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The development of a SU-8-based microgripper that can operate in physiological ionic solutions is presented. The electrothermally activated polymer gripper consists of two "hot-and-cold-arm" actuators that are fabricated in a two-mask surface micromachining process. The high thermal expansion coefficient of SU-8 (52 ppm//spl deg/C) compared to silicon and metals, allows the actuation of the microgripper with small average temperature elevations (10 - 32/spl deg/C) at low voltages (1-2 V). The polymer microgripper can be used for the manipulation of single cells and other biological species in solution with minimal undesired interactions.
Chronis et al. (2005) studied this question.