A scheme for micro-manipulation based on capillary force

Abstract

As the size of object diminishes, the effect of adhesional forces grows stronger for micro-manipulation and so. The capillary force generated by a liquid bridge can be greater than both the capillary force generated by another bridge and the adhesional force because the capillary force can be controlled by regulation of the liquid volume. We propose a micro-manipulation method based on the regulation of liquid bridge volume. A numerical investigation to estimate the capillary force from a given liquid volume is also presented, and four phases of capillary force curves are obtained from it. If an object is supported by two liquid bridges, we can predict which bridge collapse by a stability analysis for the wide range of liquid volume using the force curve.