Position and orientation control at micro- and mesoscales using dielectrophoresis

Abstract: The electrokinetic effect of dielectrophoresis is a promising way of inducing forces and torques on a broad class of polarizable objects at micro- and mesoscale. We introduce a non-contact micro-manipulation technique based on this phenomenon, which is capable to simultaneously position and orient a micro-object of various shapes. A visual feedback control based on a real-time optimization-based inversion of a mathematical model is employed. The presented manipulation approach is demonstrated in a series of experiments with Tetris-shaped SU-8 micro-objects performed on a chip with a quadrupolar electrode array. Using more electrodes, the method is readily extensible to simultaneous manipulation with multiple objects in biology and micro-assembly applications.