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A surface-acoustic-wave-driven microactuator that allows separation of the piezoelectric substrate and chip has been fabricated and characterized. By simply placing the microactuator on a disposable chip, the microactuator did not contaminate the substrate with any reagent and could easily transport droplets and powders. The microactuator also allowed mixing of heterophase materials, such as powder and droplets, in a microfluidic well to increase their chemical reaction. This microactuator will enable significant cost savings and automation of plants and research facilities.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12371580 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsmeasuresciau.5c00027 | DOI Listing |
Adv Mater
September 2025
Departmant of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
Microrobots are expected to push the boundaries of robotics by enabling navigation in confined and cluttered environments due to their sub-centimeter scale. However, most microrobots perform best only in the specific conditions for which they are designed and require complete redesign and fabrication to adapt to new tasks and environments. Here, fully 3D-printed modular microrobots capable of performing a broad range of tasks across diverse environments are introduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
September 2025
Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China.
The assembling and reconfiguration of the integrated devices are of great importance to extend the capability of photonic chips based on top-down fabrication approaches. Here, we demonstrate a fully-programmable organic micro-actuator for precise manipulation of on-chip microstructures. Controlled by a low-power laser, the micro-actuator achieves a 30 nm motion step size, and shows the capability to traverse various chip substrates, overcome obstacles, and push microspheres to target locations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Meas Sci Au
August 2025
Manufacturing Technology Department, Hyogo Prefectural Institute of Technology, 3-1-12, Yukihira, Suma, Kobe, Hyogo 654-0037, Japan.
A surface-acoustic-wave-driven microactuator that allows separation of the piezoelectric substrate and chip has been fabricated and characterized. By simply placing the microactuator on a disposable chip, the microactuator did not contaminate the substrate with any reagent and could easily transport droplets and powders. The microactuator also allowed mixing of heterophase materials, such as powder and droplets, in a microfluidic well to increase their chemical reaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLight Sci Appl
August 2025
Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is widely used for active three-dimensional (3D) perception. Beam scanning LiDAR provides high accuracy and long detection range with limited detection efficiency, while flash LiDAR can achieve high-efficiency detection through the snapshot approach at the expense of reduced accuracy and range. With the synergy of these distinct detection approaches, we develop a miniaturized dual-mode, reconfigurable beam forming device by cascading Pancharatnam-Berry phase and propagation phase metasurfaces, integrated with a micro-actuator.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLangmuir
August 2025
School of Control and Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China.
The microactuator can move at the two-phase interface under light control and has broad applications in energy conversion, biomedical engineering, and soft robotics. Due to noninvasiveness, remote controllability, and high energy conversion efficiency, the photothermal-induced Marangoni effect actuator has become a hot topic in microactuators. In this paper, we successfully fabricated a lightweight, porous, high photothermal, hydrophobic multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) photothermal actuator, which consists of MWCNTs, polydimethylsiloxane, and polystyrene particles.
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