Introduction
Micromanipulators are devices to scale down macroscopic hand movements
into microscopic movements of a needle or probe. A variety of
technologies are available to accomplish this. Mechanical
micromanipulators (also called direct-drive micromanipulators) use
gears to scale down the movement. Hydraulic micromanipulators can also
use gears and cantilevers to effect movement but also use the movement
of hydraulic fluid from a cylinder of smaller cross-sectional area to a
cylinder of larger cross-sectional area to scale down
displacement.
Electrical motor-drive micromanipulators use the same gear down
principles of mechanical micromanipulators, but use high-precision
motors to turn the gears. Electronic piezo-electric
micromanipulators
use the expansion of a piezo-electric crystal to effect microscopic
movement. Mechanical micromanipulators have the advantage of
being
self-contained. Hydraulic and electric micromanipulators have the
advantage of physically isolating the input hand movements from the
output microscopic movements via hydraulic lines or electric
wires.
This isolation reduced the chances of vibrations being transmitted from
the user to the microscope. An important consideration in all
these
micromanipulators is to reduce drift due to thermal expansion of the
parts. Typical uses for micromanipulators include
Intra-Cytoplasmic
Sperm Injection, (ICSI) microinjection of DNA and other substances into
cells, nuclear transplantation (cloning) and the positioning of
microscopic electrodes on the surfaces of cells for
electrophysiological measurements (patch clamping).
Following are some links to accessories:
