A Metamorphic Erectable Cell Restraint (Mecr)

This paper introduces a metamorphic erectable cell restraint (MECR) to provide cell restraint in genetic research. A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) metamorphic mechanism with two phases of motion was designed to grasp individual embryos about their midplane. The first phase of motion lifts a compliant gripper approximately 40 mu m (about half the diameter of an embryo). The gripper then closes in the second phase to grasp the embryo. The metamorphic mechanism includes compliant mechanism components which are analyzed here. A microscale prototype was fabricated from polysilicon and used to demonstrate the mechanism's two phase motion.