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 μm (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.