micro-mixers [H. Gotze, St. Ga ss mann, L. Pagel, Design and Testing of static laminar diffusion mixer with convective cross mixture based on PCB technology, in: Micro-mech. Europe 2005, Goteborg, Sweden, (2005) 334-337. H. Gotze, St. Ga ss mann, L. Pagel, Entwicklung und vergleich auf leiterplattentechnologie basierender statischer mikro-mischer, in: MST Kongress 2005, Freiburg, Germany, DOI (2005) 689-692.], a pH-regulation system [C. Laritz, L. Pagel, A micro-fluidic pH-regulation system based on printed circuit board (PCB) technology, Sensors Actuat. A 84 (2000) 230-235.] and a flow-injection-analysis-system were constructed. One application for these systems is the supply of cell cultures with nutrients. The introduced micro-manipulator was developed to handle these cell cultures, but can be used also in the microscopy. The structure and functionality and as well their special qualities are described. The micro-manipulator combines a micro-gripper and a xyz - micro-positioning system. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.