Micromanipulator system in MEMS

Abstract

A typical microsystem is composed of microdrivers, microsensors, microeffectors and microprocessors in a very small space. It's difficult to make every part of the microsystem very tiny with modern technology for realistic purpose. This paper concerns a micromanipulator system which can be used in biological and medical field. Its size is about that of an ordinary microscope, but its work part is very tiny. Its work part is manufactured by MEMS fabrication process. The structure, design, work principle and implementation of the micromanipulator system and its microeffector are introduced in this paper. Especially, we stress on discussing the structure, design, work principle of the microeffector as the work part of the system. The microeffectors could be microclamp, microknife, microneedle etc.; this paper concerns a microclamp assembled at the end of the tube of the microrobot. The microrobot in the system has more than 3 DOF. It can move the microobject by microeffector, such as microclamp, to any assigned position. The microrobot system constructs some section of the whole system, and a stereo picture system which is employed here to monitor the micromanipulation of the microclamp constructs other section of the whole system. Some methods are taken to enhance the microrobot accuracy. A PC computer is used as the system controller. At the end of the paper, future work about the micromanipulator system model are discussed.