A micropipettor with integrated sensors

We describe here the design. the fabrication and the bonding as well as the measurement results of a new micropipetting device for the pipetting of biological liquids. The device has been designed for precise, accurate and fast pipetting in the micro- and submicroliter range. It contains a precision pipetting head with two integrated sensors realised in silicon bulk micromachining to ensure precision and accuracy and a coupled piezo disk-type actuator to fulfil the force requirements of fast pipetting. Measurements in open-loop mode showed pipetting of 0.5-2 mul with a CV between 1 and 7%. Thanks to the integrated sensors the system offers closed-loop operation to compensate for the piezoactuator's hysteresis and drift and thus further increasing precision and accuracy. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.