Abstract
The growing interest in micromanipulation systems requires efficient, reliable and flexible handling strategies. Recent studies have demonstrated that performing manipulations and assembly in liquid surroundings is more advantageous than in dry conditions, especially when objects are below 100 µm in size. The thermally actuated ice microgripper proposed and analysed in this paper is designed to operate in a completely submerged manner in an aqueous medium. The handling principle benefits from the adhesive properties of ice, its thermal control principle is based on the Peltier effect, some features of the prototype and the first micromanipulation tests are summarized. This paper is focused on the modelling of the thermal microhandling system using an electrical analogy. The submerged microgripper is split into different subsystems which are studied in order to identify their thermal network. Then they are interconnected to build the whole thermal network of the submerged microgripper. This model is validated by comparison with experimental measurements. Controlling the temperatures involved in our device will be the purpose of further works.
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