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Micromachines
Special Issues
Micro- and Nano-Systems for Manipulation, Actuation and Sensing, 2nd Edition
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Micro- and Nano-Systems for Manipulation, Actuation and Sensing, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E：Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2024 | Viewed by 3191

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ran Peng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, 1 Lingshui Road, Dalian 116026, China
Interests: microfluidics; nanofluidics; micro-actuator; microrobot; ionic electronics; electrochemical biosensing; resistive pulse sensing; nanopore sensing; unconventional nanofabrication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Shuailong Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: optoelectronic tweezers; dielectrophoresis; microrobotics; digital microfluidics; micro-LEDs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Precise control, handling, and manipulation of microscale and nanoscale objects including robots, particles, cells, droplets, and molecules on micro/nano platforms are essential to the fields of chemistry, biology, robotics, and telecommunications. Micro/nano-systems are considered one of today’s most promising technologies and play an important role in improving the quality of life. It has been shown that micro/nano-systems have become powerful tools for tackling some of society’s most pressing problems, including those relate to health care, energy harvesting, and environmental quality, for example, conducting noninvasive surgery and drug delivery with magnetic-driven microcapsules, harvesting energies using nanogenerator systems, monitoring the environment with self-powered sensors, etc. However, challenges must be overcome to expand the practicability of micro/nano-systems, such as stability of assembling, precision of microscale control, compatibility of materials in complex environments, and insufficient driven forces. Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on the following: (1) novel design, modeling, fabrication, and assembling of micro/nano-scale systems for small object manipulation, control, and actuation based on, but not limited to, magnetic, electric, thermal, acoustic, and light applications ; (2) multiphysics-driven intelligent microrobots, actuators, and sensors; (3) applications of newly designed microfluid and nanofluidic systems for fluid control and sensing.

We look forward to your submissions!

Dr. Ran Peng
Prof. Dr. Shuailong Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • micro/nano-system
  • microrobot
  • micro-actuator
  • microsensor
  • multiphysics-driven
  • microfluidics

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3129 KiB  
Article
Flexible Toolbox of High-Precision Microfluidic Modules for Versatile Droplet-Based Applications
by Mario Saupe, Stefan Wiedemeier, Gunter Gastrock, Robert Römer and Karen Lemke
Micromachines 2024, 15(2), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15020250 - 07 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1060
Abstract
Although the enormous potential of droplet-based microfluidics has been successfully demonstrated in the past two decades for medical, pharmaceutical, and academic applications, its inherent potential has not been fully exploited until now. Nevertheless, the cultivation of biological cells and 3D cell structures like [...] Read more.
Although the enormous potential of droplet-based microfluidics has been successfully demonstrated in the past two decades for medical, pharmaceutical, and academic applications, its inherent potential has not been fully exploited until now. Nevertheless, the cultivation of biological cells and 3D cell structures like spheroids and organoids, located in serially arranged droplets in micro-channels, has a range of benefits compared to established cultivation techniques based on, e.g., microplates and microchips. To exploit the enormous potential of the droplet-based cell cultivation technique, a number of basic functions have to be fulfilled. In this paper, we describe microfluidic modules to realize the following basic functions with high precision: (i) droplet generation, (ii) mixing of cell suspensions and cell culture media in the droplets, (iii) droplet content detection, and (iv) active fluid injection into serially arranged droplets. The robustness of the functionality of the Two-Fluid Probe is further investigated regarding its droplet generation using different flow rates. Advantages and disadvantages in comparison to chip-based solutions are discussed. New chip-based modules like the gradient, the piezo valve-based conditioning, the analysis, and the microscopy module are characterized in detail and their high-precision functionalities are demonstrated. These microfluidic modules are micro-machined, and as the surfaces of their micro-channels are plasma-treated, we are able to perform cell cultivation experiments using any kind of cell culture media, but without needing to use surfactants. This is even more considerable when droplets are used to investigate cell cultures like stem cells or cancer cells as cell suspensions, as 3D cell structures, or as tissue fragments over days or even weeks for versatile applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Systems for Manipulation, Actuation and Sensing, 2nd Edition)
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15 pages, 6933 KiB  
Article
Development of a Microheater with a Large Heating Area and Low Thermal Stress in the Heating Area
by Tao Zhang, Zequan Pan, Chunhua Zhang, Liuguang Xiong, Chunmei Yang, Jian Zhang, Mengjiao Shi, Yuhang Wang and Wen Qu
Micromachines 2024, 15(1), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15010130 - 12 Jan 2024
Viewed by 893
Abstract
In this paper, a microheater that can absorb thermal stress and has a large heating area is demonstrated by optimizing the structure and process of the microheater. Four symmetrically distributed elongated support beam structures were machined around the microheater via deep silicon etching. [...] Read more.
In this paper, a microheater that can absorb thermal stress and has a large heating area is demonstrated by optimizing the structure and process of the microheater. Four symmetrically distributed elongated support beam structures were machined around the microheater via deep silicon etching. This design efficiently mitigates the deformation of the heated region caused by thermal expansion and enhances the structural stability of the microheater. The updated microheater no longer converts the work area into a thin film; instead, it creates a stable heating platform that can uniformly heat a work area measuring 10 × 10 mm2. The microheater is verified to have high temperature uniformity and structural stability in finite element simulation. Finally, thorough investigations of electrical–thermal–structural characterization were conducted. The test findings show that the new microheater can achieve 350 °C with a power consumption of 6 W and a thermal reaction time of 22 s. A scan of its whole plane reveals that the surface of the working area of the new microheater is flat and does not distort in response to variations in temperature, offering good structural stability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Systems for Manipulation, Actuation and Sensing, 2nd Edition)
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16 pages, 10169 KiB  
Article
Cascaded 2D Micromirror with Application to LiDAR
by Behrad Ghazinouri and Siyuan He
Micromachines 2023, 14(10), 1954; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14101954 - 19 Oct 2023
Viewed by 908
Abstract
This paper introduced a novel approach to enhance the vertical scanning angle of a large aperture 2D electromagnetic micromirror through the utilization of a cascaded torsional beam design. The primary objective was to increase the vertical scanning angle without compromising the robustness, which [...] Read more.
This paper introduced a novel approach to enhance the vertical scanning angle of a large aperture 2D electromagnetic micromirror through the utilization of a cascaded torsional beam design. The primary objective was to increase the vertical scanning angle without compromising the robustness, which was achieved by optimizing the trade-off between the rotation angle and the first mode of resonant frequency. The cascaded design provides flexibility to either increase the outer frame’s rotation angle without sacrificing torsional stiffness or enhance the torsion beam’s stiffness while maintaining the same rotation angle, thus elevating the first-mode resonant frequency and overall robustness. The effectiveness of the cascaded design was demonstrated through a comparative study with a non-cascaded 2D micromirror possessing the same aperture size, torque, and mass moment of inertia. Theoretical analysis and finite-element simulation are employed to determine critical parameters such as the stiffness ratio between the cascaded torsion beams, and to predict improvements in the scanning angle and primary resonant frequency brought by the cascaded design. Prototypes of both cascaded and non-cascaded designs are fabricated using a flexible printed circuit board combined with Computer numerical control (CNC) machining of a Ti-alloy thin film, confirming the superior performance of the cascaded 2D micromirror. The cascaded design achieved vertical scanning angles up to 26% higher than the traditional design when both were actuated at close resonance frequencies. Additionally, the micromirror was successfully integrated into a 3D LiDAR system. The light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system was modelled in Zemax OpticStudio to find the optimized design and assembly positions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Systems for Manipulation, Actuation and Sensing, 2nd Edition)
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